Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK,
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
2005 IOM
International Migration Vol. 43 (5) 2005
ISSN 0020-7985
* Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
The Securitization of Migration:
A Racial Discourse
1
Maggie Ibrahim*
ABSTRACT
As we enter the informational economy, freedom of human mobility has
nearly disappeared. Instead, powerful words are travelling the globe
unhindered: risk and security. They are being strung together with the
present migration phenomena, leaving migrants bound by the chain of
the new security discourse: the securitization of migration. This discourse
is racisms most modern form. Discursive practices, as seen through the
presss portrayal of 599 migrants reaching Canadas western coast, have
transformed migrants into agents which threaten human security. How
discourse informs government policy is illustrated through an examination
of Canadas new immigration legislation.
THE POWER-KNOWLEDGE NEXUS
Our world is increasingly being demarcated, outlining the North from the South.
More and more we are made to understand the globe as pockets of liberality and
justice flourishing amid tyrannical borderlands. Our eyes are fed images of
chaos in the South through the medias depiction of disorder. Threat and
insecurity are being redefined and broadened. Due to the assertions of inter-
national organizations, states, academics and journalists, migration has become
synonymous with a new risk to the liberal world. This discourse has reached its
pinnacle, normalizing the view that migrants are a threat. Any past thought
migrants being imperative to capitalist expansion is left behind, rarely being
mentioned.
According to Michel Foucault, in any society there are manifold relations of
power which permeate, characterize, and constitute the social body and these
164
Ibrahim
relations of power cannot themselves be established, consolidated, nor im-
plemented without the production, accumulation and functioning of a discourse.
There can be no possible exercise of power without a certain economy of dis-
courses of truth which operates through and on the basis of this association.
We are subject to the production of truth through power and we cannot exer-
cise power except through the production of truth (1980: 93). Thus the pro-
duction of a truth, or the creation of knowledge through a discourse, is an
exercise of power. This is the power-knowledge nexus. Thus, the securitization
of migration can be examined as a discourse through which relations of power
are exercised. In addition, Foucault asserts that we are also subjected to truth
in the sense in which it is truth that makes the laws, that produces the true
discourse which, at least partially, decides, transmits and itself extends upon the
effects of power (1980: 94). Therefore, government laws and policies are an
outcome of discourse, and reaffirm discourse. With this understanding of the
relation of power and knowledge, the overarching aim is to bring together the
different dispositions, different tools, and methods that form the dominant dis-
course which has securitized migrants. Furthermore, the main goal is to make
explicit how through discourse, this new knowledge of migrants defined as a
security threat to the social body, has led to the creation of new exclusionary
immigration legislation.
Just as the power-knowledge maxim brings different pieces into a coherent
form, so too will this analysis. An investigation of racism will reveal how the
securitization of migration discourse is built upon the concept that cultural dif-
ference leads to social breakdown. By examining a shift in racism, from notions
of biological superiority, to exclusion based on cultural difference (termed New
Racism), it is possible to understand that this new migrant-as-a-threat narrative
reactualizes a racist discourse. This discourse has been possible through the
broadening of the concept of security and the linking of risk and threat to
migrants. The instruments of this new body of knowledge are the discursive
practices of international organizations, politicians, academics, and journalists.
To bring such an instrument to light, how the Canadian press has transformed a
migrant event into a crisis will be examined below. The reproduction of the
securitization of migration has taken tangible form through government policy.
Canadas new immigration and refugee legislation offer an example of
how discourse informs government policy making. New racism, the discursive
practices, the illustration of the securitization of migration in the Canadian press,
as well as the new Canadian immigration legislation, reveal the networked
nature of power-knowledge. The nexus of power and knowledge is manifest
before our very eyes. Such a matrix is hidden in the mundane, the discourse and
mechanisms in place, with many of us not even realizing that this transformation
has come to pass.
165
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
NEW RACISM
In uncovering how migration has become a security issue, it is instructive to
highlight how cultural difference, as a system of classification, is associated
with threat. This use of cultural difference as a criterion for exclusion can be
understood as a racist discourse. Martin Barker, in The New Racism: Conserv-
atives and the Ideology of the Tribe, examined how the discourse of new ra-
cism enabled the British Conservative Party to focus on immigration, perceived
as an agent of the destruction of the British nation, and to theorize the idea that
every national or ethnic community is neither superior nor inferior, but differ-
ent. Barker argued that racism is no longer simply based on a notion of bio-
logical superiority but that new racism focuses on the natural and unavoidable
fact of cultural difference. The pseudo-biological culturalism of new racism is
based on two intertwined concepts (Barker, 1981: 24). First is the idea of shared
value and difference. We may all share a common human nature, but apart of
that very shared nature is the natural tendency to form bounded social units and
to differentiate ourselves from outsiders (Morris, 1971 in Barker, 1981: 128).
The natural tendency to form social units based on similarity lies in biology. The
biological, or pseudo-biological groupings of people, is used to explain bounded
social units instead of social and historical processes. Secondly, fear of the
other is at the core of new racism. Thus, what Barker has termed pseudo-
biological culturalism is used to explain how people understand and incorp-
orate cultural diversity into their worldview, instead of the rigours of social
psychology.
Social psychology research aims to capture the interplay between social think-
ing and socio-historical dynamics in order to understand how societies function
and how culture is produced (Chryssochoou, 2004: xx). Xenia Chryssochoou,
through her monograph Cultural Diversity: Its Social Psychology, provides a
clear investigation of how people understand cultural diversity and use it to
make sense of their experiences and explain the world in which they live. In
order to illustrate that the securitization of migration reactualizes a racist dis-
course, it is instructive to explore social psychological explanations of prejudice,
and racism as a particular form of prejudice.
Social psychological definitions of prejudice is both a negative belief/affect and
a discriminatory action towards somebody on the basis of his or her social
membership. In general, social psychologists assume that prejudice leads to
discrimination (Chryssochoou, 2004: 36). Racism can be defined as a form of
discrimination based on the reification of race and the essentailization of racial
difference. This definition offered aims to highlight three things: the behavioural
and action-oriented aspect of racism (discrimination); the fact that race constitutes
166
Ibrahim
a social construction that became a real categorical division (reification);
the fact that the content (essence) of racial differences depends on the socio-
political context (Chryssochoou, 2004: 50).
The essence of racism can be based on biological superiority, or on cultural
difference as highlighted by Barker. Chryssochoou explains that categories
such as race and culture tend to be reified and differences between categories
tend to be considered as natural and real. Social relationships and positions
linked to these categories are also to be considered as natural (2004: 45, my
emphasis). Therefore the notion of cultural difference becomes tangible in form.
The position linked to cultural difference is societal breakdown, which too be-
comes natural and real. Such fear of cultural difference is believed to have
served the continuity of culture and nationhood. Barker states that
if it were not for feelings of belonging, of sharing traditions, customs, beliefs,
languages in a word, culture there would be no society. We could not live
together and cooperate. Therefore the existence of fears about damage to the
unity of the nation is proof that the unity is threatened. The fears are self
validating. For the feelings, the customs make up the nation for all it is worth.
The nation is its way of life (1981: 17).
In order to provide security for their population, nations develop traditions.
Traditions, systems of justice and rights, ensure the security and stability of a
nation. Through the disruption of existing traditions, immigrants, who bring
with them different cultures, imbalance the nation. The principle, or position,
which links immigrants and the demise of the nation, is that cultural differences
threaten the existing way of life. It is thus seen as rational to preserve ones
culture through the exclusion of other cultural groups. This negative attitude
toward migrants should be understood as racism. As outlined above, the negative
belief and a discriminatory action toward somebody on the basis of his or her
social membership is prejudice. This racial prejudice that migrants face is a
result of reifying race and cultural difference and associating such difference
with threat.
The defining feature of new racism is that cultural pluralism will lead to inter-
ethnic conflict which will dissolve the unity of the state. This logic has been
used for decades as a means of limiting immigration and asylum seekers by
right-wing governments. However, the attempt to preserve the state by reject-
ing others is now a measure upheld by liberal governments as well. Divisions
based on cultural difference are
just as intractable and fundamental as the natural hierarchies they have partly
replaced, but they have acquired extra moral credibility and additional political
167
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
authority by being closer to respectable and realistic cultural nationalism and
more remote from bio-logic of any kind. As a result, we are informed not only
that the mutually exclusive cultures of indigenes and incomers cannot be
compatible but also that mistaken attempts to mix or even dwell peaceable
together can only bring destruction. From this perspective exposure to otherness
is always going to be risky (Gilroy, 2004: 157).
As a result of concentrating on cultural difference and the preservation of the
state, new racism has modernized racism and made it respectable (Duffield,
1996: 175). No longer bound to the concern of the nation-state, cultural differ-
ence and the risk it poses are an international concern.
THE SECURITIZATION OF MIGRATION
Currently it is estimated that 120 million people are living in countries other than
those in which they were born. The numbers of human population movements
are perceived to be so great that the twentieth century has been called The Age
of Migration (Castles and Miller, 1993). Others have gone so far as to describe
the trend of migration as The Global Migration Crisis evoking a sense of threat
and insecurity (Weiner, 1995). With the end of the Cold War, the concept of
security has undergone a transformation. As a result, migration has increasingly
been described in security terms. The process in which migration discourse
shifts toward an emphasis on security has been referred to as the securitization
of migration. This shift in discourse will be examined to reveal how within the
reformulation of security and migration lay the tenets of new racism which
reactualizes a racist discourse.
Shift in perception: migrants as a threat
Migration has not always been associated with threat. On the contrary, mi-
gration has proved to be the mediating factor for the production and develop-
ment of capitalism. In Canada, the need to expand its territorial dominion and
participate in the transatlantic market led to large-scale development projects
and increased immigration. By 1967, a new point system was created to admit
migrants who fit the perceived needs of the labour market. This point system
removed all references that would limit migrants because of their ethnicity.
Furthermore, in 1969 Canada would sign the UN Convention on the Status of
Refugees, declaring to the world its humanitarianism. It would uphold its com-
mitment toward refugees throughout the decades to come. Between 1979 and
1981, Canada accepted 60,000 refugees from Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos.
For welcoming the Vietnamese Boat People, Canada was awarded the Nansen
168
Ibrahim
Medal by the United Nations (Murray, 1999: 8). Thus, migrant labour had been
identified as a central means of capitalist expansion and by the 1970s Canada
was becoming more open to those who could contribute to furthering its develop-
ment. However, since the 1980s, the necessary role of migrants for capitalist
expansion has increasingly been occluded by a new concern for security.
The transformation of the concept of security has occurred alongside the expan-
sion of the capitalist market system into a global market system. Throughout
the Cold War, security was focused on war and the external threats to the state
that might give rise to war (Wolfers, 1962: 18). The state was portrayed as the
protector from other hostile states. According to Krause and Williams (1997: 43),
threats from other states were seen as being directed toward individual qua
citizens (that is toward their states), and the study of security accordingly strives
to mitigate these threats through concerted action by the representatives of the
citizenry the states leaders. Thus, issues such as interstate and intrastate
migration were approached in terms of realpolitik. That is, concerns such as
Does this de-stabilize our countrys political order? Will our receiving of refugees
be seen as a hostile act by the other states government? were contemplated in
realist terms (Poku et al., 2000: 18). With the end of the Cold War and the
increasingly globalized nature of markets and modes of production, in security
terms, the focus on the state has shifted more to the individual. Instead of
viewing security as concerned with individual qua citizens, the current view
of security is concerned with individuals qua persons (Krause and Williams,
1997: 43). This redefinition has led to the broadening of security issues. Such
broadening has encapsulated migration within a new security discourse.
Similarly, the reclaiming of the individual has reinforced the link between security
and migration. Organizations and states concerned with migration and refugees
have shifted the focus from human rights to human security. The human
security approach attempts to re-centre the place of the individual, making the
human subject the analytical focus. This people-cantered approach was given
its empirical form through the 1994 United Nations Development Report. The
report highlights the importance of measuring human security as well as human
development. It contends that to address the growing challenges of human
security, a new development paradigm is needed that puts people at the centre
of development...and respects the natural systems on which all life depends
(UNDP, 1994: 4, 23). The call for a new development paradigm, as seen in the
Development Report, represents a shift from defining security in terms of states
and military capacities. Instead, the human security approach is concerned with
potential vulnerabilities and risks that threaten populations. The United Nations
(UN) has highlighted these new threats to populations. Threats include transborder
challenges, such as unchecked population growth, environmental degradation,
169
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
excessive international migration, narcotics production and trafficking, and
international terrorism (UNDP, 2002).
The categorizing of migration as a human security threat, alongside other
threats such as narcotics trafficking, is unsettling. In terms of migration, the
populations that are at risk are the migrants who move across borders to escape
war, persecution, and hunger. However, due to this new human-centered
approach it is the migrants themselves who are seen as threatening to the
receiving countrys population. This is the paradox of the people-centered
approach to development. Instead of focusing on how to support migrants who
are at risk, the new paradigm increases their vulnerability. Thus, this people-
centred approach is detrimental to migrants as it leads one to question whose
human security is to be first protected, the citizen or the migrant? The citizen
is at risk because the incorporation of migrants will lead to an unstable host
state. Describing migrants as a threat to human security is disconcerting as it
legitimizes new racist fears. This legitimization by those who are associated
with liberality and humanitarianism, such as the UN, is powerful as it appeals to
a wide audience. No longer are only right-wing parties calling for an end to
immigration, but this new security discourse is finding a voice among liberal
academics and governments.
