This collective work gathers papers from the NATO sponsored meeting entitled “Perspectives on Immigration and Terrorism”, which took place in Milan (Italy) on 19-20 March 2010. The meeting was focused on psychological and sociocultural precursors to radicalization on immigrant youth in Europe. According to the majority of the speakers, predictors of sympathy for radicalization and radical behavior could be categorized into a) pasychological individual variables; b) socio-cultural contextual variables.

Within these two main areas two dimensions of human experience were identified - suffering versus empowerment. During the meeting, the discussion covered each of these two perspectives summarizing presentations by the experts. The overarching theme of both sections is that sympathy for radicalism and/or terrorist behavior needs to include the experience of frustration, desperation, identification with a larger goal, and identifiable conditions that contribute (e.g., money). Within this framework, workshop participants identified individual and contextual variables that may contribute to sympathy but not necessarily support for radicalization and terrorist behavior.

Psychological Perspectives

Globalization accompanied by a network of heightened communication pathways – physical and electronic – has led to sweeping changes across borders where economic, political, and cultural realities of one country influence and are influenced by other countries that may be geographically distant. These dramatic changes are manifested at the individual level, and in shifting cultures and social systems. Individually, impact of these changes is heightened by increased migration of people within countries from rural to urban areas in search of a different life and opportunities. Immigration also occurs across borders where people migrate to a different country. Immigration brings with it the challenge of adapting to a new culture and a new social world, both rural-urban immigration and cross border migration. Many psychological and sociological changes accompany the experience of immigration. Prominent among the psychological aspect is loss of identity as patterns of functioning and adaptation to society are challenged. Social rules and values differ among cultures and previously established patterns of behavior do not yield the same results. This sense of loss of identity is enhanced when there is a transition from a traditional society to modernity – in other words, if the migration is from a country or geographical region that has a traditional culture to a modern culture. The loss of identity contributes to a sense of alienation and struggling in a new world that sometimes appears daunting. Reality following migration usually falls short of the high expectations of the life available to immigrants in their adopted home. Most migration occurs in search of a better life – economically, socially, and politically. Reality frequently consists of struggle to achieve this better life often combined with unforeseen hardships such as social alienation in a culture that is not easily understood by the immigrant, economic struggles to establish themselves, and lack of political power and capital as an immigrant.

The effects of immigration are also felt within the family as shifting patterns of hierarchy and social control. Traditional systems of hierarchy where wisdom and authority rests with the older generation are challenged in modern cultures as compared to traditional cultures. The younger generation, in addition to challenging the authority of the older generation based on cultural norms in the adopted culture, also adapts faster to changing cultural norms compared to the older generation. In addition to differential rates of adaptation, the challenges faced by different generations in the same family differ. In other words, the challenges of a middle-aged mother differ from the challenges experienced by her young children. As a result family members are less able to support each other. This lack of support contributes to a sense of alienation and social isolation.

All of these changes in the lives of individuals and their social positions can be conceptualized as transition chaos. Reactions to this shifting social world among individuals include a sense of uncertainty and a loss of control. The sense of uncertainty and lack of control is heightened by a loss of identity as previous sociocultural position in society is lost. Loss of identity leads to an intense struggle to re-create an identity. Individuals, secondary to immigration, grapple with creating new social relationships and establishing new occupational or educational pathways as part of their new identity. This struggle and conflict is enhanced by a desire and an active struggle to retain their identity with their culture of origin or their ancestral culture. Frequently the two identities – the new identity and the ancestral identity are discordant. The development of their identity in the culture where they are immigrants may require the adoption of values or behaviors that might not be harmonious with their ancestral culture. It is during the course of this struggle that radical ideology may provide an attractive framework for developing an identity that is distinct from both identities. Radical ideology represents a higher a super-ordinate reality which can subsume both identities. Vulnerability to radical ideology is enhanced by the sense of alienation that immigrants frequently experience from both cultures.

