Assessment of the impact of contemporary immigration on the UK’s Muslim community

Overview
Applications are invited for a full-time PhD scholarship at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling. The scholarship is available to support either a 3-year research degree, or a 4-year programme incorporating a Masters course followed by 3-year research degree.

The PhD research will involve a statistical analysis of secondary longitudinal data about social inequalities. The project will focus upon Muslims in the UK, and examine evidence about ways in which patterns of contemporary immigration in the UK might be impacting upon the lives of the ‘Muslim community’. Its analysis will be designed to describe, and provide policy relevant insights concerning, the ways in which inequalities are experienced by Muslim’s in the UK, and the ways in which these might (or might not) be connected to contemporary immigration patterns. Hosted in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling, the PhD student will be ideally positioned to develop their skills in secondary data analysis and statistical analytical methodologies during the project, whilst concurrently engaging with sociological and social policy literatures on social inequalities related to ethnicity, immigration and religion. The student will be encouraged to develop and disseminate research outputs and will have opportunities to develop their professional skills such as with advanced training opportunities and chances to gain experience of academic activities including teaching opportunities The project’s research will be in a priority area of social policy attention and on completion the PhD programme the student should be extremely well placed to secure further academic and research positions.

Background and approach
Little is known about impacts of immigration on specific minority groups in the UK, but there is evidence from other countries that the arrival of new immigrants often has consequences for the circumstances of existing minority communities. This PhD project will investigate empirical evidence on the impact of contemporary immigration on the UK’s Muslim community. Muslims in the UK make an interesting case study because they are subject to diverse patterns of social inequality that might be particularly susceptible to the impact of new immigrations. They are, moreover, a category of considerable policy interest, which raises potential for impact and knowledge exchange to emerge from the project.

Potential impacts of immigration are complex and multifaceted. Popular beliefs about the impact of immigration are often misleading, and rich data and detailed scholarship is required to do justice to an empirical investigation of the topic. This study will utilise an unusually rich, large scale longitudinal social survey, the UK’s ‘Understanding Society’ panel study. This study features boost samples of ethnic minorities, including full interviews with over 3000 Muslim adults across the study period (2009-16). The data features a wide spectrum of information including economic and social circumstances and measures of health and well-being. Its longitudinal structure means that trajectories and transitions experienced by Muslim respondents can also be summarised.

The project will organise data from the Understanding Society study and pursue several approaches to analysis. One strategy to assess the impact of immigration will be to evaluate how variations in local immigration patterns are associated with variations in outcomes. Local immigration patterns will be measured by linking metadata about local areas and occupations/industries to the UKHLS microdata. Analytical findings will be written up in a PhD thesis and opportunities for dissemination and impact will be proactively pursued.


Aims and analytical approach
To advance scholarship on the impact of contemporary immigration on Muslims in Britain, this project will use a powerful large scale secondary survey dataset, the UK’s ‘Understanding Society’ household longitudinal study (hereafter ‘UKHLS’), and explore methods and develop new empirical evidence on how recent immigration might have impacted upon Muslims in the UK. It will address four overarching aims:

Aim 1: To provide a robust empirical characterisation of the social and economic circumstances of Muslims in contemporary Britain
Aim 2: To define and evaluate methodologies for measuring local variations in contemporary immigration, and link that macrodata with UKHLS microdata
Aim 3: To assess the impact of contemporary immigration as an explanatory factor in social inequalities experienced by Muslims in Britain
Aim 4: To promote methodological and applied research knowledge on the impact of immigration on Muslims in Britain, and input to public narratives