Is there to be a river of blood?; how the securitization of migrants has been blown out of proportion…..
Since the end of the Cold War, it has been argued that “international migration has moved to the top of the international security agenda” (Adamson 2005:173). In what ways could migration be considered a security issue
Introduction
Imagine having to take up all of your savings to leave the country in the hopes of a better life?
Imagine having to put your family’s life at risk to provide a better life for them in a country that is so adamantly against them?
The circumstances that people endure to provide a better life for their families is absolutely unimaginable. Many of them either die or barely make it alive. Surely no human being can allow this to happen, unfortunately, many governments allow this to happen in the name of ‘security’. One can definitely ask the question; is migration really a security issue? This essay aims to analyse the security problems that migration brings and highlight how the securitization of migrants has been blown out of proportion.
Migration posing a threat to societal security
“Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. So where are you? Well, wherever you are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. I don’t want you here, in the room or my country.” “Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back.” (Clapton,1976)
These words were immortalized by British rock singer, Eric Clapton during a concert in 1976. He strongly felt that Britain should be ‘kept white’ and that the UK should stop ‘inviting people in as cheap labour and keeping them in ghettos’. People like Clapton were insecure and angry at a phenomenon that was completely new to them; immigration. The issue of social insecurity was developed in an attempt to identify situations that were a ‘threat in identity terms’ (Weaver,1993).
Several Western countries have borne witness to the surge of immigration and the multiculturalism that came along with it. This resulted in the changing definition of a homogenous social identity which made people frightened of any change to the collective identity. This issue is an individual, subjective threat rather than a national objective threat.
One cannot discuss this subject without bringing in British Conservative MP, Enoch Powell. He wrote the famous speech, Rivers of Blood in which he compared immigration to the ‘river Tiber foaming at the mouth with blood’ (Whipple, 2009). His rather grim and racist foreshadowing of what Britain is to be with the influx of immigrants was popular with roughly 74% and 67% of the nation (Whipple,2009).
While one can perceive this as a legitimate security threat, it is important to remember that Powell was very clear in his definition of “Britishness” which was ‘white’ (Whipple,2009). A similar phenomenon was seen in Australia as Geoffrey Blainey had some harsh remarks about the influx of Asian immigrants in Australia. He described immigration as a ‘cult’ and that it is merely the ‘ wooing of Asia and the shunning of Britain’ (Blainey,1984).
Despite countries like Britain and Australia claiming to be ‘multicultural’, there is still a requirement for migrants to assimilate to a certain degree like speaking English and adapting to the laws of the land. By migrants refusing to assimilate, this ends up taking a toll on societal and governmental security.
However, for many migrants, especially migrants of colour, assimilation takes on a different meaning. While assimilation is commonly defined as the cultures of different groups of people being absorbed into the dominant culture (Pauls,2021), to these groups of people, assimilation means to find, learn, and accept one’s place in the racial order ( Chomsky,2009). In summary, assimilation for these people means downward mobility which can lead to plenty of other problems like addiction and a rise in crime rates.
In many European countries like France and Germany, immigrants are forced to assimilate in all aspects of life to not be perceived as ‘threatening’. The problem of multiculturalism is brought to further prominence when migrants refuse to assimilate into the host country. Many European countries place the success of integration when it comes to the successes and triumphs of immigrant communities. The French National Team prides itself on diversity and the success of creating a French identity (Downing, 2019). However, when there are shortcomings, migrants are automatically disassociated and side-lined on the basis of race (Downing,2019).
In conclusion, the issue of societal insecurity due to migration is heavily constructed. The assumption that immigrants do not assimilate is completely false as immigrants do assimilate which means being forced to accept their racial order in society (Chomsky,2009). A lot of the sentiments about immigrants come from a colonialist way of thinking and the notion that the homogenous social identity is being destroyed.
Migration being an economic security threat
Migration can also bring about economic insecurity to the sending and the receiving states respectively. While there are plenty of advantages that migration brings to the economy of a country such as a more flexible labour market, increased economic growth, solves a skill shortage, and fills undesirable job vacancies are just some of the many advantages of immigration to the recipient state (Pettinger,2020). However, immigration also brings about plenty of disadvantages to both parties.
