Garbi Schmidt – Författare

This book investigates the benefits of integrating history, sociology, and ethnography to better understand migration and its consequences, using Denmark’s history of migration as a case study.Although migration research is an interdisciplinary field, much research on migration still occurs in disciplinary containers. The field is not least affected by a methodological presentism: a scholarly and societal tendency to understand social phenomena within a limited contemporary framework, neglecting possible effects and similarities embedded in and established through human history. This book builds upon previous research underscoring the importance of examining migration from a longer, diachronic, and genealogical viewpoint, and it is among the first to advocate for a more profound methodological discussion regarding how, why, and when this should be addressed. This book’s analysis draws on empirical examples from Denmark, a Northern European country where the impact of migration is currently hotly debated, yet the history of migration is frequently overlooked. Specific themes examined in the book range from demography/immigrant statistics to the understanding of “the ghetto,” the implications of discussions around “Danishness,” and how migration has influenced and molded a particular neighborhood in Copenhagen (Nørrebro) over time.This volume is innovative and pertinent for an international audience of researchers and students interested in the genealogies of migration and eager to explore new pathways for pursuing this research interest.

In recent years, world events have trained a harsh spotlight on the Muslim religion and its adherents. The misunderstanding and bias against Muslims in the United States not only persists but has deepened. In this detailed study of an immigrant community in Chicago, Garbi Schmidt considers the formation and meaning of an "American Islam." This vivid portrait of the people and the institutions that draw them together contributes to the academic literature on ethnic and religious identity at the same time as it depicts an immigrant community's struggle against bias and forces that threaten its cohesion. Chicago has long been home to Muslim immigrants from numerous countries in the Middle East and South Asia. For some members of these groups religion carries more weight than ethnic identity in the American context and enables them to form and participate in a broad spectrum of institutions that support their religious and social interests. Schmidt offers her observations of the schools and student associations that serve young Muslims as well as the social, religious, and political organizations that serve adults.By looking at the ways in which children, adolescents, and adults come together in these institutions, she is able to show the dynamic process in which a variegated American Muslim identity takes shape. Readers will come away from this book with a better understanding of the ideological and cultural differences among Muslims and a greater appreciation of their struggles in becoming Americans. Author note: Garbi Schmidt is a senior researcher and coordinator of the ethnic minorities initiative at the Danish National Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen.