Resistance to granting refugee status to individuals often originates in the belief that the influx of refugees endangers national security because of the presumably extremist ideological beliefs refugees hold. The popularity of such narratives says more about the psychology of those who endorse them rather than about the refugees themselves, given that little evidence supports their validity. The present research by Katarzyna Jasko, David Webber, Erica Molinario, Arie Kruglanski, and Katherine Touchton-Leonard surveyed Syrian refugees residing in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq. The results revealed that the majority of surveyed refugees did not intend to migrate to the West and would rather return to their home country. More importantly, refugees most interested in moving to Western countries were the least likely to subscribe to Islamic extremism, or to harbor negative sentiment toward the West. In general, the majority of surveyed refugees did not support political violence, particularly when the questions about its use referred to the Western context.
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