Labour migration is seen as a problem for both the sending and recipient states. For the sending states, there is a problem of ‘brain drain’ which is when migrants emigrate from the country which can potentially bring about the problem of structural unemployment in receiving countries due to the difficulty of native-born workers to find jobs in other fields (Pettinger,2020). However, it is rather partisan to just mention brain drain as brain gain is also a factor that has to be considered (Carr et al., 2005). Brain gain is when immigrants gain skills when migrants return to their countries of origin (Carr et al., 2005).
Another issue that migration can potentially bring is the pressure on public services (Pettinger,2020). Services such as schools, public transport, and hospitals undergo an immense strain especially due to the lack of investment in these aspects can cause a lot of strong sentiments amongst native-borns. This was seen at the height of the pandemic in Australia when Scott Morrison mentioned that migrants are not a part of the financial aid plan and those who cannot support themselves should leave the country (Farbenblum and Berg, 2020). Despite migrants making up roughly 10% of the Australian workforce, migrants were still treated with scorn and disgust.
Migrants are most likely to be scapegoated for any economic problems in the country. During the rally for Brexit, migrants were frequently scapegoated for the failing British economy and the decline in public services. Nigel Farage immediately pinned the blame on the EU’s policy of migrants. This similar sentiment was expressed by the Spanish far-right party, VOX. The party has been making up figures about the public paying roughly 4.700 Euros a month for unaccompanied migrant children (Blanco,2021). However, these countries fail to blame their failing economic policies for these problems and the media also does not help in this problem.
This is once again, not an issue of national concern but it is an individual one and it can be linked to societal insecurity. The language that is used by the media such as ‘economic threat’ for immigrants and ‘economic burden’ for refugees and asylum seekers have propagated this myth further (Eberl et al, 2018).
In conclusion, while immigration does bring about short-term problems which is mainly a brain drain in sending states, it is important to look at long-term benefits as well. The economic issue of immigration in receiving states has been perpetrated by the media hence escalating the issue further than it has. This is not a call for national concern and taking drastic action to exclude migrants from economic development can do a lot more catastrophe than good.
Migration being an internal security threat
The threat of internal security refers to issues that can affect the security of either the citizens or the country’s infrastructure. One of the most common presumptions is that immigrants are the main cause of terrorism. In the past, European countries were known to shelter radical clerics. The UK has seen the radicalization of many British Muslims and ended up spreading their extremist views all across the country (Williams and Mcdonald, 2018).
One of the most common presumptions is that immigrants are the main cause of terrorism. This speculation rose after the events of September 11th, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2015 Paris attacks. Combating immigration was brought to the primary focus of combatting terrorism. In the United States, PATRIOT ACT was established to strengthen border controls, tighten immigration laws and remove any foreigner who is suspected of terrorist behaviour. Similarly in France, Emmanuel Macron enacted an anti-terror law that allowed police raids into homes, restricted movement and the closure of radical religious sites.
Terrorism is indeed an internal security issue that needs to be brought to a national focus. However, the correlation between terrorism and migration needs to be heavily questioned. In a study done by Marc Helbling and Daniel Meirrieks (2020), there is no relationship between terrorism and immigration (Helbling and Meierrieks,2020). Even if migrants come from conflict zones, the Middle East or North Africa, there is still very little to no correlation between immigration from these countries and terrorism (Forrester et al.,2019)
The big factor that contributes to this premise is the media’s portrayal of immigrants. According to Tobar, ‘immigrant porn’ is the cause of the lack of diversity in the coverage of immigrants by journalists and editors (Tobar, 2017). When it was preassumed that the perpetrators either had immigrant origins or were immigrants themselves, far-right politicians seized the opportunity to perpetuate the fear of terrorism to villainise and securitize migrants.
Another threat that migration brings is political tension. The reason for this is the tensions that migration brings about tensions between sending and receiving states which can quickly escalate into violent conflicts (Williams and Mcdonald, 2018). Many migrants come to these countries as refugees and asylum seekers from countries with heavy violence and a fragile political system. This has been proven with the cases of Sri Lankan immigrants in India and Palestinian migrants in Arab countries which involved arming refugees and sometimes even involving armed forces.
While immigration has recorded cases of terrorist attacks in the past by giving radical Islamist clerics refuge, it is important to remember that mass immigration does not bring about terrorism. This has been disproven countless times. As for political tension, while there could be some potential problems, it is a duty to house people who need one. To securitize and reject migrants, one is doing more harm than good.
