Civic and Religious Education in Marginalised Migrant Families: New Challenges for Education in Multicultural Societies

Globalisation, widespread immigration and despair about totalising ideologies have led to a reconsideration of religion and secularism. Previously, civic education, while respectful of religious beliefs and practices observed in the private sphere, endorsed secular perspectives for the public sphere. Currently, the growing presence of religion in political discourse raises questions about its impact and consequences in the social sphere in general and education in particular. Interest in this topic developed recently, but has not yet led to an increase in research studies of civic and religious education and is especially rare with regard to marginalised migrant and minority families. In this article, we show why the family is important for understanding religious and civic education and discuss how they are relevant to migrant and minority family life. We conclude that there is a need for more comprehensive research into religious and civic education that includes the migrant and minority family as a highly important factor in education.