Description

Western governments characterize immigrants and their descendants as potential threats to public safety, social cohesion and national identity. Their resulting policies have commonly elicited negative reactions among migrant organizations and networks. The security literature largely focuses on the question of radicalization, another on civic engagement, a third on human rights. Each is written in isolation, largely oblivious to the agenda of the other. This generates a question for both the academic and policy communities concerning the effects of securitization on the patterns of organization and political mobilization of migrants and minorities: why have these policies fostered such diverse reactions among targeted migrant communities, extending from passivity to democratic engagement, civil disobedience, violent protest and possibly even radicalization based on alienation and resentment?