[MUSIC] Hi there. In a previous video we discussed why the phenomenon of foreign fighting is making headlines and we looked into the historical context discovering that the phenomenon is actually not very new. In this video, we want to look into different element of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Who are these people? Why did they go there and what are they doing out there? According to a number of reports, the number is more than 30,000. The Soufan group wrote in 2014 that there were 12,000 foreign fighters from 81 countries. One year later, in December 2015, they said this number had increased to around 30,000 from 86 countries. Other reports give somewhat different numbers, and of course, all of these are estimates. After 2015, there have been less reports specifying the exact number, and from what countries these people come from. And since 2016 and especially after the so called Islamic State has been losing a lot of territory. A lot less new fighters have come to Syria and Iraq. Well, here you have some estimates of the different nationalities as mentioned in the Soufan Group report in 2015. About 60% is believed to be from the Middle East or North Africa, and many come from neighboring or nearby countries. And 35% are from Western Europe, the Balkans, or former Soviet Republics. The country from which most fighters departed is Tunisia. About 6,000 Tunisians have gone to Syria and Iraq and then about 2,500 are from Saudi Arabia. 2,400 from Russia and about 2,000 from Turkey and Jordan. Closer to my home, so where did European site has come from? Well, some 1,700 from France and 800 from Germany and UK. And closer to our home from relatively small country of Belgium, 500 have departed. And from my own country, the Netherlands, 200 have gone on to Syria and Iraq. And from the other side of the Atlantic ocean, about 150 come from Canada and the United States. Well add to that hundreds from Indonesia, a hundred from Australia, and even some fighters from Japan, Madagascar and Brazil. And to understand that it is really a worldwide phenomenon. Well, allow me now to focus on mainly those that are from my part of the world, European Union. The ICCT has done research into these European fighters. What do we know from this research? Well, they're mostly nationals from the EU. Few are just residents or refugees. Most are nationals that are born and raised in these countries. So these are Britains, French, Danes, Dutch, and they are from these countries, born and raised here. We've seen many different ethnic backgrounds, though. Many persons have roots in Morocco, Turkey, or Algeria. And we also see relatively many converts, about 6 to 23% depending on the country. These people are converts. They are originally born and raised in The Netherlands from mainly Christian background. While the group of European fighters mainly consist of young men, but also a few older men, and increasingly a number of women and even children. Why do they go? Well, do these people that were born and raised here, what do they do in Syria and Iraq? Well, one way to study this, to make a distinction between push and pull factors. Pull factors are explaining why Syria is attracting people and the push factors are factors that, well, the word says it, that push them from these countries. There are many different categories. The first category is doing something good. A purpose in life. Feeling responsible to protect poor people that are being attacked by the Assad regime. Children, women, etc. Many claim they are going there to help. Well especially they were returning the authorities of course were asking what have you done over there and their answer is mostly, we went there to help. To help people. Humanitarian aid. Well some do but we do know that many of them have been involved in the fighting. And, of course it's being used as an excuse to say, I was there to help as it was used in the case of Afghanistan in the past. But many fight for what they believe is their right and duty to help people. That brings me to the second category; the religious motivation. Some don't just mention women and children that need help, but they say, I do this to protect, to protect these people and that is my religious duty. And from a religious perspective, my duty is to protect the Ummah, the community of believers, the women and children and others in Syria that are Muslim. Add to that the idea to be part of the establishment of an ideal state based on religion, under Sharia law that is linked to the concept of a caliphate, a new Islamic, large Islamic State for all Muslims that covers the entire Muslim world. Well there's also another religious motivation, that's to be part of a radical change in the Middle East and part of a prophecy, that now it's the end of the old times and beginning of something new. An ideal new world under the black banner is used by groups like the so called Islamic State. So the prophecy's also a pull factor. And this factor has been very important after the leader of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi established his self proclaimed caliphate in 2014. Many people have gone to Syria and Iraq because they wanted to be part of this new project. The so called Islamic state thus has tried to attract a new type of people to join the organization. Not only people who want to die for a caliphate but people who actually want to live in a caliphate. And that's why we've seen an increasing number of families going there, including women and including children, partly to produce a future generation of jihadist fighters. Then the third category of factors, or reasons why people are attracted to join the fight in Syria and Iraq, and that is comradeship. Group processes. In week 2, we discussed that the social psychological approach is very important to have a better understanding of that. The article one marks Abraham. It's what terrorists really want. And he discovered that the comradeship is very important. While we also see that in the case of Syria and Iraq and those that go there. They seek comradeship. And then the violence, the thrill, the adventure. That is also a pull factor. Some people want to experience something exciting, and they even go there because of the violence, the weapons, the fight that is very much glorified in the propoganda of all fighting groups, especially by the Islamic State. And then the final explanation. A pull factor is the possibility, if you believe this or not, to die. To go to paradise. To die as a martyr. Let me now look into the push factors. We came across a number of these push factors while doing research on Dutch cases, of people who went to Syria. I conducted this research together with my colleague and. It's recommended reading, so I suggest you read it, because it gives you some concrete examples of life stories, of those people that went to Syria. And while studying this, we discovered that many had personal problem, failures in life, traumatic experiences as well as trouble with the authorities, trouble at school, etc. And from literature we know that also socio-economic and socio-political situations play a role or the socio-political climate in the country. They have been mentioned as possible explanations why people leave European countries to fight somewhere else. They don't feel at home. They don't see any opportunity there. They feel discriminated against, marginalized and that might be another push factor why people go to Syria. Well, in our research, we actually found little evidence of that. And apparently, we need to do much more research into these factors. That might help us to explain why people go to places like Syria and Iraq. To sum up, in this video, we looked into the phenomenon of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. And we saw that they are from many different countries, and there's no archetype foreign fighter. They have different backgrounds and they go for many different reasons. In the next video, we'll look into the different fighting groups that are active in the war in Syria and that in Iraq.
