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Across Europe we see faith-based organizations (FBOs) getting involved in the policy field of immigrant integration. The interweaving of the policy fields of religion politics and immigrant integration is particularly delicate in systems of religionstate cooperation. Here, FBOs and state actors build on each other to fulfil certain tasks. This paper explores how FBOs are involved in the field of immigrant integration and which techniques of government are being used. Drawing on empirical case studies from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the paper shows that religious communities fulfil multiple roles as civil society actors, as religious representatives or as migrant associations. While similarities occur due to comparable structures and institutions, observed differences are the consequence of different constellations of suspicion and trust between FBOs and state actors.

Immigrant integration is a contested policy field in which boundaries of membership are drawn and re-negotiated whereby groups of immigrants are partially included and excluded. Building on the concept of collective identity and theories of boundary making, this paper illustrates how religion functions as a category to mark and fill notions of self and otherness. As several studies have shown, immigrants in Europe are increasingly addressed as Muslims, a development that also serves the promotion of a Christian 'us'. Focusing on Austria and Germany, two countries where this is especially observable, the paper outlines the functioning of religion as symbolic boundary. The empirical study on national integration policies demonstrates how—within the relational process of boundary drawing against Muslims—a Christian identity narrative is established, how it functions as a marker of unity and how it relates to liberal and secular notions. Results from the qualitative content analysis of governmental policy programs from 2005 onwards show different patterns of boundary drawing on religion and the way they shape and limit the possibilities of inclusion. To understand this development, we have to look at Christian-democratic policy-makers, who currently dominate the political struggle for the power to define features of collective identity in immigrant integration policies.

Immigrant integration is a contested policy field in which boundaries of membership are drawn and re-negotiated whereby groups of immigrants are partially included and excluded. Building on the concept of collective identity and theories of boundary making, this paper illustrates how religion functions as a category to mark and fill notions of self and otherness. As several studies have shown, immigrants in Europe are increasingly addressed as Muslims, a development that also serves the promotion of a Christian "us". Focusing on Austria and Germany, two countries where this is especially observable, the paper outlines the functioning of religion as symbolic boundary. The empirical study on national integration policies demonstrates how -within the relational process of boundary drawing against Muslims- a Christian identity narrative is established, how it functions as a marker of unity and how it relates to liberal and secular notions. Results from the qualitative content analysis of governmental policy programs from 2005 onwards show different patterns of boundary drawing on religion and the way they shape and limit the possibilities of inclusion. To understand this development, we have to look at Christian-democratic policy-makers, who currently dominate the political struggle for the power to define features of collective identity in immigrant integration policies.

Contemporary European societies are shaped by ongoing disputes about how to draw boundaries of membership and about the proper means of democratic inclusion. Who – which groups and individuals – should have a voice in the political system and access to resources? How can these actors achieve an equal standing in democratic societies? Sieglinde Rosenberger has contributed important points to these questions and continues to do so: With an emphasis on the Austrian political system in the context of European Integration, she combined research on gender, migration, religion and political participation into a common framework of "Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion". On the occasion of her 60th birthday, this special issue aims to review the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion, providing both normative and empirical perspectives.

Waren politische Debatten zur Integration von MigrantInnen lange Zeit durch einen Fokus auf Kultur und Werte gekennzeichnet, gewinnen "leistungsorientierte" Zugänge zunehmend an Relevanz. Die österreichische Integrationspolitik nach der Einführung eines Staatssekretariats für Integration (2011-2013) zeigt anschaulich, wie ein solcher Zugang zum Leitprinzip einer Regierungspolitik werden kann. Der Beitrag geht dem Ansatz "Integration durch Leistung" in einer Analyse von Rhetorik und Policy nach. Er untersucht einerseits das Leistungsnarrativ und sein Verhältnis zum bisherigen Integrationsdiskurs und stellt aufbauend darauf dar, ob bzw. wie diese diskursive Neuausrichtung in Policies übersetzt wurde. Dabei zeigt sich, dass sich der Ansatz zentral auf traditionelle Leistungskriterien der Arbeitsmarkt- und Bildungspolitik stützt, darüber hinaus aber nur partielle Erweiterungen des Leistungsbegriffs beinhaltet. Diese Gegenüberstellung erlaubt schließlich, immanente Ambivalenzen eines Leistungskonzeptes für die Integration von MigrantInnen aber auch seine Inklusions- und Exklusionspotentiale zu diskutieren.

Scholarship on religious belonging has overwhelmingly labelled believers' religion in very broad and superficial terms, presuming that individual practices and beliefs are congruent with religious doctrines and official discourses. By splitting up religious socialisation into two crucial phases, the adoption and the adaption of religion, this article offers a more procedural understanding to investigating how young believers develop their own sense of religious belonging. Based on biographical narrative interviews with Viennese believers (aged 16–25) from 7 religious groups, we observe that the adoption of a certain religion is primarily bound to family ties. The adaption phase serves to develop personal approaches towards religion based on two major rationales: adapting one's own religiosity by engaging with religious doctrine and community itself, and negotiating religion within society. We argue that adaption is closely tied to social relations within and across religions and to (secular) society at large.