P6: Migration and terrorism

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center (hereafter 9/11), transnational terrorism became subject to intense academic research. Previous research has suggested, among others, that the target countries? degrees of democracy, electoral systems, or institutional constraints to the central government are determinants of terror. We intend to contribute to this literature by looking at the consequences of migration policies on terrorism.

We further intend to conduct a systematic analysis investigating the impact of different types of immigration on terrorist attacks. Arguably, terror becomes more or less likely with certain types of migration flows, and depends on whether or not migrants successfully integrate in the destination country. The degree of terrorism, in turn, is likely to affect the degree to which integration is possible as some people are more likely to be perceived as potential terrorists in the destination country. We intend to analyze the relationship between terror and migration flows theoretically and empirically.