Norway: Muslims might become a majority

I tend to be very skeptical of demography studies as I don't know of any that have actually come true, and for the same reason Lars Østby states: things change.     

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Just speaking about immigrants becoming a majority in Europe is difficult since the terms often used are charged or unclear.  But that record immigration and falling birthrate in Europe can make Muslims a majority is something we can speak about, thinks senior researcher at the University of Oslo Jon Rogstad.  

"I don't think it's unthinkable that Muslims will be a majority," says Jon Rogstad.  He's a sociologist and he has researched immigration since the 1990s.  "But I don't want to say that this is the question, but rather how we can avoid conflicts between religions or groups of people who use religion to create conflicts."

"Also Muslims have an interest in having an harmonic society with calm and predictability, but then there's a little group of Muslims and a little group of Christians or other groups who are want to make trouble.

Nobody registers religious, ethnic or culture relations in Europe.  But according to statistics by Eurostat received by NRK, 1.2 million non-Europeans came in 1996 to the 28 countries Eurostat supervises.

"There is extensive immigration to Europe today.  It's higher than ever," says professor Grete Brochmann at the University of Oslo.  She has published a series of books on immigration and agrees with some hesitation to call it a migration of nations.

"I think such terms can be used.    It's not a given what it can be used for, since it's not true that there are hordes in motion but individuals who come."

In addition to Eurostat's data, immigrants come to the 31 other countries the UN defines as Europe and a small but meaningful number of illegal immigrant who have never been registered.  AT the same time, ethnic Europeans give birth to so few children that the population will be halved in two generations."

"I don't think we will see Muslims become a majority," says Grete Brochmann.

"Will it cause anything if Muslims will be a majority?"

"It depends on what consequences it will for for our society."

"I very much support a liberal social system and maintaining a welfare society.  Muslims or not, I don't think it's important.  If people who come agree with then it's fine and if not and they are in a majority then it's I who will lose."

According to Eurostat's data, 63% of the registered immigrants in 2006 were from countries in Asia and Africa, the rest came from America and Oceania.  Muslim countries even have a much larger birthrate then the rest of the world, something from which the extreme right and fundamentalist Christians tried to make political capital.  But the birthrate in the homelands have little influence on whether ethnic Europeans will become a minority in Europe.

"The women who immigrate into  Europe generally have a higher birthrate than the average population.  But already their children again have about as many children as the average population, says researcher Lars Østby of Norway Statistics.

"It's not strange since their birth pattern is characterized by exactly the same reality as all others."

Lars Østby has long experience of immigration statistics and thinks that ethnic Europeans will not become a minority.

"Then people must go very far into a future that nobody knows about.  But let's keep to 50 years, as the demographers attempt.  Eurostat expects that in 2060 we will be 50 million immigrants and 450 million not immigrants.  If people are scared that there will be a Muslim majority in Europe, then it will not be created by this immigration, but it can of course happen if there will be extensive conversion to Islam."

"Why can't there be a majority if the birthrate and immigration we have today continue?"

Lars Østby says that it's possible if all the parameters we have today will continue on for several hundred years, but there's never been such a situation where all these parameters have been constant.

"The population development in Europe was characterized by major changes, and we will also see this in the future."

Source: NRK (Norwegian)

2 comments:

mikemathew said...

Taught by Ustad Sultan Khan, who is best known for his collaborations during the Beatles eastern period, her first album saw her adopted as Norway's mascot for multiculturalism. By the time her second album had been released at the age of 17 the tide had turned and saw her subject to constant attacks and death threats from religious extremists that prompted her to flea her native country. Now aged 26, as she prepares to release her debut UK single the threats have started again. Designer Magazine Editor caught up with The Muslim Madonna to discuss how this has affected her career and personal life.
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mikemathew
Armegeddon

Anonymous said...

Norway has planted the seeds of retrogression. Now we will watch them grow.

It's usually a better idea to consider the consequences before taking an action, but such is the idiocy of postmodern relativism.