Other factors that contribute to this sense of vulnerability include prior trauma and exposure to violence, especially among young people. Trauma and violence exposure are frequently related to the immigration experience. This trauma and exposure to violence may be either experienced with their country prior to migration or may be experienced in their new home post-migration. The impact of trauma and violence exposure is particularly intense among young people because trauma and exposure to violence enhance and complicate the developmental challenges that young people face. These developmental challenges are also complicated by the need to develop an identity that enables them to navigate their new home and their ancestral culture. The synergistic effects of trauma and violence exposure among immigrant youth can be witnessed in multiple generations. An important factor to note is that the effects of trauma are differentially manifested among first, second, and third generation immigrants and are further complicated by developmental challenges.

In sum, immigration is an intensely challenging experience – personally and socially - which taxes personal and social resources. Vulnerability to radical ideology may develop among individuals lacking in personal and social resources, i.e., belonging to a lower socioeconomic status background as a mechanism of regaining power. Frequently the socioeconomic status or the social position occupied by immigrants in their adopted land is lower than the status experienced by immigrants in their ancestral land. This shift in status implies not just a decline in resources available but also the loss of status and power.

Sociopolitical and Cultural Perspectives

In addition to changes within the family, there is a loss of social position by the family within the larger society or community. In their culture of origin the family has a certain social position that brings with it privileges and history. Immigration is associated with social, political, and cultural challenges. An important social challenge is the creation of a social position and network in the adopted culture. An important choice related to this which leads to divergent developmental pathways is whether the immigrant sticks to other immigrants from their ancestral culture or seeks to align with the ancestral culture. Although this is not an absolute choice as much as it is a choice of degree of preference for both the ancestral and adopted culture. This preference is complicated by cultural differences between the adopted culture and ancestral culture as well as by attitudes of members of both cultures. Frequently attempts to develop networks within the adopted home are thwarted by attitudes of the non-immigrant groups who may have negative or positive attitudes toward immigrants in general or toward specific immigrant groups based on race, ethnicity, place of origin, etc. General attitudes may be a function of perceived employment or resource scarcity introduced by the presence of immigrants who may compete for scare opportunities.

A key social element of the immigrant experience alluded to earlier is the loss of socioeconomic status and position. With their ancestral cultures most immigrants hold a social position that brings with it history and resources. Migration to a different country or to a different region within the same country leads to a loss of that social position and creates a challenge in terms of regaining the social position lost. Attempts to recoup their ancestral social position may focus on regaining this position within the immigrant community or within the dominant culture. Immigrants' attempts to create or regain their socioeconomic position may be perceived as competition for scarce resources by the non-immigrant culture. The non-immigrant culture may not react favorably contributing to the immigrants' sense of alienation and isolation.

An important consequence of some of these struggles may the experience of disillusionment and affective experiences such as depression and anger. Unfortunately these affective experiences intensify experiences of anger and depression frequently also experienced pre-immigration. The reasons for immigration are usually complicated. However, there is always some experience of dissatisfaction with ancestral culture that leads to immigration and the anticipation that there will be a better life available for immigrants in their adopted land. The sociopolitical and cultural struggle experienced by immigrants in addition to all the personal challenges outlined above frequently lead disillusionment.

Within this framework of anger, depression, and disillusionment radical ideology may provide an outlet for frustration. It is an opportunity to be associated with something larger that makes the struggles worth the effort for the immigrants.

In sum, the conference identified many individual and sociocultural and political realities of the phenomena of terrorism and sympathy toward terrorist activities, causes, and ideologies. The difficulty of dealing with it is compounded by the fact that a potential sympathizer or terrorist is not easily identified by personal or social characteristics. Rather the discussion should perhaps validly focus on factors that contribute to prevention. Or factors that contribute to building the resilience of individuals and communities.

A glance at the contributions

The first contribution is of Giovanni M. Ruggiero and Sandra Sassaroli. The authors attempt to identify social and psychological factors of cultural and ideological opposition against western societies, opposition which could increase moral support to and even inclination towards terrorism. Among the most influential identified factors are perceived injustice, need for identity, need for belonging, cultural clash, and difficult integration.

In the second contribution Peter Achterberg, Johan Roeland and Dick Houtman studies how people deal with the growing pressures of the process of secularization around them. Contemporary scientists also seem to have increased attention for the negative side of modernization, as can be seen from an increasing share of publications on phenomena such as anomia, alienation, doom and crisis, deterioration, and ontological insecurity.

