Pre-school childcare from the point of view of Muslim families , Date: 2017.12.21, Order number: FFWP78, format: Working paper, area: Authority

The study (Working Paper 78) provides fundamental information on the take-up and evaluation of pre-school childcare by Muslim families. The analyses show a high degree of acceptance, particularly for kindergarten-age children.

Muslim parents are quite recognisably keen on pre-school childcare. Whether such services are taken up primarily depends on the age of the child. Almost 90 percent of kindergarten children aged from three to under six are looked after out of the house. The share among children younger than this is much lower, at 16 percent. Comparing the results from the findings in statistics on children and young people, we find that the conduct of Muslim families is comparable to that of other families with a migration background in Germany.

Looking at factors potentially influencing the probability of a small child from a Muslim family attending kindergarten shows that only characteristics play a role which are also relevant in non-Muslim families in Germany. Alongside the age of the child, this relates first and foremost to the mother’s employment status. Religiosity or the sex of the child, by contrast, do not exert any influence.

It is also revealed that very many Muslim parents take up pre-school childcare even though many kindergartens do virtually nothing to accommodate specific religious or cultural concerns. They are very much more interested in increasing their children’s opportunities to participate by enabling them to attend institutionalised educational facilities in early childhood. There is however certainly a need to increase efforts to make it more the norm that religious and cultural particularities are catered for.

The project entitled "Muslim life in Germany 2016" (MLD 2016) surveyed 2,045 Muslims from the regions of origin Iran, the Near East, North Africa, South Eastern Europe, South/South East Asia and Turkey.

Working Paper 78 was drawn up by the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on behalf of the German Islam Conference.

The study was drawn up by: Anja Stichs and Steffen Rotermund

The study is only available in german.

This download is available in other languages, too.

• Vorschulische Kinderbetreuung aus Sicht muslimischer Familien (German)