A further transformation of security has occurred with the creation of soft
security issues. Those who were active in the arena of security at the end of
the Cold War had to explore new threats to state security in order to maintain
their positions. Soft security issues arose, which included water and food scar-
city, soil depletion, global warming, and migration. Similarly, scholars have also
shifted their focus to match those of their donor states. Myron Weiner, from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was one of the first to transform
migration into a security issue. He asserts that refugee flows necessarily have
an impact on peace and security. He states
Little systematic comparative attention has been given to the ways in which
international population movements create conflicts within and between states
...A study of these effects is necessary to understand why states and their
citizens often have an aversion to international migration even when there are
economic benefits (1993: 2-3).
Such an assertion reflects the new racist themes outlined above. Although Weiner
is a liberal academic who began his inquiry of migration by analysing the costs
and benefits of migration in the 1970s (Weiner and Teitelbaum, 2001: vii), his
attempt to take issue with the impacts of demographic trends on international
security creates a schema which reasserts the fact that migrants cause instability.
170
Ibrahim
Coupled with the link between migration and conflict is the notion that intrastate
conflicts are a result of social malaise. Poverty, environmental decline, and
uncontrolled population growth has brought underdevelopment into the security
arena (Duffield, 2001: 115). If underdevelopment is believed to lead to conflict,
than conflict-ridden societies necessitate a transformation. Development agen-
cies are now attempting to cure the social dysfunction in order to maintain
stability and security. By identifying the root of conflict, a remedy can be put
into place. It is argued that social cleavages and complex political emergencies
(CPEs)
arise out of political causality. The competition for power and scarce re-
sources is the central dynamic in social conflicts [...] CPEs are embedded in and
are an expression of, existing social, political and cultural structures. They are
all encompassing and involve every dimension of society and the lives of the
people who are part of them. The roots of many CPEs lie in the relations
between enduring identity groups, which do not necessarily respond with the
existing nation-state boundaries (Goodhand and Hulme, 1999: 16).
The authors highlight that conflict is believed to arise out of resource scarcity,
population movements, and tensions between different identity groups. This
contention is simply a reassertion of what Barker has described as new racism.
The notion that conflicts arise out of tensions between identity groups has brought
the redefining of security to a different analytical level. Ole Waever distinguishes
between state security, that is military, political, economic, and environmental
threats to sovereignty, and societal security, which relates to threats to a cultural
identity. Threats to a cultural identity may be manifested through different lan-
guages, ethnicities, and religions (Waever, 1993a). According to Waever sur-
vival for a society is a question of identity, because this is the way a society talks
about existential threats: if this happens, we will no longer be able to live as us
(Waever, 1993b: 25-26). The notion of us implies homogenous values, trad-
itions, and beliefs within society. However, rather than uniformity, a society is
comprised of a mixture of different groups and values that are constantly changing
with time. When migration is considered as a threat to society, it is in reference
as to how migrants will transform the identity of the host country. Buzan states
the threat of migration is fundamentally a question of how relative numbers
interact with the absorptive and adaptive capacities of society [] This threat
works on the societal level when the incoming population is of a different
cultural or ethnic stock from those already resident. It is amplified when mi-
grants seek to maintain their identity rather than adapting to that prevailing in
their adopted country (Buzan, 1993: 45).
Fearful that different ethnic stocks might not interact well with the absorp-
tive and adaptive capacities of host societies is the foundation of new racist
171
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
fears. Buzan clearly illustrates these fears and de-problematizes the notion that
migrants, through their cultural difference, are disruptive to host societies. This
linking of migrants to insecurity, according to Husymans, sustains a radical
political strategy aimed at excluding particular categories of people by reifying
them as danger (Husymans, 2000: 771, my emphasis). To reiterate, negative
beliefs and discriminatory actions toward a particular group of people on the
basis of social membership is prejudice. Thus, Husymans has accurately identi-
fied how migrants have become securitized by reifying them as danger, but fails
to make it explicit that discriminatory actions toward migrants based on danger
is racial prejudice. The racist view that migrants lead to societal breakdown
gains legitimacy as it is repeated by different speakers.
Questioning how governments and international organizations could change
the conditions within states that produce refugees and illegal migrants is a
direct result of describing migrants as a major humanitarian challenge and a
threat to national and international security of states (Weiner and Teitelbaum,
2001: viii). Searching for ways in which states and international organizations
can transform the threats which produce push factors and thus migrants, is
tantamount to questioning how to end the social regression of underdeveloped
states. By framing migration as a phenomena that arises out of resource scar-
city and ethnic tensions, that is arising out of a social collapse, lays the foun-
dation for an increasingly interventionist style of international relations. The
notion that host states, countries which are threatened by influx of migrants,
can socially reconstruct the regressive-migrant producing countries hearkens
back to an imperialist worldview. A world-view based on Us, that is based
on Western civilization, in contrast to Them, the barbaric, and uncivilized
nature of natives. This dichotomy was the basis of the creation of the Other
during the height of colonialism. By framing natives as the Other was as a
means of legitimizing the subordination and enslavement of the South (Said,
1978). Imperial powers drew on the knowledge of the Orient to rule and man-
age and by pitting itself against the Orient it thus produced a unified vision of
the Orient which became orientalized (Said, 1978: 3). Thus, the function of
orientalizing the Orient was a means of maintaining dominance over its eco-
nomic, social, and political systems for the benefit of the British empire. The
same may be said in regards to the dialogue created based on a distinction of
Us and Them. By shrouding migrants within a context of threat and insecur-
ity, a dichotomy forms between host states (us) and migrants (them). As high-
lighted above, by examining this migrant-as-a-threat discourse as a mechanism
of power, it is possible to see the economic and political advantages of such a
discourse. As Foucault asserts, it is only if we grasp these techniques of power
and demonstrate the economic advantages or political utility that derives from
them in a given context for specific reasons, that we can understand how these
172
Ibrahim
mechanisms come to be effectively incorporated into the social whole (1976,
in Kelly, 1994: 39).
Under our current economic paradigm, which is based on the manipulation of
information and providing services, social mobility is labelled as increasingly
threatening. This increasing trend of viewing migrants as a threat may be to
some extent explained through Hardt and Negris assertion that international
migration has significant macroeconomic effects mainly the increased difficul-
ty to manage national markets, especially national labour markets, individually.
Migrants who leave the South for employment in the North contribute to the
blurring of the boundaries between the North and the South. Through migration,
the North and the South incorporate a part of each other. The North receives
southerners, who set up shantytown, favela, always again produced and re-
produced (Hardt and Negri, 2000: 254), while the South receives the North in
the form of stock exchanges and banks, transnational corporations and icy
skyscrapers of money and command (2000: 254). The economic and political
geography between the North and South are being undermined, increasingly
becoming more fluid. As a result, the entire world market tends to be the only
coherent domain for the effective application of capitalist management and com-
mand (2000: 254). With the incorporation of migrant labour searching for free-
dom from the periphery, comes a challenge to the existing social and productive
relations. International migration can, therefore, be understood as an obstacle to
the governance and maintenance of the liberal world system. Thus, the
securitization of migration creates an agency for global governance in order to
maintain and secure global market systems.
The securitization of migration discourse has been cemented by the fear that
migrants may be supporters for insurgencies. Migrants are now being examined
as potential contributors to uprisings and terrorist activities (Sheffer, 1994;
Smith, 1995; Collier and Hoeffler, 2000). Diasporas immigrant communities
established in foreign countries are believed to frequently support insurgen-
cies in their homelands (Byman et al., 2001). Diasporas have been significant
in supporting Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka, Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey, and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These diasporas have played an essen-
tial financial role in sustaining liberation movements. Furthermore, insurgencies
are said to feed into each other. The discrimination, violence, and misery that
typically accompany civil wars often produce refugees which in turn contribute
to the original conflict (Byman et al., 2001: xvi). The Taliban is said to be
formed among displaced Afghans in Pakistan. Thus, it is believed that migrants,
both in the form of immigrants and refugees, may pose a threat by supporting
insurgency movements.
173
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
Due to the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, at
least three dozen Somalis, who were not yet naturalized, were ousted from the
country. Fear that these men might be connected to al-Ittihad, the Islamic group
in Somalia which has links to al-Qaeda, is the assumed reason for their immedi-
ate deportation (26 February 2002, The Times: 2). The ethnic profiling and
subsequent deportation comes as little surprise when organizations which con-
duct research for the United States Department for Defense, such as RAND,
highlight in their reports the potential threat of migrants. In Trends in Outside
Support for Insurgency Movements, there is a call for host states to clamp down
on the large numbers of immigrants who back insurgencies. The report de-
clares that displaced communities can often act with impunity (Byman et al.,
2001: xvii). The migrant-as-a-threat narrative is reaching a climax in the wake
of September 11th. With links between migrants and threat already in place,
fears of terrorism have strengthened this discourse. This analysis attempts to
reveal how dispositions and discursive practices, which make up the securitization
of migration, interact in a network of relations. These discursive practices re-
assert cultural racism through linking migrants cultural difference as a threat to
a populations human security. The effect of this discourse is the drowning out
of the benefits that migrants bring to host societies, and their exclusion. The
case study below reveals another thread in the netlike exercise of power.
A CASE STUDY: THE CHINESE BOAT PEOPLE
The arrival of the Chinese Boat People illustrates how migrants have been
labelled as a threat to governance and human security. Throughout the summer
of 1999, four boats transporting 599 migrants from the Fujian Province of
China arrived off of Canadas western coast. The reaction to these events by
the Canadian English language print media was one that would reproduce the
notion that migrants are a threat. The newspaper coverage of these events was
so successful at creating a link between the illegal migrants and security, that
Canadas immigration and refugee system were called into question. By the end
of the summer it was clear that the migrant event had been transformed into
a crisis.
The transformation of 599 migrants arriving off of Canadas western coast into
a crisis demands an investigation into the role of the press. According to Tuen
van Dijk (1991), structural dimensions of racism are reproduced within the
press. He states, more than any form of public communication and discourse,
the media...provide specially selected facts and preformulate preferred mean-
ings and opinions (van Dijk, 1991: 39). The special role of the press, he asserts,
must be examined within the framework of new racism (1991: 29). Furthermore,
174
Ibrahim
the role of the press is to organize the field of social intelligibility within which
news comes to make sense, not by telling people what to think, but telling
them what to think about and how to think about it (Greenberg, 2000: 251). In
order to illustrate how the press coverage of the migrants has served to repro-
duce the notion that migrants are a security threat, an examination of six main-
stream newspapers has been undertaken: The National Post , the Vancouver
Sun, Victorias Times-Colonist, Vancouvers The Province, the Toronto Sun,
and the Toronto Star. The six newspapers have been selected to provide a range
of perspectives and geographical locations. Through an examination of the Can-
adian hard news and opinion discourse, perceived threats to Canadians human
security are revealed. The predominant threats to the host population are per-
ceived to be health risks, increased criminality, and the potential collapse of the
welfare state. Together the negative attitudes, or prejudice against migrants,
described in the press create a framework for the securitization of migration.
Each threat is added, link after link, reinforcing and contributing to each other.
The result is an event which has been transformed into a crisis, a crisis that is
bound by discursive practices and practically impenetrable to debate.
The anxiety over health that appeared in the Canadian press was not a concern
for the welfare of the migrants, but for the health risks they posed to Canadians,
that is their threat to Canadians human security. The threat of infectious dis-
eases, such as HIV and tuberculosis, became the focal point of health issues
regarding the migrants. In fact, just after the first boat arrived along BCs coast,
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) informed readers that:
There are concerns about infectious diseases because of the conditions theyve
been living under and we have to be prepared to deal with that, to make sure its
safe for our people to go aboard (21 July 1999, National Post, quoted in Hier
and Greenberg, 2002: 503).
By the arrival of the fourth boat, health concerns became a tool used to limit
migrants from seeking refuge. Reform Leader Preston Manning argued immi-
gration and refugee policies should screen out those who pose a threat to Canadas
security through health risks.
Immigration laws should ensure would-be refugees are properly screened, but
if people can get around all of those provisions, then you expose yourself to
all of those dangers...criminal elements and people with violent political habits
and communicable diseases (3 September 1999, Times-Colonist: A1).
In response to such a position, the executive director of the Victoria Immigrants
and Refugee Centre, Carlos Gaete replied:
175
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
What is significant is that this backlash is not just from a small group of racist
extremists. Canadian society and media gave the cue that it is OK to express
racial hatred either in code or open messages. Unfortunately, many did, including
some elected Representatives (3 September 1999, Times Colonist: A1).
Gaete acknowledged the fact that the call to send the migrants back, because
they posed a health risk to Canadians, was steeped in racism. However,
the framing of migrants as a threat to Canadians human security had gone
unnoticed.
A critical element of human security revealed in the press coverage, alongside
migrants as a health risk, is their portrayal as different from Canadians. Within
the press sample examined there is an overwhelming tendency to describe the
migrants as Chinese. Through such repetition, a distinction between Us and
Them was created. Headlines such as Most Chinese refugees slip away
(23 July 1999, Vancouver Sun) and B.C. turns a cold shoulder to Chinese
migrants (2 October 1999, Toronto Star) reinforce the notion that migrants are
different from Canadians. This dichotomy between Chinese and Canadian
underlies the press reporting of the migrants. Unlike creating an oppositional
other based on a difference of nature, the othering which took hold of the
portrayal of the migrants in the press was achieved through highlighting their
perceived cultural difference. A significant aspect of their cultural difference
was criminality. Several themes have been repeated to construct the criminal
nature of the Chinese migrants: their arrival without identification, their mode
of transportation, and their consequential enslavement to a criminal lifestyle.
Together they create a causal link between the migrants and a threat to Can-
adians human security.
Even before the migrants could be identified, they were shrouded in illegality. In
the Toronto Star, the RCMP treated the arrival of the first ship as a criminal
investigation.
Our investigation has already started...organized crime is certainly involved in
the smuggling operation and there are likely criminals included among the
people aboard the ship. We dont know what kind of criminal element is on
board but we do know its not necessarily good for the country because if it
was, they would apply through the legal channels (21 July 1999, Toronto Star).
In addition to the absence of documentation, the migrants mode of transpor-
tation became intertwined with illegality. The fact the migrants arrived to Canadas
shore by boat and not through legal channels criminalized the migrants. The
repetition of migrants as illegal can be seen throughout the press coverage:
176
Ibrahim
In other words, their gamble of jumping to the head of the immigration line by
arriving illegally on our shores paid off. They and the smuggling ring that ran
the operation rightly calculated that Canada was a weak, easy mark (25 July
1999, Toronto Sun: 20).
We cant afford to have this happen, Reynolds [MP for West Vancouver-
Sunshine Coast] said. If people get away with it, theres no ending to it. These
people are criminals. They paid money to be knowingly smuggled in some-
where. And we shouldnt let criminals into this country (26 July 1999, Vancouver
Sun, Final Edition: A1/front).
But she [Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan] also said Canada will not tolerate
criminal actions. I want to make it clear that I deplore the actions of human
smugglers she told a news conference. I am also deeply concerned about the
increasing number of people who turn to the criminal element in choosing to
enter Canada surreptitiously and illegally (12 August 1999, Vancouver Sun:
A1/front).
Such reproduction of the migrants as illegals transformed the event into an
illegal migration phenomena threatening Canadians security. In The Province
we are provided the opinion of an expert on the issue.
Lambert is no lightweight when it comes to Asian studies. As the former Canadian
consul-general in Hong Kong, Lambert understands China very well and knows
a thing or two about how the Chinese criminal gangs, or triads, operate. What
do they [snakeheads] see? asked Lambert. They see people being welcomed
with open arms and a society basically providing everything that they could
have hoped for in terms of laying out the welcome mat. So, thank you very
much, we will send you some more (23 August 1999, The Province: A8).
Such expert opinion coupled with Immigration Minister Elinor Caplans state-
ment that the migrants entered Canada surreptitiously and illegally legitimizes
the perceived criminal and threatening aspect of the migrants.
As each link between the migrants and insecurity was added, the causal relation-
ship between the two gained in strength. Canadians human security was sud-
denly under siege through the arrival of the migrants. There was fear of an
unending illegal migration phenomenon that would not only pose health risks to
Canadians but cause a deterioration in Canadas stability through increased criminal
activity. Although none of the migrants had committed a crime, the fear was
that because of their transportation by snakeheads they had become inden-
tured criminals. Diane Francis, National Post editor, explained:
Besides the damage to our society, these illegal aliens ruin their lives because
they make a Faustian pact with some of the most evil persons in the world. The
177
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
criminals smuggle people for fees of US$30,000 money these people do not
have. Like loan sharks, these crooks lend this money and charge usurious
interest rates on this loan. By definition, the only way these poor people can
work off this loan is by getting involved in criminal activities. In other words
our refugee policy has resulted in the importation of a criminal element that was
not here and need not have arrived... If these boatloads are not deported to
send a message to others on their way and the refugee process revamped
then the government of Canada should be sued by the provinces, municipalities,
taxpayer organizations and other victims of refugee crimes. I will personally
contribute to such a lawsuit (15 August 1999, The Province: A37).
The press coverage created a link between the migrants and insecurity that
would reach critical proportions. They are portrayed as sick, undocumented
migrants stealing passage to Canada. They are a threat to Canadians human
security through their communicable diseases, and criminal behaviour.
The construction of the migrants as a threat to Canadians human security is a
new development. Such a construction was strengthened by a more familiar
fear that migrants would be the demise of Canada as a welfare state. An exam-
ination of the press coverage reveals that the arrival of the migrants led to a fear
that Canada did not have enough money to meet the needs of the migrants as
well as real Canadians. The cost of processing and detaining migrants was
repeated in conjunction with financial strain.
[Immigration Minister Elinor] Caplan also hinted Thursday that BC taxpayers
could be stuck with paying what the provincial government estimates is about
$2 million a month in additional social assistance costs to care for the migrants
(10 September 1999, Vancouver Sun: A1).
Some citizens saw the migrants as the cause of an overburdened healthcare
system:
Is the reason our hospitals are crowded and turning away Canadians because
too many sick refugees are coming here for top-notch free medical care? No
wonder our health-care system is in such a mess! I feel we should have a
Canadians first policy and refuse to accept aliens with serious medical problems
(9 October 1999, Toronto Star).
These passages illustrate the anxiety of citizens as the migrants were portrayed
as siphoning off the limited resources that Canadas welfare system needed to
survive.
The fact that the migrants are never seen as legitimate or able to positively
contribute to Canadian society led Greenberg and Hier to raise the question
178
Ibrahim
Why do certain groups of people (and not others) come to be perceived as
posing grave threats to the stability of the state? (Greenberg and Hier, 2001:
575). In response, they highlight the historic experience of the Chinese in Canada:
manual wage labour recruitment, exploitation, public resentment, institutional
discrimination, and outright exclusion (2001: 575). Furthermore, they identify
the growth and success of middle class Chinese nationals and Chinese Can-
adians has led to a polarizing sense of trepidation [] over the racial identity of
the nation (2001: 575). Thus, they argue that the narrative forms constructed
in the press coverage of the Chinese migrants find a broader political, cul-
tural and economic context in the historical treatment of Chinese people by the
Canadian state (2001: 575). However, such a contention may be too narrow in
its outlook. It has failed to link Canadas rejection of the Chinese migrants to
the broader discourse which is currently creating a certain knowledge of mi-
grants, that of the securitization of migration. Instead of questioning why the
Chinese migrants were perceived as threatening to Canadians, a more pen-
etrating and revealing question may be why have migrants, in general, now
become equated to risk and insecurity? Thus we need to see this rejection of
migration as stemming from a new racial discourse which has equated migrants
to risk. As such, we need to identify racism as a specific and significant object,
to comprehend it as a part of a web of discourse, to see that it has a knowable
history, and to appreciate its social implications in the exercise of [the] biopolitical
powers (Gilroy, 2004: 163).
THE TANGIBILITY OF DISCOURSE:
CANADAS NEW IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE POLICY
The attempt to regulate and control migration has increasingly come to the
forefront of government agendas around the world. Government, for Foucault,
is the conduct of conduct. Government can be understood as practices,
mechanisms, and techniques that in the name of truth and public good, aspire
to inform and adjust social and economic activities. Under democratic con-
ditions, government implicates truth and rational problem solving. In this way
it is intrinsically linked to knowledge (Gottweis, 1998: 29). This knowledge
dependence of government has important implications for policy making. Policy
making can be described as an attempt to manage a field or discursivity, to
establish a situation of stability and predictability within a field of differences
(Gottweis, 1998: 37). Thus, government policies are the outcomes of know-
ledge production through the functioning of a discourse. How discourse
informs policy making will be examined through Canadas implementation of
the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) on 28 June 2002.
179
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
Through the IRPA, the Canadian Government has accepted and reaffirmed the
securitization of migration discourse and has followed the trend of Fortress
Europe in erecting barriers to immigrants and refugees. Furthermore, this new
impetus of risk management to counter the perceived threats that migrants pose,
reactivates forms of cultural racism. According to Citizenship and Immigration
Canada (CIC):
[The] new act modernizes Canadas immigration policy. It provides Canada
with the tools to attract workers with flexible skills and it speeds up family
reunification. The Act is tough on those who pose a threat to Canadian security,
while maintaining Canadas humanitarian tradition of providing a safe haven to
people in need of protection (2002b).
As seen in the press coverage of the migrant event above, a hegemonic dis-
course had taken over any attempt to debate the notion that migrants are a
security risk. This perception has come to be understood as fact. Uninvited
migrants unskilled migrants are counterpoised against those migrants Canada
seeks to attract, mainly wealthy investors and skilled migrants. Such a dichotomy
between what is seen to be beneficial to Canadian society, and what could lead
to its demise, is in line with framing migration as a phenomenon that arises out
of social regression. Migrants are being excluded based on a presumption of
behaviour and risk that is plaguing the South. By positioning unskilled migrants
within a security context, their incorporation is tantamount to integrating a
social malaise. By rejecting the unskilled migrant, Canada is attempting to
separate itself from the rising disorder of the South. It is underscoring the
rejection of incorporating the South through ghettoes, shantytowns, and favelas
which are produced and reproduced in Canadas major cities. Thus, by pitting
itself against unskilled migrants, Canada may rule and manage migrants and
the disorder they bring with them. To underscore the IRPAs objective of risk
management and therefore the migrant-as-a-threat narrative, it is worthwhile
to include a somewhat lengthy text provided by CIC. The overview of the
Act states:
Canadians want an immigration and refugee system and legislation that are
faster but remain fair. They want legislation that strikes a balance between
Canadas tradition of protecting refugees and welcoming immigrants and deal-
ing firmly with those who would abuse our systems and processes. They want
to preserve our safe society and uphold respect for our values and norms of
social responsibility. The proposed legislation will give Canada the tools to say
no more quickly, in order to remove serious criminals, and to say yes more
often to the immigrants and refugees it needs to continue to grow. It will allow
the Government to move toward its goal of annual immigration levels of 1%
of the population, an objective vital to Canadas future. To meet this initial
180
Ibrahim
challenge, it is essential to maintain the confidence of Canadians in the integ-
rity of the immigration and refugee protection programs...Bill C-11, the pro-
posed Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its regulations carry a
dual mandate: closing the back door to criminals and others who would abuse
Canadas openness and generosity while opening the front door to genuine
refugees and to the immigrants the country needs. New legislative provisions
aim to better ensure serious criminals and individuals who are threats to public
safety are kept out of Canada and, if they have entered the country, that they
are removed as quickly as possible (CIC, 2002b).
The overview of the IRPA underscores the distinction between immigrants that
Canada needs to incorporate and migrants that it needs to refuse. Those mi-
grants that would abuse our systems and processes are set against legal mi-
grants that are vital to Canadas future. The rejection of migrants based on
presumed criminality and deviance is an essential component of the securitization
of migration, and as argued above, reactualizes a racial discourse. As depicted in
the press, the rejection of the 599 migrants was based on assumed criminality
fashioned through their undocumented and illicit arrival. The press had equated
the migrants as a threat to Canadians human security. The IRPA overview
demarcates criminals from legal migrants (immigrants) it needs to expand.
Furthermore, refugees are encapsulated within this dichotomy of useful and
harmful. The result is the weakening of refugees political status. Refugees
will be incorporated not because they have a right to asylum, but because they
may be useful for Canadas development. A drastic shift can be seen between
1981 when Canada welcomed 60,000 refugees (the Vietnamese Boat People)
and the rejection of 599 migrants (the Chinese Boat People) in 1999. In order
to preserve our safe society and uphold respect for our values and norms of
social responsibility, the IRPA has singled out those who would pose a risk.
Through their exclusion, the Canadian Government is attempting to maintain
the confidence of Canadians in the integrity of the IRPA. This mission to
secure Canadas liberality is ironic as it achieved through a repressive policy.
The IRPA highlights new enforcement activities, new tools, and mechanisms to
govern the mobility migrants. This increased governance of migrants could not
have been established without the functioning of the securitization discourse.
These governance mechanisms take place abroad, at ports of entry, and within
Canada (CIC, 2002c).
Managing access to Canada:
mechanisms of exclusion abroad and within
Enforcement abroad is an integral part of Canadas migration management tool.
The methods that CIC officers use include issuing visas to immigrants, conven-
tion refugees, protected persons, and visitors. Furthermore, they cooperate with
181
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
international organizations and other countries to monitor and intercept the il-
legal movements of people (CIC, 2002c). In the past few years, CIC has been
active in stopping people who are without valid identification from taking modes
of transportation destined for Canada. The authority of CIC officers has not
been balanced with mechanisms which would allow those fleeing from per-
secution to enter Canada. The mechanisms of enforcement and regulation have
disregarded the need for measures to uphold the right to seek asylum as outlined
in Article 14 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Amnesty Inter-
national, 2001).
Within Canada, the IRPA places a great deal of emphasis on security concerns
and develops the appropriate mechanisms of enforcement: the expansion of
inadmissibility and the tightening of the hearing process. By broadening criminality,
the IRPA expands the form of inadmissibility of permanent residents, foreign
nationals, and refugees in sections 34(1) and 100(1). Under these sections immi-
grants and refugees are inadmissible on security grounds for engaging in
terrorism, being a danger to the security of Canada, being a member of an
organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged
or will engage in acts [of terrorism], and for violating human or international
rights, serious criminality or organized criminality (CIC, 2002a: 30, 58). In
effect, the IRPA labels a person a terrorist by reference to his or her past or
present membership in a terrorist group. The Act makes no attempt to define the
term terrorism or what role a person must take within a group to fall under this
category (Aiken, 2002). According to a member of the International Court of
Justice terrorism is a term without legal significance (Higgins, 1997: 28). The
absence of a definition leaves immigrants and refugees susceptible to arbitrary
decision making and inadequate means for review or recourse. Alongside ter-
rorism, the notion that migrants may be a danger to the security of Canada
(CIC, 2002a: 30) remains ambiguous and open to subjectivity. This underscores
the broadening of the rejection criteria found in the IRPA. Rejection is at the
discretion of CIC officials who are deployed to safeguard Canada from potential
danger. Unskilled migrants may arbitrarily fall under a security threat to Canada
as they are perceived to be the carriers of social collapse or social regres-
sion. When migrants, the presumed agents of social demise, attempt to gain
entry into Canada they may be rejected under the premise of security.
