MIGRATION AND GLOBAL SECURITY

To what Extent is Migration a Significant Threat to Global Security

To what Extent is Migration a Significant Threat to Global Security

Introduction

Immigration is a historical phenomenon, although it did assume some added characteristics after World War II. The simple portrayal of immigration is the movement of people who desire better life opportunities outside their place of origin. This definition comes with the stereotyping of the traditional actors involved in the process of migration, such as the sending country, the receiving country, and the socioeconomic migrant as opposed to the refugee. The catchword of globalization alerts us to some of the new conditions that were conducive for the novel shape of contemporary migration flows (Aristide, 2007). In this altered context, however, one can also depict a strong undercurrent that portrays immigration at the global scale as a polarized affair: The massive movement of humans across international borders has come to be regarded as one of the most intractable problems by affluent, Western democracies, especially in the post-Berlin Wall era.

Furthermore, since the events of September 11, 2001, international migration and, in particular, immigration, assumed the status of a major security issue. This impending sense of crisis is compounded by the fact that international migration has both voluntary and forced aspects, as well as a large clandestine part to it that almost overshadows its legal and legitimate dimensions. Since the early 1990s, along with the adoption of draconian measures to protect national borders, humanitarian obligations such as those towards refugees and the displaced have gradually been pushed to the back burner as a result (Buzan, 2008).

Understanding Migration

According to migrations systems theory, any migratory movement can be seen as the result of interacting macrostructures and microstructures. Macro structures include large-scale institutional factors such as global markets, interstate relationships, and the migration laws and policies of both sending and receiving countries. The evolution of an increasingly integrated world economy has clearly been a major determinant not only of labor migration but also of nation-building migrations and refugee flows (Castles, 2007). International relations and security considerations in both sending and receiving states are also increasingly significant (Cole, 2008). The single main determinant of migration, however, is probably still the laws and regulations imposed by states of receiving countries, in response to a wide range of economic, social, and political factors. Although international cooperation is increasingly important in migration policy, domestic considerations still play a dominant role (Duffield, 2007).

Microstructures refer to the informal social networks developed by migrants, in order to provide the information and cultural capital (such as knowledge of other countries, capabilities for organizing travel, finding work, and adapting to a new environment) needed to start and sustain migratory movements. Informal networks include friendships and personal relationships, families and households, and communities of various kinds. Informal networks bind “migrants and nonmigrants together in a complex web of social roles and interpersonal relationships” (Global Commission on International Migration, 2006). These bonds are double-sided: they link migrants with nonmigrants in their areas of origin, but also ...