Agency UnveiledThe Interplay of Transcultural Capital and the Post-Secularization Paradigm in the Lives of Muslim Migrant Descendants in Europe

Abstract

This chapter examines the complex experiences of descendants of Muslim migrants in secular Europe, challenging conventional binaries that oppose the secular and the religious. It argues that secularism is not a neutral framework but an active mechanism of inclusion and exclusion, determining which traditions are normalized as part of European identity and which are relegated to the margins. By introducing the concept of “post-secularizing agents”, the chapter explores how these individuals actively renegotiate the continuum between the secular and the religious spheres, strategically navigating, contesting, and reshaping these boundaries. Drawing from the post-secularization paradigm and the transcultural perspective, this chapter foregrounds transcultural capital not only as an analytical tool but also as a disruptive concept that challenges dominant, monocultural frameworks of belonging. Rather than viewing Muslim migrants’ descendants as trapped between two incompatible worlds, transcultural capital highlights their agency in fluidly mediating between secular and religious domains. It critiques selective secularism, which simultaneously culturalizes majority traditions as universal while religionizing minority cultures, framing Muslim identity as inherently religious and foreign to Europe’s shared heritage. Rejecting crisis narratives that depict migration-related diversity as a problem to be managed, this chapter advocates for a complexity-oriented research agenda. This agenda moves beyond binary categorizations of “insiders” and “outsiders” and instead recognizes Muslim migrant descendants as cultural and political actors shaping European modernity. In doing so, it paves the way for further research on the fluidity of religious-secular identities, the role of non-religiosity and religious conversion, and the evolving dynamics of transcultural agency within secular institutional structures. This transformative framework not only challenges prevailing paradigms but also offers new theoretical pathways for rethinking diversity governance in contemporary Europe.