Tag: Immigration

How the Exclusion of Muslims Could Help Extremists

Post author By Arsla Jawaid
Post date 09/02/2017
1 Comment on How the Exclusion of Muslims Could Help Extremists

*Courtesy of Noranna/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)*

This article was originally published by IPI Global Observatory on 3 February 2017.

Within two weeks of taking power, new United States President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders that have caused alarm around the world. Perhaps the most controversial of these was an immigration ban that indefinitely suspended the entry and resettlement of Syrian refugees to the US and enacted a 90-day ban on travelers from six Muslim majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. While fears about Muslim immigration are widespread in the US and elsewhere, a significant body of research has failed to find justification for such policies. Indeed, there is strong evidence to suggest that they might make the targeted problem of Islamic extremism much worse.

The Trump administration has justified the move as “preventive” and designed to reduce terror threats facing the US, yet the Cato Institute finds that not a single person (including refugees) from any of the Muslim-majority countries included has been involved in a terrorist attack in the US in the past 40 years. Data provided by the New America Foundation (since 9/11) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2005-2014) has, meanwhile, found that on a 10-year average, 11,737 Americans are likely to be killed from gun violence per year, compared with just two by Muslim jihadi immigrants.

Tags Security, Security policy, Immigration, Migration, Islamist groups, United states, Muslims

Migration: New Perspectives on an Old Story

Post author By Kate Sullivan
Post date 13/01/2017
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266320324_97a97c5a64_o — *Courtesy of Jean-Marc Desfilhes/Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0*

This article was originally published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on 18 December 2016.

Migration has persisted in one form or another throughout the centuries: from nomadic hunters to industrial labourers, from traders to seafarers, from colonists to persecuted minorities. Many migration routes—like those that traverse the Sahara or meander through the Amazonian border regions of Brazil, Ecuador and Peru—pre-date the states whose borders they cross. And yet, the study of vulnerable human mobility and our commitment to the protection of migrants and their rights are relatively recent.

Comprised of numerous and often competing narratives, public discourse on migration is indicative of its complexity. However, often framed at the state or regional level, it also obscures the human dimensions of migration. On International Migrants Day, it’s worth reflecting on the number and experiences of people on the move.

Tags Global Trends, Internally Displaced Persons, Migration, Immigration

Interview – Ivan Krastev

This interview was originally published by E-International Relations on 16 December, 2015.

Ivan Krastev is chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, Bulgaria and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM), Austria. A founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, he is also a member of the global advisory board of Open Society Foundations, and of the advisory council of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). Mr. Krastev is also associate editor of Europe’s World and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy and Transit – Europäische Revue. He has written extensively on democracy, Eastern Europe, the politics of his native Bulgaria and relations between Russia and the West.

Tags Middle East, Russia, Foreign policy, Communism, Immigration, Migration, Eastern Europe, Politics, International Relations, Cold War, Democracy, Security

Jack Goldstone: “Migration, Islam and Security”

Post author By William Rooke
Post date 13/02/2015
No Comments on Jack Goldstone: “Migration, Islam and Security”

Refugees in the Mediterranean — Refugees at Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, 2006. Image: Vito Manzari/Wikimedia

How secure is Europe? What is the future of the Muslim community in the West? What should be the nature of Europe’s relationship with the Islamic world? In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, these were some of the questions addressed by Dr. Jack Goldstone at a recent ISN-CIS roundtable held on 20 January 2015 at ETH Zurich.

After diagnosing Europe’s demographic situation, Dr. Goldstone’s message was a straightforward one: without continuing large-scale immigration, Europe will soon begin a rapid economic decline. The continent therefore does not have an ‘immigration problem.’ It has an integration problem.

Tags Islam, Fundamentalism, United States of America, Religion, Immigration, Migration, Europe, Culture

The Islamic World and the West: Recovering Common History

Post author By Nayef Al-Rodhan
Post date 22/08/2014
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Image: Wikimedia

This article was originally published by YaleGlobal Online on 15 July 2014.

Recent years have seen much talk of the dangers of Islam in the West and its perceived incompatibility with Western societies. According to statistics, estimated on the basis of country of origin and of first- and second-generation migrants, Muslims represent the largest “non-indigenous” immigrant group in Europe. The largest groups are in France, with approximately 5 million; Germany, between 3.8 and 4.3 million; and the UK, 1.6 million, followed by the Netherlands and Italy, 1.1 million each, as well as Bulgaria and Spain.

Tags Europe, Middle East, Culture, Islam, History, Immigration, Migration, Arab