Titles and Abstracts

ESRC Conference “Whose Security? Migration-(In)security Dliemmas 10 years after 9/11”Paper Titles and Abstracts

Chris Allen, Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham (C.Allen2@bham.ac.uk)

“All Muslims are the Same”: from External Others to Homegrown Bombers

In Frank Furedi’s Culture of fear: risk-taking and the morality of low expectation, he notes that following the 9/11 attacks the Los Angeles Times wrote that the ‘next big thing’ was likely to be fear[1]. As he went on, in today’s Western societies the defining feature of this fear will be the “belief that humanity is confronted by powerful destructive forces that threaten our everyday existence”[2]. In Britain, this sense of fear was further catalysed by the attacks on the London transport system on the morning of 7th July 2005 (7/7). This paper seeks to consider how this threat to ‘our everyday existence’ has been manifested, exploring the way in which the notion of a fear of and threat posed by Muslims and Islam has influenced and shaped British discourses about Muslims and Islam over the past decade or so. One central feature of this has been the aligning of all Muslims as a homogenous entity, all reduced of difference or diversity irrespective of location Muslims. Consequently, all Muslims are seen to have the same attributes, characteristics and capabilities. This paper will reflect on the wider socio-political ramifications of these discourses, considering both the political and policy spaces - counter-terror and immigration for instance – as also the public spaces, where anti-Muslim, anti-Islamic and Islamophobic attitudes and expressions have been noted as being increasingly normalised.

[1] Furedi Frank, Culture of fear: risk-taking and the morality of low expectation. London, Continuum, 2002, p.vii.

[2] ibid.

Leah Bassel, University of Leicester (lb235@leicester.ac.uk) & Akwugo Emejulu, University of Edinburgh (akwugo.emejulu@ed.ac.uk)

Solidarity in Tough Times: Minority Women in Third Sector Spaces in France and the UK

In this paper we suggest that the ability for minority women to articulate and take action on ‘intersectional’ social justice claims within third sector spaces is under threat because these claims may well be silenced and/or misrecognised due to the prevailing marketised logic of the sector. We situate this work within the paradox of simultaneous acceptance and dissent that characterizes the current economic crisis, a ‘disaffected consent’ that demonstrates a contradictory field of political forces put into motion by austerity strategies (Jeremy Gilbert in Clarke and Newman 2012). In our study of third sector spaces in Scotland, England and France, specifically anti-poverty, housing and migration NGOs, we have identified the concept and practice of ‘enterprise’ as a dominant ideological frame for action. By enterprise, we mean that the logic of free market relations had penetrated and embedded itself into the rationale and practices of the third sector in these three countries. Principles of competition, the accumulation of assets and the commodification of services and products offered by NGOs had either been imposed onto individual organisations by the local or national state, or organisations had actively adopted these ideas in order to survive austerity or, in some cases, resisted or subverted these processes. The marketisation of relations in the third sector, while not new, has continued apace during the crisis. Our concern is to understand, in this unstable political field, what the marketisation of the NGO sector means for the most marginalised groups in France and the UK—minority women. We explore the challenges of solidarity by and for those at the intersection of multiple forms of inequality and insecurity.

Rino Colucello, Coventry University (lsx114@coventry.ac.uk)

The Architecture of the Human Trade between Asia and Europe

Smuggling and trafficking in persons is ipso facto illegal. Is this criminal activity organised or diffuse? This paper questions whether a correlation exists between the claim of a rise in organised crime in Asia (UNODC 2010) and increased incidence of people smuggling (and trafficking) from Asia to Europe with specific reference to the East Mediterranean route. This route starts in Asia, Central Asia or the Horn of Africa and ends in Greece and Italy via Turkey.

The Greek border accounted for around over 90% of detections of the illegal border-crossing in 2010 and 70% in 2012. Greece (and Italy) are still the hotspots for illegal migration into the EU because many migrants coming from Asia, but not only, intend on transiting through both countries to settle in other Member States. Two recent major operations conducted by the Italian anti-mafia unit and the state police suggest trans-national criminal organisation of the trade. However, independent academic research warns against an assumption of centralised organised crime organisations to the exclusion of a wide range of smaller criminal enterprises which are part of complex and fluid networks. The paper aims to cast light on how people are smuggled and trafficked from Asia to Europe. Its chief objective is to provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in the human trade. A better knowledge of the processes involved is vital if domestic, regional and international authorities and bodies are to counter the practice and/or to formalise it.

Anca Loredana Enache, University of Helsinki (ancaenache2003@yahoo.ca)

Finland and the Roma Migrants in a Time of Economic Crisis: Constructing Otherness, Threats and Securitization of Migration

The migration of the Romanian Roma as asylum- seekers during 1999-2000 and as migrants from 2006 to the present day, has generated an intense political and societal debate, as well as actual policies and anti-immigration discourses against Roma. This paper examines how and under what conditions the migrants came to be identified as the ‘ others’, ‘ante portas’, as well as threats to the public order and security. Firstly, the different measure and policies which have contributed to the construction of migrant communities as criminals, agents of instability and insecurity in the society and among communities, will be explored, in the light of the nation state’s dilemmas, continuities and discontinuities as well as an expression of the increasing trend of nationalism in Finland. The economic and political crisis in Europe, after 2008, is seen as an essential drive beyond the security developments in Finland. Secondly, empirically the
paper draws on argumentations and data gathered among Roma migrants, civil society and experts in the field and emphasises the construction of ‘otherness ‘among individuals and communities, in the context of gender, class, ethnicity, and legal status. The paper uses a feminist approach and stands for rethinking human mobility in the context of fundamental rights and freedoms.

Liz Fekete: Institute of Race Relations, London (liz@irr.org.uk)

Migration, Racism and the Security State

The war on terror has led to the securitisation not just of immigration,but an assimilationist approach to BME communities has been brought in under the guise of countering the excesses of the 'state-doctrine of multiculturalism'. In her contribution, Liz Fekete will talk about what an assimilationist-based minority policy entails in practice - drawing particular attention first to the creation of a 'shadow criminal justice system' for Muslims beyond the ordinary rule of law, and then to the vulnerability of young adults without full citizenship rights as social and justice policies become securitised, and deportation presents itself as a solution to the crisis in Europe's overcrowded prisons. As Europe is gripped by the rise of nativist and fascist movements, and Europe embraces aspects of its authoritarian past, Liz asks whether it is possible for democracy to co-exist alongside a Security State.

Don Flynn: Migrants Rights Network, London (Don.Flynn@migrantsrights.org.uk)

The Storms Ahead: Plotting a Course for the Politics of Migrants’ Rights during Turbulent Times

Despite the strength of the momentum behind the call for a solution to the ‘problem’ of migration based on stricter policing and exclusion from social rights there is no real belief that its right wing supporters will succeed in bringing the movement of people under control in the foreseeable future. The years ahead promise to be a continuation of those immediately behind, with migration facilitated by niche businesses struggling to survive in the ultra-competitive conditions of a post-industrial economy even as it is opposed in strident terms by the political mainstream.

The outcome will be the continuation of migration at levels which embarrass governments and their supporters but in conditions which make it extremely difficult for migrants to overcome disadvantage in the sectors in which they are concentrated. The existence of discontent amongst these groups, combined with the potential for localised explosions of anger frustration by other victims of growing poverty, will be taken up in the centre-right discourse as evidence of the need for evermore security in dangerous and turbulent times.

This presentation will consider the opportunities that will exist to challenge the logic of the centre-right security agenda and to propose instead a rights-based approach to immigration policy. It will ask what factors will be present in the years ahead which will make this a plausible appeal to public thinking and who the potential allies will be who will give it greater weight and force.

Mary Hickman: St Mary’s University College London & London Metropolitan University (mary.hickman@smuc.ac.uk)

‘Suspect Communities’ at Centre of Counter-Productive Policy Approach: Comparing Irish and Muslim Experiences in Britain

Present in most discussions and representations of ‘community cohesion’ is the spectra of the ‘suspect community’ that threatens the way of life of the tolerant British people. This paper explores the impacts of practices of suspectification on the everyday lives of people assumed to be Irish or Muslim and more generally on social cohesion. It examines how Irish and Muslim people in Britain have become aware of and have experienced themselves to be members of ‘suspect communities’ in relation to counter-terrorism discourses and policies, between 1974-2007.

Mogens Hobolth: London School of Economics (M.H.Hobolth@lse.ac.uk)

Wanted and Unwanted Travellers: Explaining Variation in the Openness of the European Union's External Border

Security theory plays a central role in contemporary analyses of European migration control. So far, however, the framework has not been subjected to systematic, comparative empirical testing nor has the strength of potential alternative explanations been assessed. In addition, the explanatory purchase of the approach has recently been put into question as authors have pin-pointed events seemingly at odds with theoretical expectations. This paper seeks to advance the debate through a large-N analysis of variation in the openness of Europe's external border to short-term visitors. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset detailing the visa requirements, issuing practices and consular services of EU destination states it conducts a test of the security explanation contrasted with an alternative interest group perspective. I show that business interests have a liberalizing impact on the European visa regime. Yet variation in the barriers to mobility imposed by EU states remains first and foremost explainable by a fear of immigration. Against recent critics this paper thus argues that security theory continues to provide the most convincing account of variation in the restrictiveness of border control practices in Europe.

Eleanor Kofman: Social Policy Research Centre, Middlesex University (E.Kofman@mdx.ac.uk)

Family Migration, Gender and Integration Discourses

Family migrants are disproportionately female and often, implicitly and explicitly, in Europe associated with unskilled migrants from rural areas and/or Muslim countries. It has been suggested that the third country national family in the Europe Union is seen as being out of control, and in contrast to the pillars of secularism and gender equality, upon which a liberal society defines itself, is therefore in need of intervention and resocialisation. Thus increasingly policies of integration at the border target women migrants as family migrants. The introduction of pre-admission tests for family migrants in a number of EU states, such as the Netherlands (2006), Germany (2007), the UK (2010) and Austria (2011), demonstrates the ever closer relationship of integration with admissions policies in Europe.

In this presentation I seek to explain why migrant women have moved from the periphery and invisibility to the centre of debates and policies on immigration and integration policies. I outline the growing concern since the late 1990s about migrant women’s problematic integration and the need to protect them as a vulnerable group. These representations of failed integration amongst vulnerable populations has generated calls for intervention into family migration which then been translated into concrete admissions policies. In particular the centrality of forced marriage as a catalyst for intervening in family migration policy is striking.

The analysis is in part based on the European Integration Fund project Promoting Sustainable Policies for Integration which examined the relationship between admissions and subsequent integration policies for permanent residence and citizenship.

Maria Margaronis, London Correspondent The Nation (NY), (maria@thenation.com)

Greece: Crisis, Migration Policy and the Rise of Golden Dawn

Greece has been on the front line of the European crisis; it is also a major entry point to the European Union for refugees and undocumented migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Because of the failures of both Greek and European policy, many of these migrants find themselves trapped in Greece, living in near destitution among increasingly impoverished citizens. The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn has exploited this situation, winning 18 seats in parliament and coming third in national opinion polls; it has also infiltrated sections of the police, who generally tolerate and sometimes participate in racist violence. The governing coalition, particularly its leading party, New Democracy, has not only failed to contain Golden Dawn but has encouraged xenophobia through its policies and rhetoric. Why is this happening in Greece, and what might Europe learn from it?

Natalka Patsiurko, University of Aberdeen(natalka.patsiurko@abdn.ac.uk)

Exclusion, Identity and Migration: Migration Aspirations of Minorities on the new EU borders

It is often assumed that economic factors (better wages, better living conditions) are the principal reasons for migration. Conversely, the deteriorating economic conditions in developed western countries should lead to outflow of migrant workers back to their countries of origin. Our research challenges these simplistic economic-based assumptions and shows that migration aspirations are often linked with the questions of identity. Analysing the data from the recent FP-7 Research Project ‘ENRI-East: Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: Nations between the States along the New Eastern Borders of the European Union’, completed in 2012, this paper argues that migration aspirations for several ethnic minorities in countries across the 2004 borders of the EU are strongly interwoven with the patterns of their identity and the relationships with majority populations of these countries. If the relationship between minorities and majorities is not openly confrontational, minorities are likely to engage in regional migration to kin-states nearby and are not necessarily open to supra-national European identities. If, on the other hand, the relationship between minority and majority is strained, migration might represent an ‘exit’ option for such excluded minorities. Hence economic recession is not going to automatically lead to decrease of migration among these minorities. In this case, they are not only likely to continue migrating, but are also increasingly likely to embrace European identity as a symbol of inclusion and citizenship. Thus, Europeanization and cosmopolitization of minority identities in Europe might improve minority integration, and migration in this case improves the integration of minorities, rather than making it problematic.

