parallel society

{{short description|Social group, often immigrant, living with reduced contact with the wider society}}

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Parallel society refers to the self-organization of an ethnic or religious minority, often but not always immigrant groups, with the intent of a reduced or minimal spatial, social and cultural contact with the majority society into which they immigrate.[http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/URZDVA Parallelgesellschaften?], Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, No. 1–2 (2006)

The term was introduced into the debate about migration and integration in the early 1990s by the German sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer.[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225076880_Integration_Social_Networks_and_Economic_Success_of_Immigrants_A_Case_Study_of_the_Turkish_Community_in_Berlin Integration, Social Networks and Economic Success of Immigrants: A Case Study of the Turkish Community in Berlin] It rose to prominence in the European public discourse following the murder of Dutch director and critic of Islam Theo van Gogh.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} In 2004, the Association for the German Language ranked the term second in their Word of the year list.[https://gfds.de/aktionen/wort-des-jahres/ Wort des Jahres] (expand "Wörter des Jahres 2004")