When he saw the video, Luqman Saeed knew what was coming. A lecturer at Ulster University in Belfast, he¡¯s spent more than a decade studying how conflicts start and how people are driven to radical ideologies and violent ends. He moved from Pakistan to the U.K. in 2018, and to Northern Ireland¡¯s capital, Belfast, in 2022.
For the past two summers, he¡¯s seen anti-migration protests turn into riots on Northern Irish streets, and listened as the U.K.¡¯s political conversation has drifted rightward. Saeed argues that some mainstream politicians and elements of the media have increasingly normalized the idea that immigration is ¡°a threat, and needs to be tackled,¡± creating an environment primed for violence. All it takes, says Saeed, is what social scientists call an ¡°information shock,¡± an incident to trigger an extreme reaction.
¡°There¡¯s a baseline level of anxiety about immigration,¡± Saeed says. ¡°In this particular environment, if any tragic incident happens and the perpetrator happens to be somebody of color, that¡¯s the information shock.¡±
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