INSECURITY(FEAR) AND IMMIGRATION POLITICS IN THE US

Publication Date

4-5-2019

Document Type

Poster

Degree Type

Graduate

Department

Politics and Government

Mentor

Michaelene Cox

Mentor Department

Politics and Government

Abstract

There is much contention in US immigration politics. Practically the centerpiece during the 2016 US presidential elections for now-President Donald Trump, the issue of migration seems to increasingly receive the treatment of a national security matter, especially after the events of 9/11. These concerns may muffle attention paid to the human security dimensions of migration, notwithstanding existential drivers in the transnational movement of people. The early Trump Administration issued three executive orders on immigration with national security concerns central, including on border security, interior immigration policy enforcement and refugee admittance reductions, and the travel ban for several Muslim-majority countries. After contextualizing the human security dimensions of migration, in addition to a background of Trump executive orders on US immigration policy, a literature review captures two prominent schools on the question of how realist national security considerations are interacting with US immigration policy. The classical realist assumptions surrounding fear and survival of the state amid an anarchic international system of states are joined by the Copenhagen School of securitization in a theoretical application that identifies a discursive process of threat construction between power-wielding actors and a receptive audience. This framework sets up for future case analyses, comparative, qualitative, and quantitative studies on the immigration-security nexus.

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