Channels, Fall 2017

Page 84 Beck, Diza, Searl • Bridges and Bandits or by using social capital built by the migrant communities to make ideological inroads into the native population. This concept is similar to the way any group might expand into a new area. The first step is to identify a promising new location for expansion; the second step is to identify current members of the group that already live in the area to help establish a foothold. However, instead of trying to spread a particular store or social club to a new region, terrorists are seeking to export their radical agendas to other nations. In this way, migrants are a vehicle through which terrorism is transplanted to regions in which it is not native. An example of this phenomena is Rinkeby, Sweden. Rinkeby is a neighborhood outside of Stockholm that contains a large quantity of migrants from Muslim Africa and the Middle East. 16 Swedish police forces have identified the area as a primary recruiting ground for Somalia-based Islamic terrorist groups, such as Shebab . 17 While the Swedish Security Forces consider the likelihood of an attack on Swedish soil as improbable, they are aware that radicalized Swedish nationals and Sweden-based migrants are traveling abroad to attend terrorist training camps and participate in acts of terror in foreign locales. 18 This example demonstrates that terrorist groups are willing and able to infiltrate migrant, non- native populations and exploit their communities for radical ends—even if the migrants themselves were not originally radical. Shebab has used this tactic so effectively that it has been able to turn Sweden into an exporter of terrorism. There are two additional considerations that make the potential for terrorist exploitation of migrant communities especially concerning in the case of Muslim and Arab diaspora communities. The first is that these groups are generally perceived as different from the peoples of the western nations to which they migrate. Therefore, Muslim migrants are commonly ostracized or perceive themselves as being ostracized from mainstream western society and have limited opportunity for assimilation, especially in Europe. 19 The second aspect is related to the significant flood of immigrants that entered Europe as a result of the migrant crisis in 2016. Western Europe, for example, has largely failed to assimilate non- Caucasian migrants. 20 Research shows that terrorists view unassimilated peoples as being especially susceptible to radicalization due to the feelings of discontent and alienation fostered by their situation. 21 Both of these considerations increase the possibility that, in spite of the good intentions of the majority of migrants, terrorist organizations will successfully manipulate the social networks migrants create to further their radical agendas. Given that migrant communities are easily infiltrated by terrorist operatives and exploited for radicalization and recruitment, the question, as posed by Jozsef Kis-Benedek, is this: are 16 Robert Nicholson, “Swedish Open Immigration Policies - Correlation with Terrorism,” The Homeland Security Review 4, no. 3 (2010): 194. 17 Ibid, 194. 18 Ibid, 194-195. 19 Ibid, 194. 20 Ibid, 193. 21 Jozsef Kis-Benedek, “Illegal Immigration and Terrorism,” Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues 5, no. 4 (2016): 457.