In order to ensure that risk is abated, the inclusion of organized crime will lead
to inadmissibility under the new IRPA. Organized crime provisions have been
broadened to include people engaging in transnational human trafficking, smug-
gling, or money laundering (CIC, 2002c). Section 117(1) of the IRPA, states
that no person shall knowingly organize, induce, aid or abet the coming into
Canada of one or more persons who are not in possession of a visa, passport or
182
Ibrahim
other document required by this Act (CIC, 2002a: 62). Such a broad offence
may prohibit relatives or well-meaning individuals from helping a person escape
persecution. Persons found inadmissible on the basis of organized criminality
are barred from making a refugee claim and lose permanent residence (UNHCR,
2001a: 16). Such persons facing inadmissibility do not have the right to an
appeal. This broadening of criminality is a detrimental risk management mech-
anism. Like the interception measures abroad, such a means of exclusion may
have devastating human rights ramifications. The reinforcement of such risk
management measures without the parallel adoption of the 1990 International
Convention on Migrants Rights signals implicitly the elaboration of national
regimes on migration that subordinate protections to restrictive controls on
human mobility and strict enforcement concerns (Taran, 2000: 27). It should
be noted, however, that provisions have been made to exclude guilt by asso-
ciation. Section 37(2)b of Bill C-11, the proposed IRPA, recognizes that refu-
gees may have no choice but to turn to smugglers to reach safety, and that
therefore an asylum seeker who enters Canada with the assistance of a person
involved in organized criminal activities, should not be barred from the refugee
determination process (UNHCR, 2001a: 17). Despite such recognition, the
overall broadening of criminality leads to a dangerously subjective criterion that
may reject those who help the persecuted attain safe passage. Furthermore, the
new mechanisms brought forth through the IRPA demonstrate that Canadas
security will be maintained by rejecting those who are ambiguously described as
presenting possible danger. Securing Canadas borders through repressive meas-
ures is a paradox of CIC.
The reformulation of the immigration and refugee hearing process is another
dimension of the IRPAs risk management tool. Similar to broadening the cat-
egory of inadmissibility, the changes made to the hearing process are set to
ensure that Canadians gain confidence in their governments ability to govern.
Single member panels for refugee hearings have been implemented in order for
the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to hear more cases and lead [to]
quicker processing times (CIC, 2002b). Claimants will have an oral hearing
before a single member, instead of the two-person panel of the past. As a result,
a persons access to refuge lies in the hands of a sole person. Such a tightening
of the hearing process has been criticized by the Canadian Council for Refugees
(CCR). The quality of the decision makers is now of greater importance, which
leads the CCR to call for a transparent appointment process of IRB members
(CCR, 2001). However, if found inadmissible due to security reasons, immi-
grants and refugee claimants have a right to appeal through the Refugee Appeal
Division (RAD). The RAD will not hold a hearing but will base its decision on a
written submission. Such written submissions are problematic, especially for
those who have not had access to a lawyer. Shortages in legal aid may result in
183
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
many being disadvantaged in their appeal process. Furthermore, the CCR has
noted that the IRPA provides no guarantees of the independence of the IRB and
the RAD. If the appeal function is to act as an effective mechanism for correct-
ing errors, the RAD must be clearly separate, as is the case in tribunals and
other spheres of law (CCR, 2001). Instead, the IRPA and its mechanisms of
risk management have been designed to provide a timely process that will gain
the confidence of its citizens. As stated in the IRPA overview, Canadians want
an immigration and refugee system and legislation that are faster but remain
fair (CIC, 2002b). The new IRPA will most likely achieve the first goal, yet will
fall short of acting justly. By setting in place mechanisms to reject threatening
migrants in order to secure Canadian liberties, these liberties come at the ex-
pense of justice. The broadening of criminality and inadmissibility alongside the
tightening of the appeal process led to a new IRPA which emphasizes deter-
rence rather than humanitarian concern. This intensive managing of migrants
entry into Canada has been possible through the functioning of the securitization
of migration discourse and offers an example of the power-knowledge nexus.
As illustrated, Canada has added its voice to the dominant discourse of the
securitization of migration. Such a liberal discourse is new racisms successor
and its resonance a cacophony of injustice.
THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE SECURITY AGENDA
Knowledge is power. A simple statement which reveals the potential of dis-
course. The discourses that cultural difference leads to breakdown, and that
migrants pose a threat to human security, are in fact that, discourses. The force
of a statement lies in its ability to draw in those who will give it form and to
reject other statements; it lies in its repetition, transformation, and reactivation.
These statements have been reproduced and given meaning through the discur-
sive practices of liberal academics (Buzan, Byman et al., Swain, Waever and
Teitelbaum), international organizations (UNDP), states, and journalists. The
freedom of human mobility has been usurped by such powerful statements.
Each statement has contributed to the other until a coherent securitization of
migration discourse has taken form. The manner in which migrants have be-
come linked to insecurity has been clearly illustrated through the examination of
the press coverage of the Chinese Boat People. As a node in the network of
relations, the press has played its part repeating and creating a migrant-as-a-
threat discourse. For states, excluding migrants is an attempt to manage the risk
they pose. The discursive practices, centred on the securitization of migration,
have led to restrictive immigration legislation. The strategies of governing and
extinguishing human mobility into Canada are now in place through Canadas
new IRPA. States around the world are responding to migrants in a similar
184
Ibrahim
repressive manner with the technologies of exclusion taking a global form.
Through discourse, migrants have been bound by the chain of the new security
agenda. In the wake of September 11th, this agenda has been given a new
urgency and justification. This is the juggernaut of our time, a juggernaut draw-
ing little notice.
NOTES
1. I send my thanks to Mark Duffield for his guidance and to the anonymous
reviewers. I am indebted to family, especially my sister Mireille for her unending
support and revisions.
REFERENCES
Aiken, S.
2002 Comments of Bill C-11, Centre for Refugee Studies, retrieved 1 July 2002,
http://www.web.net.ccr.
Amnesty International (AI)
2001 Brief on Bill C-1, retrieved 1 July 2002, http://www.web.net.ccr.
Barker, M.
