Publications

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Between 2013 and 2019, more than 1,000 mostly young people left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. BICC Working Paper 1\2021 addresses the question of how to counter the security threat posed by these returnees.
Among other things, Germany is pursuing the path of resocialisation: Exit and reintegration measures are intended to enable these persons to find their way back into society. Such measures are implemented both by government programmes and civil society organisations.
In BICC Working Paper 1\2021, author Tim Röing examines how professionals from such organisations carry out this task and what obstacles they face in doing so. To explain this, the paper presents the entire process, from the return of former jihadists from the conflict zone, to their psychological and social reintegration after their arrival in Germany, to the completion of the exit process, and examines the challenges this poses for social work and prevention. This includes special aspects of casework such as dealing with traumatisation, the needs of underage returnees, work in detention centres and addressing extremist ideologies.
The study shows that although professionals see themselves as being up to their task professionally, they face some structural challenges. These include project funding that is limited in time and money, a lack of therapeutic capacities and coordination problems with the judicial authorities when working with detained returnees.