IMF liberalization policies created the educated but economically marginalized youth who fueled Islamism
Evidence
By 1975, with urbanization and literacy growing steadily, 60 percent of the population was under the age of twenty-four. While these youth, who hailed mostly from families that had recently moved to the cities, had access to education thanks to the reforms instituted by the secular nationalists, they had few opportunities for economic advancement. In some cases, states offered jobs to new graduates and were able to absorb a number of them into roles as state bureaucrats. Yet even this avenue became tenuous as IMF policies of liberalization and government cuts instituted in countries like Egypt and Algeria lowered salaries for intellectual bureaucrats, who then had to find second jobs as taxi drivers or night watchmen to survive. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 340
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Grosfoguel and Rana on how imperial economic policies produce the very populations later framed as threats. — connects to: Post-war economic collapse forced Somalia to accept IMF liberalisation — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 606; Western banks and Chicago-school neoliberals financed the rise of Islamism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 241; Islamism rose from secular nationalist failure, left weakness, and economic crises — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 323 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Structural adjustment opened political space that Islamists filled with welfare services
#expands(0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 339 - Islamism rose from secular nationalist failure, left weakness, and economic crises
#qualifies(0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 323 - US counterterrorism policies radicalized disaffected Somali youth into insurgency
#exemplifies(0.50) — Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky, 250