Recent years’ terrorist attacks in Europe and the flow of foreign fighters joining the terrorist organisation Daesh, has made the understanding of radicalisation evermore crucial. This thesis investigates if push and pull factors leading into violent Islamic extremism differentiate between men and women. Furthermore, it assesses how preventive measures from The United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark targets push and pull factors and if these are sensitive to sex. To fulfil this objective an exploratory thematic analysis was used to synthesise secondary qualitative research surrounding push and pull factors. The push and pull factor analysis revealed three trends: there were limited variation in the overall categories describing the push and pull factors present for men and women; what caused push and pull factors to manifest differed according to sex; and, there were differences in how much men and women were affected by these factors. The assessment of prevention measures showed that none of the measures explicitly mentioned push and pull factors, yet they all had the potential of targeting these. Sex was included in some aspects of the measures, but was not a consideration in relation to the targeting of push and pull factors. The thesis ends with a discussion of what implications the found results have for practice and offers suggestions to how prevention measures can be improved.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the various reasons that have contributed to the decisionof international students not to return to their home countries after completing their studies, with a focus on students from Rwanda, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The study will include information about student’s home countries to provide a greater understanding of where they come from and how this has contributed to the decisions they have made. The push and pull factor theory will help to understand the different reasons why people choose to immigrate instead of staying in their home countries and what becomes a pull factor in the whole process. To gain even more insight into the students' choice not to return home, semistructured interviews with the 10 individuals will become important. By interviewing the 10 individuals from Rwanda, Nigeria, and Cameroon, one could tell that the countries have had amajor impact on the students' choice not to return home. Results showed that many chose not to return home because of the political instability that council in their home countries, some also felt living a life where they did not have to worry about tomorrow was an important factor in not going back home. The conclusion drawn was that countries were losing talented people because of their inability to put the needs of their citizens first.