22/04/2021 – The spiralling of the securitisation of migration in the EU: From the management of a crisis to a governance of human mobility?

Since the end of the Cold War, securities studies have recognised the existence, in the field of migration governance, of a securitization process creating a migration-crime nexus as a consequence of political speech-acts and practices. Valeria Bello proposes the understanding of the securitisation of migration not as a linear, political process but as a spiralling phenomenon starting from specific cognitions of the social and political realm. By proposing a cognitive ontology to understand the social construction of migration as a security threat, in this seminar, Valeria Bello will elucidate her theory of the spiralling of the securitization of migration, which uses a dichotomization of cognitions, mandates, constituencies, and interests of state and non-state actors to explain how and why they either socially construct or deconstruct migration as a threat. In particular, Valeria Bello identifies in prejudice one of the main cognitions for which a variety of actors enact practices and produce narratives that contribute to both securitising migration and reinforcing its nexus with crime, and the consequent social construction of ‘migration crises’. The seminar will also summarize the different contributions to the special issue published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Online first 22 December 2020) that prove the arguments of the spiraling with a different analysis of how migration has been dealt with at either governmental or non-governmental levels.

About the speaker

Prof. Dr. Valeria Bello (Ph.D. in Sociology and Political Sociology, University of Florence, Italy-2007) is the Director of the Official Master of Advanced Studies in International Affairs and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Blanquerna Faculty of Communications and International Relations, University Ramón Llull, Barcelona (Spain). She is a member of the Scientific Council of the European International Studies Association (EISA) and an expert consultant on inequalities, migration, and human and international security for a variety of international agencies and governments, including different UN agencies, regional organisations, national and local governments, and civil society associations. 

For more information and the link to the event click here.