Crafting a Security Threat

By Zoe Raptis

One of the most pressing security concerns today does not involve weapons but people. While the securitization of migration is not a new phenomenon, it has intensified significantly in recent years, with migration increasingly framed as a major threat to national security by world leaders. Migration, especially issues surrounding refugees and asylum seekers, has been at the forefront of many recent elections throughout 2024. Right-wing populist politicians, in particular, have amplified anti-immigrant sentiment by framing migrants as security threats through rhetoric designed to manipulate public perception. This portrayal of migration as a grave security threat is fueled by the strategic use of threat conflation and disinformation. Statements and posters around the page display the use of these two concepts. Two flowcharts further clarify this dynamic: the first explains the theoretical relationship between migration and disinformation, while the second grounds this theory in a European case study, demonstrating how disinformation drives the securitization of migration in practice.

This piece is a reproduction from its original issue in Hemispheres Volume 48 Issue 1. Read more here.