Religion, Immigration, and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism

Fidel Azazi will discuss contemporary immigration in the West from Muslim-majority countries and the dramatic cultural shift contributing to a major change in Europe and the United States. Such change has paved the way for right-wing populism to dominate the political landscape.

Azazi is a Lebanese social and political activist who has worked with the International Organization for Migration under the Humanitarian Admission Program for resettlement between 2013 and 2015. Then, he served as a protection officer at Oxfam Great Britain until 2017 providing social safety interventionist programs to refugees. By mid-2017, he was assigned to a ten-month emergency program at the UN Refugee Agency, providing counseling for newly-arrived refugees.

He is currently completing a joint Master’s degree program from Université La Sagesse in Beirut and Université de Paris-Sud in Paris. His thesis is entitled “The Repercussions of the Migration Crises in the West: The Rise of Populism and Its Impact on Multiculturalism.”

Azazi was an active member of the Civil Secular Society Movement in Lebanon and has been a member of NOSHA since his arrival in the United States earlier this year.