Risk of Violent Radicalization among Refugees

• In Event: Radicalization and Terrorism

Abstract

The refugee crisis is challenging Europe. The Arab Spring has caused heavy changes in the political landscape of the Maghreb, Egypt & Syria. Unfortunately the changes haven’t brought democracy and prosperity but even more violence and poverty. As a result, millions of people (especially young men aged 16-25) have come to Europe with the desire to seek a better life. The German Government has accepted more than one million refugees in 2015. Current research has shown that the majority of them have bad initial conditions (bad language skills & lack of education). Furthermore, many of the young men among the refugees are without parental control for the first time in their life and at the same time they are confronted with possible temptations of western lifestyle (like easy access to alcohol). In this situation, the risk of religious or political radicalization (as a follow of social deprivation and a lack of orientation) is critical.
The paper will present the results from two quantitative surveys among (several thousand) refugees and migrants who have moved to Germany in recent time, covering their value orientation, possible authoritarian attitudes and possible prejudices against the western world.

Author

• Dominic Michael Oliver Jochen Kudlacek, Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony