Migration and security : history, practice, and theory
Author
Aslan, Nazlı Sinem
Advisor
Bilgin, Pınar
Date
2010Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Receiving states viewed international migration as a means of economic
development well until late 20th century. Since then policy makers around the
world have increasingly associated migration to security and sought to meet this
‘threat’ through ‘control’. In the 21st century, the significance of international
migration increased further as migration flows increased and took on new forms
affecting the world as a whole. This thesis looks at the emergence of migration as
a security issue in the practices of world actors within a historical and contextual
framework and highlights the politics of associating migration with security. In
doing so, it does not take as pre-given a relationship between migration and
security. Two interrelated arguments are made. First, migration’s association with
security has been context-bound. Second, whether migration is a security issue or
not changes according to actors (in the policy and scholarly worlds). Critical
approaches to security, focusing on the role of state and societal actors in
associating migration to security, and stressing security of not only states but also
individuals, offer a fuller account of migration. Whereas objectivist approaches to
security take migration as a ‘real’ threat, and fundamentally in relation to state
security and national interest.