Islamic financial concepts and personal characteristics as inhibitors in understanding Western economic and financial concepts? - Findings from a qualitative interview study of young adults with a Muslim background in Germany

In Germany, economic and financial concepts are characterized by the prevailing Western economic legal system. These are not always in line with the economic and financial concepts in Islam (e.g., prohibition of interests in Islamic law). The more important Islamic financial institutions are in a country, the stronger the impact of Islamic financial principles on the economic and financial knowledge of the population. People who migrated from predominantly Muslim countries were usually family-socialized with concepts of Islamic Economy and Finance and impart this information to their offspring. Young adults who grow up in an environment that is not shaped by Western (cultural) views may be particularly affected. The lack of systematic inclusion of economic and financial content in German general education curricula leads to challenges in understanding these concepts. Here, a two-part qualitative interview procedure was used to investigate possible challenges in the understanding of economic and financial terms and concepts by people with a Muslim background (eight respondents were interviewed in summer 2022). In this article, the findings on the identified barriers are presented and discussed. Subsequently, the implications for economic education are outlined, including the need to raise awareness among (prospective) teachers for migration-specific concepts, the special needs of heterogeneous classes with regard to migration backgrounds and the development of target group-oriented teaching and learning materials in economic and social education.