Stereotypes towards jihad returnees in France: intention as a determinant of reintegration

Since 2014–2015, several military interventions have been carried out against the terrorist group ISIS by the international coalition, resulting in significant defeats for the group. Consequently, individuals who had joined jihad in the Iraqi-Syrian region, known as “jihad returnees”, began returning to their home countries. These returns raise a certain number of questions which are partly the subject of the study presented in this article. This qualitative and exploratory study aims to achieve two goals: examining French stereotypes of jihad returnees insofar as they impact upon intergroup relations and discriminatory behaviour, with a focus on differences of perception between men, women, and children returnees; and exploring behaviours and emotions associated with these stereotypes, considering the perceived intentionality. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with French nationals. Lexicometric analyses were performed on the corpus of interviews. Drawing on the Continuum Model of impression formation and the Stereotype Content Model, the study highlights how automatic categorisations and dimensions of warmth and competence structure perceptions of returnees. The results suggest disparate perceptions of jihad returnees, who are associated with various social groups. Among these groups, the perception of the returnee is assimilated to a combination of the Muslim and the terrorist stereotypes. Moreover, the data underscored the importance of intention in attitudes, as well as a continuum in the intention attributed, according to the age and life experience of the returnees.