Channels, Fall 2017

Page 83 Channels • 2017 • Volume 2 • Number 1 lead to increased terrorism. A 2016 study showed that immigration, in general, was positively correlated with a decrease in terrorist activity in the receiving nation. 10 The study also quantitatively demonstrated that over 30 years in 175 countries, an increase in immigration from a nation with high levels of terrorist activity was positively correlated with increased terrorist activity in the receiving nation. 11 Therefore, there is an empirical connection between immigration from terrorist-prone nations and the spread of terrorism to the country receiving the migrants. However, some qualitative studies suggest that this finding cannot be true because refugees and migrants are unlikely to harbor terrorist sympathies as they are often attempting to flee conflicts created by terrorist or other violent groups. 12 While the conclusion—that migration from terror-prone nations does not facilitate the spread of terrorism—is empirically false, it is worth considering the relevance of the claim that refugees and migrants would oppose, rather than support, terrorism. First of all, even assuming that the mass majority of migrants have no intention of bringing terrorism into other nations, it is still possible that some do intend to do so. Given the damage even one such individual is able to inflict, the potential that a handful among thousands of migrants may harbor terrorist sentiments is a significant concern. Second, even assuming that most migrants are simply seeking a better life in a new nation, it is still possible that their movement facilitates the spread of terrorism. Bove and Bohmelt argue that the movement of migrants constitutes a physical link through which terrorism can spread from the terror-prone nation to the receiving nation. 13 International diffusion and spatial dependency theories posit that regardless of the positive intentions of migrant groups, they can become a vehicle through which terrorism spreads from terrorist-prone nations to previously unaffected nations. 14 Working in concert, international diffusion and social dependency theories suggest that migrants form strong social networks and diaspora communities that carry on the ideological, cultural, and ethnic heritage of their native countries. In the case of Muslim migrants, for example, even if the views migrants carry to their new countries are not in themselves radical or violent, the basic cultural and religious heritage they transport is still the foundation upon which radical Islamic terrorism is built. In essence, if the migrants are from a terrorist-prone nation, these networks and communities transplant the intellectual and cultural factors that contribute to the existence of terrorism in their native countries to their new country of residence. Additionally, research shows that these tight-knit expatriate groups are easily exploited for radicalization and recruitment by terrorists from their home country or culture. 15 Terrorists can use communities of first and second generation migrants as hubs through which to expand their reach into other nations and regions by radicalizing and recruiting recent migrants, by using migrant communities to hide their presence in a foreign nation, 10 Ibid, 572. 11 Ibid. 12 De Ming Fan, "The Immigration-Terrorism Illusory Correlation and Heuristic Mistake," 33-52. 13 Bove and Bohmelt, “Does Immigration Induce Terrorism?” 575. 14 Ibid, 575. 15 Ibid, 575.