Research has shown that irregular migrants were disproportionally present in jihadi networks in the Netherlands between 2001 and 2005. Building on this study, by analysing files of closed criminal investigations and interviewing imams and personnel within asylum seeker centres and detention centres, this article explains the attractiveness of jihadi networks by a combination of pragmatic and ideological factors. The studied cases demonstrate how jihadi networks are able to satisfy certain needs of these irregular immigrants in a pragmatic way and how criminal activities play an important role in this process. They also show how jihadi networks can fill a void for some of these irregular migrants who are in search for meaning and identity. The Jihadi-Salafi ideology does not seem to be the core pull factor explaining the attractiveness of the jihadi networks in this study.
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The position of non-EU migrants in social security is problematic. Many European states reduce access to social benefits for categories of migrants whose presence is not desired. At the same time the scope of application of the national systems is becoming more confined to the national borders, as, for example, countries take measures to reduce the exportability of benefits. These two trends of exclusion and retrenchment particularly affect irregular immigrants and persons moving between Europe and developing countries who are not protected by any bilateral social security agreements. The background of these trends can be traced back to the way social security interacts with immigration and civic integration policies. This book addresses this interaction and contains contributions on the social security position of irregular migrants, on the reception of asylum seekers, on income requirements in immigration law, on civic integration, on informal social security protection of formally excluded migrants and on social protection and voluntary return. These separate contributions lead to an overall analysis on the position of excluded migrants. Knowing that the exclusion of certain immigrants from social security is legitimate from the point of view of national policies or even from the point of view of the logics of social security itself, what alternative strategies can be developed in order to give protection to excluded migrants without undermining these policies and logics?
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This feasibility report aims to create a solid background for Savings Groups programming in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands where partner organisations of the LETS SAVEE1 project are based. This Erasmus+ funded project aims at exploring the potential of saving groups in the European countries’ context, by improving entrepreneurial skills and access to financial services and social networks of diverse target groups. This particular report provides the partner organisation as well as other interested implementing organisations with a better understanding of how the different contexts influences the setting up and/or scale up of saving groups. This report is set up as follows: The market potential is based on literature of societal developments and how they can be linked to the emergence of saving groups in the respective countries and what kind of target groups have potential for benefitting the services offered by savings groups. By mapping partner organisations, the feasibility study identifies present and potential partners and stakeholders which could play an essential role reaching out to target groups. Then, the study will inform partner organisations and other implementers about the legal framework in each country that allows them to set up Savings Groups accordingly and identify issues that might need advocacy actions. Finally, this report provides a mapping of risk factors and ways to mitigate risks for savings groups members that were applicable for all partner organizations.
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