1981 The New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology of the Tribe, Junction
Books, London.
BBC Online
2004 G8 summit takes to its roots, retrieved 22 January 2004, http://news.bbc.
co.uk/1/hi/business/2063624.stm
Buzan, B.
1993 Societal security, state security and internationalization, in O. Waever
(Ed.), Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe,
Routledge, London.
Byman, D., et al. (Eds)
2001 Trends in Outside Support for Insurgency Movements, retrieved 6 March
2002, http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1405/.
Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR)
2001 Bill C-11 Immigration Bill, retrieved 1 July 2002, http://www.web.net/ccr.
Castles, S., and M. Miller
1993 The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Mod-
ern World, Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Chryssochoou, X.
2004 Cultural Diversity: Its Social Psychology, Blackwell Publishing, London.
185
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)
2002a Immigration and Refugee Protection Act: An Act Respecting Immigration
to Canada and the Granting of Refugee Protection to Persons who are
Displaced, Persecuted or in Danger, retrieved 1 July 2002, http://www.cic.
gc.ca/english/pdffiles/pub/C-11_4.pdf.
2002b Bill C-11 Immigration and Protection Act: Overview, retrieved 1 July
2002, http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/irpa/fs-overview.html.
2002c Managing Access to Canada: The Immigration and Refugee Protection
Act, Fact Sheet No. 3, retrieved 1 July 2002 from http://www.cic.gc.ca.
Collier, P., and A. Hoeffler
2000 Greed and grievance in civil war, Policy Working Papers, May, The
World Bank, Washington, DC.
Duffield, M.
1996 The symphony of the damned: racial discourse, complex political emer-
gencies and humanitarian aid, Disasters, 2(3): 173-193.
Foucault, M.
1976 Two Lectures, in M. Kelly (1994), Critique and Power, MIT Press,
Cambrigde.
1977 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (A. Sheridan, translation),
Penguin Books, London.
1980 Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, Michel
Foucault, 1972-1977, (Colin Gordon, Ed.), The Harvester Press, Brighton.
Gilroy, P.
2004 After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture?, Routledge, Abingdon.
Gottweis, H.
1998 Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of Genetic Engineering
in Europe and the United States, MIT Press, Cambrigde.
Greenberg, J.
2000 Opinion discourse and Canadian newspapers: the case of the Chinese
boat people, Canadian Journal of Communications, 25(4): 517-537.
Hart, M., and A. Negri
2000 Empire, Harvard University Press, London.
Hier, S., and J. Greenberg
2002 Constructing a discursive crisis: risk, problematization and illegal Chi-
nese in Canada, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25(3): 490-513.
Higgins, R.
1997 The general international law of terrorism, in R. Higgins and M. Flory
(Eds), Terrorism and International Law, Routledge, London.
Huysmans, J.
2000 The European Union and the securitization of migration, Journal of
Common Market Studies, 38(5), 751-777.
Krause, K., and M. Williams
1997 From strategy to security: foundations of critical studies, in K. Krause
and M. Williams (Eds), Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases,
UCL Press, London.
186
Ibrahim
Morris, D.
1971 The human zoo, in M. Barker (1981), The New Racism: Conservatives
and the Ideology of the Tribe, Junction Books, London.
Murray, M.
1999 Success follows hardship but mother paid the price: in the Stars con-
tinuing series to mark the new millennium, diversity reporter Maureen
Murray examines Canadas often sordid record on immigration in the 20th
century, Toronto Star, 26 December.
Poku, N., et al. (Eds)
2000 Migration, Globalisation and Human Security, Routledge, London.
Sheffer, G.
1994 Ethno-national diasporas and security, Survival, 36(1).
Smith, A.
1995 Zionism and diasporas nationalism, Israel Affairs, 2(2).
Taran, P.
2000 Human rights of migrants: challenges of the new decade, International
Migration, 38(6): 7-52.
The Times
2002 How American dream faded in downtown Mogadishu, The Times,
26 February.
UNDP
1994 Human Development Report, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2002 Development, Peace and Security, retrieved 11 January, http://www.undp.
org/erd/archives/dps.htm.
UNHCR
2001a Comments on Bill C-11: An Act Respecting Immigration to Canada and
the Granting of Refugee Protection to Persons who are Displaced, Perse-
cuted or in Danger, UNHCR, Ottawa, retrieved 1 July 2002, http://www.
web.net.ccr.
2001b International Migration, Discrimination, and Xenophobia, presented
at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xeno-
phobia and Related Intolerance, retrieved 1 July 2002, http://www.unhcr.ch.
van Dijk, T.
1991 Racism in the Press, Routledge, London.
Waever, O.
1993 Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe, Pinter Pub-
lishers, London.
Weiner, M. (Ed.)
1993 International Migration and Security, Westview Press, Boulder.
1995 The Global Migration Crisis: Challenges to States and to Human Rights,
Harper Collins, New York.
Weiner, M., and M. Teitelbaum (Eds)
2001 Political Demography, Demographic Engineering, Ber ghahn Books,
New York.
Wolfers, M.
1962 Discord and Collaboration, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
187
The securitization of migration: a racial discourse
LA SCURISATION DE LA MIGRATION:UN DISCOURS RACIAL
Alors que nous entrons dans lconomie de linformation, la libert de mobilit
humaine a pratiquement disparu. Au contraire, des mots puissants risque et
scurit font le tour de la plante sans que rien ne les arrte. Ils se trouvent
accols au phnomne de la migration actuel, laissant les migrants enchans
par le nouveau discours sur la scurisation de la migration. Ce discours est la
forme la plus moderne du racisme. Les pratiques discursives, comme on peut le
voir dans le portrait trac par la presse de 599 migrants atteignant la cte ouest
du Canada, ont transform ces derniers en sources de menaces pour la scurit
humaine. Un examen de la nouvelle lgislation canadienne sur limmigration
montre comment ce discours inspire la politique gouvernementale.
LA SEGURIDAD EN EL MBITO DE LA MIGRACIN:
UN DISCURSO RACIAL
A medida que abordamos la era de la economa de la informacin, prcticamente
desaparece la libre circulacin de personas. En vez, surgen poderosas palabras
que recorren el planeta sin ningn problema: riesgo y seguridad. Ambas estn
siendo utilizadas junto con el fenmeno migratorio dejando a los migrantes
encadenados al nuevo discurso de seguridad: la seguridad migratoria. Este dis-
curso es la forma ms moderna del racismo. Las prcticas discursivas como las
que se observan en las descripciones en la prensa de 599 migrantes que llegaron
a la costa occidental del Canad, han transformado a los migrantes en agentes
que ponen en peligro la seguridad humana. En este artculo se ilustra como el
discurso conforma las polticas gubernamentales, recurriendo para ello a un
examen de la nueva legislacin de inmigracin del Canad.