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Changing global perceptions of Afghan traders

Magnus Marsden’s research challenges false assertions and shows the commercial and diplomatic skills of Afghan traders. The global media and influential international policy-making organisations depict transnational Afghan traders as Islamic militants or criminals. This caricature influences policymakers and publics negatively.

 

Magnus’ research story

Magnus has conducted research relating to Afghan traders for over twenty years. After arriving at Sussex in 2013, he conducted research on Afghan trading networks in Central Asia. Between 2015 and 2020, Magnus explored the dynamics of the Chinese international trading city of Yiwu – a commercial hub to which traders from across the world, including Afghanistan, travel in order to procure commodities for export. Afghans form an especially important trading community in Yiwu.

Between 2022 and 2025, he conducted research with religious minorities from Afghanistan, especially Sikhs, Hindus, and Jews, historically involved in the country’s trading dynamics. His research is multi-sited: in addition to spending time in Afghanistan, Central Asia and China he also visited traders in the UK, the USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.

Magnus’ research has brought recognition to the ways in which groups not previously recognised as important for modern Asia’s economic globalisation by scholars or policy makers have, in fact, been central to the economic dynamics of several countries.

Magnus has advised governments at various levels, from the local to the national, in the UK, Europe, and Asia, and in doing so supported the activities of Afghan traders and the networks they form. He has also written both individual and generic ‘expert reports’ in support of asylum claims made by Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in the UK which have been used in more than 20 asylum cases to date.

By writing articles and providing interviews for wider audiences in publications such as The BBC, The Conversation and Wired, and by speaking at community events, he has also sought to create recognition within civil society of the multi-faceted economic and diplomatic roles played by Afghan traders.

In his collaborative work with Afghan photographer Moska Najib, Magnus has also helped to shift public perceptions of Afghans at home and abroad, thereby facilitating improved dialogue between traders from the country and policy-makers in multiple countries.

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