Does Immigration Induce Terrorism?

Bove, V. Michael; Böhmelt, Tobias

doi:10.1086/684679

Cited by 103 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(129 reference statements)

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“…Existing research suggests that immigration itself is naturally negatively related to terrorism unless the migrants originate from a terror-prone nation or region. 46 Therefore, Canada's negative correlation between immigration and terrorism is exactly what one would expect if our hypothesis was correct given its relatively low levels of migrants from terror-prone nations.…”

Section: Analysis Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Bridges and Bandits on the Road to the New Jerusalem: A Study of the Correlation Between Immigration and Terrorism

Beck¹,

Diza²,

Searl³

2017

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In late January of 2017, President Trump signed an executive order banning non-American citizens traveling into the United States from seven different countries. The title of the order was, "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. " As implied, the stated purpose was to limit the number of immigrants in order to avoid future attacks. President Trump claims that the executive order is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the United States' immigrant vetting procedures and thus, protect the nation from terrorist incursion. For the order to serve a purpose, immigration must play a role in terrorism. Thus, the essential point of disagreement is whether a connection exists between the influx of migrants-especially those from terror-prone nations-and the occurrence of terrorist activity in the receiving nation. In this study, we attempt to discover if a link exists between immigration from terror-prone nations and terrorism by examining the current literature and using data to analyze the levels of immigration as well as the incidents of terrorism in six countries.The hypothesis of this research project is that as countries receive increased levels of asylum seekers from terror-prone nations they will experience a corresponding increase in the numbers of terror attacks within the nation. Our basic premise is that immigrant flows form a social bridge, transplanting cultures, ideologies, as well as individuals between the sending and receiving nations. Thus, we are seeking to find out if there is a strong correlation between immigration and terrorism. The null hypothesis, then, is that there is no correlation between immigration from terror-prone nations and the occurrence of terror attacks within a particular nation.Our research shows that, as predicted in our hypothesis, increased terrorism is linked to increased migration from terror-prone nations and regions. The data from Germany and Turkey display a strong positive correlation between asylum-seeker migration and incidents of terrorism. It is worth noting that immigration alone is not enough to predict a rise in terrorist attacks. Rather, immigration is only one of many factors that may lead to increased terrorism. However, it is our contention that immigration from terrorproducing regions is a significant predictor of increased terrorist activity.

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Section: Analysis Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Bridges and Bandits on the Road to the New Jerusalem: A Study of the Correlation Between Immigration and Terrorism

Beck¹,

Diza²,

Searl³

2017

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“…Finally, the literature on forcible migration typically looks at effects in the receiving country. Salehyan and Gleditsch () examines refugees as a vector of conflict diffusion in host states, while Bove () finds that migration from terror‐prone countries increases the likelihood of such attacks in the receiver . In short, migrants bring violence with them.…”

Section: Economic Migration and Political Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Migration and Communal Violence in Pakistan

Kuo¹

2019

International Migration

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Overseas employment provides multiple socioeconomic benefits for families and communities in sending countries. But communal violence can potentially disrupt these flows, causing lasting damage to local and national economic development. Under what conditions does political violence – and particularly low‐intensity sectarian conflict – increase or decrease economic migration? This article argues that the level of militant control over local political and social institutions conditions whether individuals emigrate for work. Using statistical analysis of Pakistani data on overseas employment and political violence, it finds that attacks by transnational/Islamist militants on local political institutions substantially reduce economic migration. Attacks against non‐political targets have no significant effect, further emphasizing the importance of these bodies.

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“…To include fixed effects it is thus preferable to use a simple normal linear regression with the logged number of attacks, after adding 1 to the base, so that the log transformation helps to correct for the skewness and provides a more plausible functional form (see also Bove and Böhmelt 2016). Model 1 in Table 3 shows similar results for discrimination and inclusion, thus indicating that the previous findings are not simply explained by crosssectional variation, but also obtain when we focus exclusively on changes within countries.…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%