Channels, Fall 2017

Page 91 Channels • 2017 • Volume 2 • Number 1 United States of America The following two graphs compare the inflow of asylum seekers (on the left) with incidents of terrorism (on the right) in the United States of America. The general trend of both is markedly different, which indicates that the potential correlation between both variables is unlikely. The inflows of asylum seekers spiked between 2013 and 2014 but dropped back down between 2014 and 2015. Terrorism incidents post-9/11 decreased significantly in the U.S., and a steady uptick in incidents did not occur again until 2012. The scatterplot below demonstrates a weak correlation between inflows of asylum seekers and terrorism incidents, with the key number being R 2 , which is 0.093.