Migration being a threat to public security
The issue of public security is different to internal security. Public security refers to combatting threats such as drug abuse, increase in crime rate, damage to the public space through vandalism or littering, alcoholic crapulence and other issues relating to the public sphere.
There have been arguments of an increase in crime with the increase in immigration. This was illustrated in a study carried out in Catalonia where a higher crime rate was recorded for immigrant populations compared to native Spaniards (Westbrook,2012). The study also showed that crimes were committed amongst single men within 18 to 35 years old (Westbrook,2012). Hence, it is important to consider other demographic factors besides immigration status to obtain a better understanding.
However, the increasing crime rate has nothing to do with the immigrants themselves but it has everything to do with the factors that unevenly affects immigrants such as unemployment, economic strain and the role that the media and governmental policies play ( Westbrook,2012).
While there have been studies, like the one in Catalonia, which prove that there is a higher crime rate amongst immigrant populations. the correlation between increasing crime rates and immigration in other countries is either very weak or not at all.
In Malaysia, migrants help to decrease the crime rate as immigrants mainly come to Malaysia for economic opportunities (Ozden et al,2017). Another study was done by Michelle Sydes (2019) in Australia which found that migrants had no impact on crime rates in the country ( Sydes,2019). The increase in immigration brings about an increase in fear of crime which leads to xenophobic and racist stereotypes about migrants being ‘criminals’ (Nunziata,2015).
One of the other preassumed threats that immigrants bring is increased drug and alcohol consumption. This brings out plenty of negative sentiments about migrants, especially with the media’s portrayal of immigrants as ‘ low class’ which brought out the fear of migrants being alcoholics and drug addicts. However, this has been proven to be false as countless studies have observed no correlation between immigration, drunk driving and drug abuse (Wright, 2019). The reason for this is the potential risk for deportation and intense police surveillance (Wright,2019).
Another issue to internal security is the fear of migrants carrying disease. This is seen during the AIDS crisis when queer ethnic minorities are more likely to die from the disease with Black MSM’s being more likely to die from the disease than other minority groups. It has been nearly 4 decades and the death toll of queer immigrant men is still rising due to negligence, homophobia and racism.
There is also a recurring fear of migrants carrying disease. This is seen during the pandemic. Many Asians were ignored, scorned and even brutally attacked due to the ‘China Virus’. Several government leaders, like former president Donald Trump and the media, further fuelled this hatred with strong ‘anti-Asian’ language.
Currently, with the rise of the Omicron variant, this phenomenon is being seen once again as African nations are being placed on flight bans and African migrants are being scapegoated for a disease that was detected in Amsterdam (Bryson,2021). Immigration has nothing to do with the spreading of diseases at all. According to Maggie Fox (2018), migration does not cause disease, the conditions that immigrants live in are to blame for the rise of infections as well as the poor healthcare plan that many migrants get ( Fox,2018).
The issue of migrants threatening public security is once again something that cannot be entirely proven. While we have seen that the surge of immigrants contributes to a rising crime rate, other demographic factors need to be taken to account as well. The notion that immigrants spread disease and are alcoholics and addicts can be disputed with plenty of empirical studies. Portraying migrants based on far-right rhetoric and media representation does more harm than good in ensuring the security of immigrants.
Conclusion
‘I remember immigration getting my parents taken away for a little bit. The restaurant closed down, of course. My brother was getting food for me when I was hungry. ( Poernomo,2020)
To conclude, the majority of the conjectures about migration being a potential security threat are made based on subjectivity, colonialist stereotypes and the rising far-right rhetoric. All of these stereotypes can easily be disproven with empirical evidence. It is important, now more than ever to uplift the stories of immigrants to change this perspective and look beyond just their immigration status. By doing this, one can see the struggle of migrants to make a potentially life-threatening trip to have a life that is better than theirs, to have a life like you. If you present opportunities to people, you can truly see the greatness that is produced but if you take them away, it is truly a great shame.
Remember they are more than just migrants, they are people too…
Note: Naarm, is also known as Melbourne!
( For references, please feel free to ask the author)
( this was an assignment for a Year 2 module: International Security by Dr Julia Roknifard)
