Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad ISSN: 1852-8759 [email protected] Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Argentina Humphrey, Michael Securitization of Migration: an Australian case study of global trends Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad, vol. 6, núm. 15, agosto- noviembre, 2014, pp. 83-98 Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=273231878007 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad www.relaces.com.ar Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad. N°15. Año 6. Agosto 2014 - Noviembre 2014. Argentina. ISSN: 1852-8759. pp. 83-98. Securitization of Migration: an Australian case study of global trends* El aseguramiento contra la migración: Un estudio de las tendencias globales a partir del caso australiano Michael Humphrey** University of Sydney [email protected] Abstract Post September 11 migration has increasingly been framed as a security problem. In the 2010 Australian election campaign migration was connected to security (defense of our borders, terrorism and social cohesion) and to related issues of insecurity about the future (population size, sustainability and economic growth). This framing of migration as a national security issue overlooks the reality that Australian immigration is part of the global flow of population. Migration is an international issue experienced by states as a national question of border control and sovereignty seeking to manage the consequences of global inequality and mobility. This paper analyses the 'security turn' in mi - gration debates in Australia and the North and the way the securitization of migration signifies the transformation of security from the problem of producing national order to the problem of managing global disorder resulting in the merging of national and international security strategies. 4 1 Keywords: Migration; Securitization; Hypergovernance; Australia; Transnationalization. 0 2 e r b m e i v Resumen o N - Luego de los acontecimientos del 11 de Septiembre, la migración se ha enmarcado cada vez más como un problema 4 1 0 2 de seguridad. En la campaña electoral australiana en 2010, la migración estaba conectada con la seguridad (defensa o t de nuestras fronteras, terrorismo y cohesión social) y con cuestiones vinculadas con la inseguridad sobre el futuro s o g A (tamaño de la población, sostenibilidad y crecimiento económico). Este tratamiento de la migración como un asunto , 8 9 de seguridad nacional pasa por alto la realidad de que la inmigración australiana es parte del flujo global de población. - 3 8 La migración es un asunto internacional experienciado por los Estados como una cuestión nacional de control de las . p , 6 fronteras y la soberanía que busca gestionar las consecuencias de las desigualdades mundiales y la movilidad. Este ̃ o n A trabajo analiza el ‘giro de seguridad’ en los debates sobre migración en Australia y el Norte, y las formas en que el , 5 1 aseguramiento contra la migración significa la transformación de la seguridad desde el problema de producir un ° N , orden nacional al problema de la gestión del desorden global que resulta de la fusión de estrategias de seguridad a b o nacionales e internacionales. d ́ r o C , D Palabras clave: Migración; Securitización; Hiper-gobernanza; Australia; Transnacionalización. A D E I C O S Y S E N O I C * O An earlier version of this paper was published as Humphrey, Michael. 2013. “Migration, security, insecurity." Journal of Intercultural M E , Studies 34(2):178-195. S ** O BA Hons, PhD (Macq); Professor MichaelHumphrey holds a Chair in Sociology in the Department of Sociology andSocial Policy at the P R E University of Sydney. U C [83 ] Cuerpos, Emociones y Sociedad Securitization of Migration: an Australian case study of global trends Introduction governments to frame and give priority to public policy targeting existential threats (Buzan et al.,1998: 25). After the international terrorist attacks on 11 The securitization of migration, the construc - September 2001 international migration has increa - tion of migration as risk, is an expression of the glo - singly been framed as a security problem in the West. balization of security to manage the new threats of Borders and entry have become first and foremost an international crime and terrorism post-September issue of security. At national borders immigration ser - 11.Securitization is ‘a political technique of framing vices no longer merely scrutinise the validity of docu - policy questions in logics of survival with a capacity to ments and grant permission to enter but provide mobilize politics of fear in which social relations are ‘border protection’ by assessing the risk of passengers structured on the basis of distrust’ (Huysmans, 2006: as potential criminals, terrorists or visa over-stayers xi). Securitization policy is state-centric and reflects based on their documents, security profiling, biome - the rationality