Migration, Resilience and Security: Responses to New Inflows of Asylum Seekers and Migrants

Abstract

The ubiquity of resilience—the process of patterned adjustments adopted by a society or an individual in the face of endogenous or exogenous shocks—across the broad social sciences spectrum is undisputable. Yet, migration scholars have been relatively absent from this vibrant discussion. The present article suggests a theorisation of the link between migration, resilience and security by examining ways in which resilience precedes a socially constructed understanding of international migration as a security issue. The article explores how the surge in worldwide refugee numbers and associated mass migration phenomena were not only interpreted as a shock in post-Cold War France, but also instrumentalised by dominant discourses to underscore the necessity of adopting a particular pattern of adjustments to uphold the status quo against changes provoked by these migratory events. The social construction of refugee movements and mass migration as a significant disturbance requiring France to opt for a resilient strategy has led, ultimately, to the securitisation of migration. In a broader sense, the article presents a new lens through which to analyse situations and conditions in which resilience has led to and induced the securitisation of migration.

Keywords:

• Resilience
• Security
• Politics
• France
• Migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

[1] The question of whether migration is actually securitised is an important one. Elsewhere, I have provided a set of indicators to better understand the extent to which migration is incorporated into security frameworks or not, and I have shown that migration is securitised in Canada and France (Bourbeau 2011). On this question, compare Hampshire (2011), Neal (2009), Messina (2014) and Boswell (2007).

[2] Resilience as renewal implies introducing novel vectors of response that will (in an implicit or explicit way) fundamentally change existing policies and set new directions for governance in this field. Redefinitions, however, do not take place in a vacuum but draw on past experiences, collective memory and social history, as well as the windows of opportunity upon which agential powers decide to act (or not). Resilience as marginality is characterised by responses that bring changes at the margins but that do not challenge the basis of a policy (or a society).

[3] Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.