Within Europe, there has been a very recent wave of Arabs migrating from nations in the Middle East. There are many theories as to why these migrants have decided to land on European shores; however, the cultural difference between the Arabs from North Africa and the Middle East has caused a wave of racism within many European countries. As unfortunate as this is to say, many European nations have treated these immigrants as outsiders who all have links to terrorism. What this situation has created particularly within France is legislation that was targeted at keeping these immigrants as outsiders.
How this wave of migration became to the threshold of securitisation is that France, as a result of terrorism threats and racism, has designed legislation that target these Muslim migrants that the country does not want to integrate into their culture, (Farny, E., 2016). The nation of France has used securitisation as a protectionist measure within their country in order to keep these migrants out of their culture, (Farny, E., 2016). The recent events with Syrian refugees have surely not helped the tense situation in France in that, particularly in Paris, there are several suburbs in the Northern sector of the city that are designated neighborhoods for these citizens that the government utilizes as a way of isolating these citizens. In fact, the French government has attempted to deport many Muslims due to the horrific attacks that transpired in Paris recently.
The securitisation measures that have been seen in France have shown the cost of isolating an immigrant community that may be different that its host country. Sure, France had many ties to French-speaking northern Africa and many nations in the Middle East, such as Lebanon, that still speak French to date. Where France made a major error in their policy was that they isolated even peaceful Muslims to the point of angering them with harsh laws relating to whether the woman can observe her faith and wear a Hejab, (Farny, E., 2016). Legislation such as this is securitisation at its height because it is saying to these immigrant groups that their culture is not welcome and if they insist on staying in France, to abandon their ideals.
What has ended up transpiring as a result of these securitisation measures towards migrants is that we have seen attacks in both Paris and Brussels within the last year by fundamentalist Islamic groups. While the causes of these groups is surely to keep fighting against Western ideals, one has to ask the question as to why they targeted Brussels and Paris and the answer is to challenge these securitisation policies that have been placed on migrants and to also express their discontent with France’s anti-Arab both foreign policy and immigration reform.
Isolating one particular immigrant, ethnic or religious group in the manner of securitisation does more harm than good because the results lead to anger. The anger that festers is clearly demonstrated by what the racism in Europe has caused to citizens. Those citizens who could have potentially been peaceful had their new country embraced them, are now alienated and angered. This results in joining extremist groups and causing the rage of their treatment to fester. While one can understand France’s desire to preserve their distinct culture, there also has to be a line drawn at how far the country is willing to go to keep their exclusionist policy towards migrants. By refusing these migrants and then alienating the ones that they do accept, France is going to be having major socio-political issues for many years to come. This will be particularly festered by their native French citizen’s rage over the horrific events that these tensions have caused recently.
References
Farny, E. (2016). Implications of the Securitisation of Migration. E-IR Info. Retrieved from: http://www.e-ir.info/2016/01/29/implications-of-the-securitisation-of-migration/
