Circular Migration and the Transnational Diffusion of Extremism

• In Event: Globalizing Extremism

Abstract

Violence by self-styled Islamists has increased markedly throughout Southeast Asia in recent decades. The fundamentalist ideologies that motivate these Islamist extremists contrast with the open, pluralist versions of Islam that historically characterize the region. This paper explores the role of labor migration between Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the spread of fundamentalism and extremism. Millions of Asians live and work in the Gulf region of the Middle East. Many reside on the margins of society, making ripe targets for radicalization. Others seek out community in their host country, potentially gaining exposure to the Gulf’s more conservative ideas and cultures. Interviews with migrants living in the Gulf examine processes through which migrants are exposed to fundamentalism. I then draw on a survey of more than 1,600 Indonesians living in Java to analyze ways in which variation in exposure to the Gulf region transfers fundamentalist religious and political ideologies.

Author

• Matthew Nanes, Saint Louis University