of political elites and security profes - trics and matrix of databanks. Internationally North sionals (Karyotis, 2012).It has become emblematic of borders are increasingly militarised to control unwan - the anxieties of state sovereignty seeking to manage ted entry. The Australian government’s military opera - migration as an expression of globalization - control 4 1 tions to ‘stop the boats’ on the high seas (Morrison, borders, plan population growth, promote social co - 0 2 e r 2013), the Texas governor’s deployment of the National hesion and support (middle class) sustainability. Each b m e Guard in response to the arrival over a period of 6 of these issues refers to the national capacity to order i v o months 57,000 minors from Central America 1 and Fron - and regulate the population and, integral to that, to N - 4 tex’s militarization of the Mediterraneanto contain mi - derive legitimacy from being seen to care for and pro - 1 0 2 gration from Africa are all examples of the enhanced tect citizens and determine entitlement. Framing mi - o t s o militarization of North borders. The security function gration as a ‘security’ issue gives it political priority g A , 8 of the state has expanded beyond national defense and justifies extraordinary legal, policing and policy 9 - 3 8 through military preparedness to encompass the pro - measures to manage it (Leonard, 2007). By making . p , tection of citizens through the intensification of survei - migration a security problem migrants are constituted 6 ̃ o n llance of our organizationally and technologically as the object of policies directed at managing risk. It A , 5 complex societies to manage public anxiety about un - misrecognizes structural issues such as refugee flows, 1 ° N , certainty. Agencies whose functions were once regar - urban riots, crime, unemployment and welfare de - a b o ded as marginal to state security (immigration, pendency as the attributes of migrants which need to d ́ r o C customs, ambulance) have now become integral to it be policed and regulated. Blaming migrants becomes , D A and their officers/officials increasingly publicly encoun - a strategy of governance to produce social cohesion, D E I C tered as security-like in their ready-for-action dress. Se - mobilize political support and claim political legiti - O S Y curity has become a pervasive discourse of macy. Moreover at the margins cultural and racial dif - S E N ference are used to define sovereignty and delineate O I C a state of exception for those seennot to deserve the O 1 M ‘Texas Governor Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 troops to Mexican E same protection of the law. , S border’, The Guardian 22 July 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/ O Securitization frames migration as a national P world/2014/jul/21/texas-governor-rick-perry-troops- R E mexico(accessed 22 July 2014). issue concerned with determining ‘who comes here’ U C [84 ] Michael Humphrey (controlling borders), enforcing visa requirements (lo - gent patterns of governmentality revealed in the se - cating overstayers), selecting the ‘best’ migrants, and curitization of migrants and migration. It considers the policing social categories as risk management. Howe - Australian experience of the securitization of migrants ver in reality migration, the large scale transnational and migration through a focus on Muslims migrants flow of populations, is an international issue challen - and refugees as transnationalized categories and ging the capacity of individual states to manage the identifies parallel processes targeting these same mi - impact of big structural questions: global inequality, grant categories in Europe. The paper draws on the transnational social mobility and displacement of the author’s extensive research on Muslims and Islam in most vulnerable as a result of economic crisis, envi - Australia as well as comparative research on Australia ronmental degradation and war. The ‘security turn’ in and Europe (Humphrey, 1998; 2000; 2002; 2005; relation to migration signifies the transformation of 2007;2009; 2010).While the empirical focus is on Aus - security from the problem of producing national tralia the policies and practices of the securitization order to the problem of managing global disorder. Na - of migration are found at all North-South borders. tionally governance has combined security (policing, Theoretically the paper extends Watson (2011)’s in - surveillance) with the management of citizen insecu - sight about the emergence of securitization as signif - rity and public perceptions of danger. Transnationally, ying a crisis in institutionalized forms of security by the state has outsourced security to other states, to tracing the externalization of security with respect to security professionals, corporations, international migrants and migration. agencies and NGOs (Bigo, 2008) for them to manage unwanted immigrants through containment.