Expanding the Radicalization Framework: A Case Study of Tajik Migration to Russia

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore what explains radicalization of migrant communities and their families in their home country. Contemporary scholarship on radicalization has identified a broad range of explanatory variables, such as poverty, discrimination and/or lack of social mobility, that have the capacity to push individuals toward violence and radical beliefs. Yet, there is still a significant gap in current literature over the question why entire ethnic or national migrant groups are more represented in radical groups than others despite similar experiences. Using the case of Tajik migrants in Russia this article posits that the legacy of collective grievances and cyclical, systemic injustices, rather than a specific or personal experience of discrimination or mistreatment, are more accurate in explaining radicalization. The article pays specific attention to the role of religious or social remittances and, given a shared set of experiences, the susceptibility of the migrant's own family in the home country to the same radical ideology-despite their never leaving their country's borders. The findings suggest that the home country context, the collective account of society, is a more substantial predictor of radicalization than reception alone.