Alevi Diaspora in Switzerland and beyond

Switzerland’s religious landscape is marked by a prominent pluarlity. The still ongoing immigration of members of „new“ religious communities have shaped this plurality; in addition to other factors. It is commonly known, that every structural change challenges existing rules. For example legal settings have to be adopted to the new situation or established forms of cohabitation have to be examined. In this respect one can observe, that immigrated religious communities’ demands for recognition have been getting louder and louder these days in Switzerland. As a result, especially muslim groups’ approach for recognition and their growing institutionalization have been deeply discussed in public, which stands certainly in relation to a wide spread negative reputation of the Islam in societal discourses in Switzerland. While public discourse in Switzerland tends to speak of the Islam as a monolithic entity, the reality is that Switzerland’s Muslims belong to a wide variety of different traditions and communities. These include the Alevis, who emigrated to Switzerland from Turkey.

Alevis can be characterized1 as a religious and cultural minority from Anatolia, which has its roots in the Shia Islam as well as in non-Islamic belief systems such as Shamanism or Zoroastrianism. As other Muslim groups have not always recognized Alevis, they count as “heterodox”. Similar to their “orthodox” counterpart Alevis have started some years ago to organize themselves in associations all over Switzerland. They have been forming their activities in reference to their members, the Swiss society, and to their home country.

In general, my project follows two aims: On the one hand, I will develop an ethnography of Alevi communities in Switzerland. It will be described how an Alevi diaspora has developed in Switzerland, which is something that has not been done up to present day. On the other hand my findings will lay the groundwork for an analysis of the impact of Switzerland’s incorporation regimes on immigrated religious groups. The role the Swiss society, the legal environment as well as the civil and public institutions are playing in the incorporation process of Alevi communities will be researched. In order to do this, I will look at the events, strategies and contexts of interaction between the communities and both governmental and non-governmental Swiss institutions. Additionally, the project also examines the transnational network of these communities, as their incorporation is shaped not only by Swiss conditions, but also by transnational fields.