Denna uppsats ämnar att studera ungdomars upplevelser av att leva som muslimer i Sverige, bemötandet av människor i förhållande till deras religion samt hur detta påverkar deras känsla av tillhörighet till Sverige. Datamaterialet har samlats in med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta unga muslimer som har en icke-europeisk bakgrund. Studien använder de teoretiska begreppen rasifiering och tillhörighet. Resultatet i studien visar på att de unga muslimerna har upplevt en svårighet att utöva sin religion i Sverige, exempelvis när det kommer till att finna tid för bönen, att fasta samt ha tillgång till halalmat. Upplevelse av negativt bemötande i form av främlingsfientlighet, rasism samt diskriminering i relation till deras religion och etnicitet var även förekommande för flera av intervjupersonerna. Samtliga unga muslimer uttryckte att detta haft en påverkan på deras tillhörighetskänsla i Sverige då de till varierande grad upplevde en känsla av exkludering från det svenska samhället. Däremot har flera av intervjupersonerna funnit en samhörighet med andra individer i de egna bostadsområdena som befinner sig i en liknande situation som de själva när det kommer till tro och etnicitet. / This study aims to examine young people’s experiences of living as Muslims in Sweden, treatment from other people in relation to their religion and how it affects their feeling of belonging in Sweden. The data material has been collected through semi-structured interviews with eight young Muslims with a non-European background. The study uses the theoretical concepts of racialization and belonging.The results in the study shows that the young Muslims had experienced a difficulty in practicing their religion in Sweden for example when it comes to finding time for prayer, being able to fast and having access to halal food. The experience of being negatively met in the form of xenophobia, racism and discrimination in relation to their religion and ethnicity was also occurred among several of the interviewees. All the young Muslims expressed that this has influenced their sense of belonging in Sweden as they in varying degrees had felt a feeling of exclusion from the Swedish society. On the other hand, several of the interviewee shad found a community among other individuals in their neighborhoods who were in a similar situation in regard to their beliefs and ethnic background.

This thesis overall is concerned with three cardinal considerations in relation to working with young people in a modern and fundamentally demographically changed Britain. These themes include considerations of how young people’s racial/ethnic origins and religious identity continue to shape how mainstream services interact with them as well as understanding how an increasingly globalised world changes how young people from Britain see or are seen in a new way at the personal, local, national and global levels. This thesis argues that the majority of these considerations are not currently well understood; hence the need for practitioners in youth and community development to gain cultural competency and global literacy. It has been evidenced that Black young people continue to be disadvantaged in education, employment, criminal justice and a host of other socialisation spaces in comparison to the rest of society. In addition, the furore raised constantly and continuously in relation to the vulnerability of young Muslims to violent extremism deserves more critical attention. Furthermore, globalisation means that the world is much closer economically, politically, environmentally, technologically and culturally and there is increasing consciousness about the repercussions of these connections at the personal, local, national and global levels. However, questions remain as to whether practitioners who work with young people have the required competency to work across these racial, religious and global considerations. This thesis, consisting of the author’s published works and this overview explores these three cardinal considerations of race, religion and globalisation when working with young people in a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-faith modern Britain. The thesis comprises an exploration of working with Black young people within a historical and social policy context, as well as presenting research that explores the views of young Black children and parents. The author’s key contributions consist of explaining how cultural relativism and dogmatism, as extreme positions, are constructed, with potentially fatal consequences. The second dimension of working with young people in Britain explored in this thesis is that arena of Global Youth Work within both a theoretical and practice setting, especially in relation to the training of practitioners. This section also reports on research in relation to how Global Youth Work is conceptualised and operationalised in British Higher Education Institutions delivering youth work training. The last section of the thesis focuses on the contemporary issue of working with young Muslims. Against a backdrop of the government’s policy context of the “Prevent" agenda, perceptions of barriers young Muslims face in accessing mainstream services are explored, as well as the wider implications of fostering a culturally and religiously competent way of working with young Muslims.

La religiosità e i processi di auto-identificazione di giovani con background musulmano in Occidente soggiacciono a una doppia dinamica: da un lato, essi devono misurarsi con una narrazione negativa che dipinge l’Islam come “altro” e “diverso”; dall’altro, la loro religione subisce un processo di deculturazione (Roy 2004), ovvero lo scollegamento tra cultura e Islam in contesto di emigrazione. Sulla base di uno studio qualitativo, (60 interviste biografiche e osservazione partecipante) condotto in due città italiane (Milano e Torino), la tesi indaga come giovani con background musulmano articolino la loro appartenenza religiosa attraverso le loro pratiche quotidiane (Ammerman 2007), comparando in particolare giovani attivi nel mondo associativo religioso (impegnati in particolare come volontari o staff del ramo italiano dell’organizzazione umanitaria Islamic Relief) e giovani non interessati al coinvolgimento in organizzazioni religiose. La ricerca esamina così le pratiche religiose, nonché le risorse impiegate per la costruzione della propria identità, tra giovani musulmani “iper-visibili” (pubblicamente attivi e devoti - Jeldtoft 2013) e “non-visibili” (i cui sentimenti di appartenenza alla comunità di riferimento sono meno ovvi) sviluppando una tipologia di “riflessività religiosa” ed esplorando forme di visibilizzazione e invisibilizzazione della religiosità. / In Western countries, the religiosity and self-identification of youths with a Muslim background is shaped by a double dynamic: on one hand, they face negative discourses that cast Islam as “Different” and “Other”; on the other, their religion undergoes a process of deculturation (Roy 2004) - that is, the disconnection between culture and Islam in contexts of emigration. On the basis of a qualitative study (60 in-depth interviews and participant observation) carried out in two Italian cities (Milan and Turin), this thesis investigates how Italian descendants of Muslim migrants articulate and live their religious belonging, by analysing the “everyday lived religion” (Ammerman 2007) of youths acting as volunteers or staff members in the Italian branch of Islamic Relief (the largest Sunni international humanitarian NGOs) and of youths who are not active or involved in any religious or ethnic/national organisation. Hence, the study examines how feelings of religiosity and resources mobilized for identity-building differ between “hyper-visible” young Muslims - i.e. publicly active, vocal and devout (Jeldtoft 2013) - and “non-visible” ones - who have less of an obvious group bound. The study develops a typology of different forms of “religious reflexivity” and explores forms of visible and invisible religiosity.

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