Kerstin Rosenow-Williams, Ruhr University Bochum (kerstin.rosenow@rub.de)

Security for whom? Islamic organizations and the German state after 9/11

John Solomos, City University (J.Solomos@city.ac.uk)

Racism, Migration and Multiculture: a Crisis of Integration in Contemporary Europe?

In the first two decades of the 21st Century we have seen the emergence of new policies and public discourses about issues such as immigration, race relations and the integration of black and minority ethnic communities. In Britain and in other European societies the economic and social crisis that has shaped the current period has led to much talk about ‘a crisis of multiculturalism’. Concerns about immigration and minority ethnic communities have been part of the political mobilisations of both extreme right-wing and neo-fascist movements. In this paper we shall focus on the impact of the current crisis on migration and questions about the integration of minority communities within the context of contemporary Europe. In a number of countries public debates have focused on specific groups, such as Muslim migrants and minorities of irregular migrants. More generally we have seen the mobilisation of collective fears about the social and cultural consequences of growing diversity, evidenced for example in debates about the impact of ‘super-diversity’ on social cohesion. In exploring key facets of these debates the paper will also seek to uncover their likely impact on policy and political agendas in the current period.

Emanuele Toscano, Guglielmo Marconi University, Rome

(Emanuele.toscano@uniroma1.it)

Immigration, Racism and Xenophobia in Italy after 9/11

This presentation will focus on changes which have occurred in Italy over the last ten years regarding racism and xenophobia against immigrants. Since the Twin Towers attack, it is possible to identify three different periods: 1) Anti-Islamic phase, animated mainly by the Northern League Party, 2) The rhetoric of security phase, fed by the government of the Right 3) The crisis and austerity phase, in which the extreme right plays a key role. The different racist and xenophobic discourses will be analysed mainly focusing on the third one. In particular, we will analyse the rise of the CasaPound movement, in the Italian extreme right scene, and its positions regarding immigration, affirmation of rights, and multicultural society. CasaPound counterposes what it calls multiracist society to the cultural, political and social perspectives. From the political point of view, the intensification of migration is seen as the failure on the part of national states to protect their citizens. From a cultural point of view, the multiracist society model is considered to be – by the Casapound movement activists - the outcome of a process that destroys and standardizes cultural differences, leveled out under the pressure exerted by globalization. From a social point of view, migration is opposed because it entails the lowering of rights and protections of all individuals. In particular, immigrants are considered as the new slaves of global society, instrumental for the business system, for the dealings and interests of organized crime.

Mariangela Veikou, University of Peloponnese, Greece (Mariangela.Veikou@EUI.eu)

Migration and Integration in Crisis-Stricken Greece. Visual Representations of Difference

This paper develops a perspective on African migrant integration reflecting on the ‘visualization’ of migrant experience. It formulates some considerations on how the integration of migrants can be captured drawing on empirical material from street photography in modern-day Greece. The main research question concerns the role of visual images as sites for the construction and depiction of social difference. In that sense, their meaning goes beyond their content and they act as visual representations of discourses. The paper addresses this issue through a focus on the local aspects of integration of sub-Saharan African migrants in the city-centre of Athens and specifically on three themes related to discourses on migrant integration in light of today’s economic crisis: a) the physical and social environment of marginalization, b) the migrant body and c) the fear of the migrant. On the basis of the findings a synthesis is attempted of several parallel existing representations in discourses about African migration. The synthesis betrays the on-going struggle between, on the one hand, the dominant structures that the state creates to deal with their presence and, on the other, the migrant strategies for adaptation and inclusion, which in turn sustains the mechanisms and form integration takes in this context.

Salma Yaqoob, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust; former Birmingham City Councillor and Head of Birmingham Stop-the-War Coalition (yaqoobsalma@yahoo.co.uk)