Channels, Fall 2017

Page 96 Beck, Diza, Searl • Bridges and Bandits activity and ideology would be less dependent on migrant flows and thus less correlated to immigration. The data from the United States shows a weak correlation between immigration and terrorism. We posit that the United States is a natural outlier to the general pattern of correlation between immigration from terror-prone nations and the occurrence of terrorist activity. Thus, we would expect the data from the United States to neither confirm nor disprove our hypothesis due to its anomalous characteristics. First, we would anticipate the United States to be an outlier because it is intentionally targeted, regardless of immigration, by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Terrorists, especially those of Islamic ideological backgrounds, purposefully target the United States to a degree experienced by almost no other westernized nation—with the notable exception of Israel. Second, the United States has an exceptionally robust migrant vetting process—enabled by its relatively remote geographical position—that effectively constrains the default correlation between terrorism and immigration. 41 Additionally, the strength of American immigration controls and the physical distance between the United States and terrorist hubs in the Middle East likely provide significant disincentive for attempted terrorist infiltration. This situation is almost the exact opposite of the state of European nations during the refugee crisis of 2015. Middle Eastern immigrants traveled a relativity short distance, often over land, into a borderless Europe. The geographical proximity and the almost complete lack of vetting and border control created an excellent opportunity for terrorist infiltration into Europe. 42 The United States was largely immune to the migrant crisis because of its distant location and firm border controls. Given these two significant departures from the global norm, we would expect—precisely as the data shows—that the United States would demonstrate a deviation from the typical relationship between immigration and terrorism. The data from Australia shows a weak correlation between immigration and terrorism. However, this finding is not unexpected given Australia’s appearance as an outlier. It is far removed from terror-producing nations geographically, it has limited inflows of migrants, and it has large areas of undeveloped land upon which migrants could settle, thus reducing the potential for societal strife between migrants and native populations. Similar to the United States, these significant peculiarities separate Australia from the global norm. Additionally, Australia’s extremely low rate of terrorist activity limits the ability to construct a meaningful analysis of its migrant inflows. The data from Greece is intriguing because they have experienced high levels of terrorist activity over the last several years, but at first glance, it does not appear to be related to immigration. It is possible that the spike in the percentage of immigrants from terror-prone nations in the early 2000s was an influence on the large increase in terrorist activity that occurred during the late 2000s, specifically beginning in 2007. However, drawing conclusions from Greece’s data is questionable because, though it is considered part of the westernized, civilized world, the nation itself has essentially been terror prone since the 41 Kis-Benedek, “Illegal Immigration and Terrorism,” 457. 42 Ibid, 457.