Whitehall departments need to come up with a string of new inclusion programmes to help Muslim communities get fairer access to jobs, according to a new report from the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
Its latest report has found unemployment levels among Muslims to be more than twice the 5.4% average for the general population, and the highest of all religious and ethnic groups.
According to the document, 41% of Muslims can be described as “economically inactive”, contrasting with a figure of 21.8% of the whole population. It said 65% of Muslim women were “economically inactive”.
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MPs concluded that the government’s strategy for tackling disadvantage faced by black and minority ethnic people had to be coupled with “coherent cross-government strategy focused on specific groups”.
They said the difficulties faced by Muslim women were particularly problematic, and that the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Education all had roles to play in improving the picture.
MPs said mosques had a potentially important role in promoting opportunities for Muslim women, and called on DCLG and the Government Equalities Office to create specific national outreach programmes to promote female role models within Muslim communities as soon as possible.
They also called for DWP to ensure JobCentre Plus staff had the tools and training to improve their understanding of employment issues faced by Muslim people, with tailored support and local budgets to fund targeted support in areas with high levels of Muslim unemployment.
Additionally, MPs said the DfE should “build on” work that raised awareness of free childcare provision amongst groups whose take up was low, and “equip local authorities and JobCentre Plus advisers" to address Muslim women’s concerns around making use of free childcare.
The report noted that new interventions to tackle unemployment among Muslims would have to overcome “tensions” created by the Prevent counter-extremism programme.
Committee chair Maria Miller said the government’s work on employment and integration had to rebuild trust with Muslim communities and focus on how the life chances of disadvantaged communities could be improved, rather than look “through the lens" of counter-extremism.
"This report underlines the positive contributions of Muslims across the UK, and the urgent need to make equality of opportunity a reality for people of every faith and background," she said.
"We heard evidence that stereotypical views of Muslim women can act as a barrier to work. The data suggests that in communities these patterns are shifting across generations but we remain concerned that this shift is happening too slowly and that not all Muslim women are being treated equally."
The report also cited the importance of name-blind recruitment processes adopted by some organisations – and which are being introduced for new applicants to the civil service below Senior Civil Service level – as part of combating discrimination against job-seekers.
MPs said employers who had successfully introduced name-blind recruitment should be profiled, and that the government should look to legislate on the issue if progress was not made within the current parliament.