The third contribution is by Mark Sedgwick. This scholar thinks that two problems need to be addressed in the field of contemporary phenomena of radicalization and terrorism in Europe. One problem is that actual terrorist activity by European immigrants is rare: In fact, direct security threats are posed by a small number of individual Europeans with immigration backgrounds. On the other hand, there is the much larger milieu from which such individuals emerge.

In the fourth contribution Yasmine Ergas focuses on the illegal aspect of terrorism. On the international plane there is a common understanding that legally the use of force is strictly limited. Thus, the war on terror explicitly equates terrorists with warriors – and then implicitly with soldiers. But isn't that exactly what the terrorists themselves are claiming?

Dorothée Prud'homme show the results of a two-year qualitative empirical fieldwork carried out on the French Gendarmerie which explored the motivation of the young descendants of immigrants to enter the French military police, the career path they envisage within this institution, the advantages or obstacles their perceived differences present for their engagement, and the racial discrimination some of them endure.

Shaul Kimhi focuses on immigration as a possible trajectory for political radicalism and the use of political violence and terror. Studies on the combination of both, especially from a psychological point of view, are scarce and much more knowledge is needed.

The seventh chapter is written by Ruth Pat-Horenczyk, Atoosa Khodabakhsh, Jetse Van Heemstra, and Danny Brom, who explore the interaction between two possible factors in the development of youth violence. The exposure to traumatic experiences, the first factor, has been shown to create difficulties in the regulation of emotions, and, among others, of anger. Immigration, another factor, might lead to violence because of the social difficulties of the immigrants' experience.

Valerio de Divitiis describes the particular condition of EU born immigrants (hence not belonging to first generation immigrants), who are particularly exposed and vulnerable to the influence of vengeful purposes against Western societies. A possible solution is the promotion of effective actions like promoting equal opportunities, social integration and educational.

Yael Latzer and Sonia Suchday wrote the ninth chapter, in which they deal with a particular kind of cultural clash, that is the type of difficulties encountered by traditional-oriented Moroccan immigrants while seeking treatment for psychiatric problems in a Western-oriented therapeutic setting. The example is useful for understating the impact on acculturation and adjustment to the new culture.

Another interesting example of acculturation is reported in the tenth contribution, in which Guido Veronese, Marco Castiglioni and Mahmoud Said study the case of Palestinian families living in Israel. Arab culture views the family as the symbolic fortress of social cohesion. The chapter provides some historical background and a description of the distinctive features of Palestinian families in the State of Israel and the Occupied Territories respectively.

“Choc of civilisations and new Muslim migrants” is the title of the eleventh chapter, written by Giovanna Campani. The contribution aims at overcoming the culturalist approach and the dichotomy “tradition-modernity” in the study of Muslim minorities in Europe. The paper presents a series of biographical interviews of Muslim migrants. According to Campani, far from expressing rejection in face of the West and Western values, far from expressing any form of nostalgia for the “tradition”, the eighty-five biographical interviews reveal a largely positive image of Europe.

The contribution by Sonia Suchday and Yael Latzer explores many potential predictors of terrorist behavior, that can be classified into 4 categories: context, situation, developmental factors and personality.

In the thirteenth chapter Jennifer Boldero and Jennifer Whelan examine some of the factors that are associated with Australians' attitudes toward culturally similar and culturally dissimilar migrants. Predicting factors are cultural backgrounds (e.g., migrants from the Middle East) or with different skills (e.g., well-educated migrants).

The contribution of David Winter considers radicalisation from the perspective of constructivism. The theory asserts that people are primarily concerned with anticipating their worlds. Difficulty in anticipating the world is associated with feelings of anxiety and alienation. Radicalisation is more likely in individuals who have difficulty in predicting their worlds, perhaps because their construing is inconsistent with a culture's shared meanings, and/or have a less stable self-construction.

Michal Shamai proposes that the role of the sense of national belonging in coping with stress created by national terror is significant, as shown in several studies. The findings emphasize national identification as a meaning that people assign to the loss or stress created by the terrorist attacks. This is followed by a discussion of the possible impacts of the absence of such a sense of national belonging within immigrant societies.

The last contribution is by Guido Veronese, Mahmoud Said and Marco Castiglioni, who depict some internal and external oppressive practices that create serious risks to the physical and psychological health of Palestinian children. The methodology is content analysis of three children interviewed at Jenin refugee camp.