16/06/2016: Migration seminar “Prejudice and the Securitization of Migration as Global Security Threats” by V. Bello

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/06/16
4:00 pm - 4:45 pm

Location
UNU-MERIT, Boschstraat 24, Maastricht (Room 0.16/0.17)

Categories


Prejudice and the Securitization of Migration as Global Security Threats

by Dr. Valeria Bello (UNU-GCM)

MGSoG/UNU-MERIT Migration Seminar in collaboration with Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE)

Abstract

International Migration has become a security concern in current times. Changes that have occurred in the international system from the end of the Cold War have entailed increased mobility across the globe, instability in particular sensitive regions and consequent conflicts across the world. This has involved both more insecurity in various regions of the world and rises in international migration. Through evidence from data on international migration and other macro-economic variables, the changes in the International System and in the Welfare State System in Europe will be connected to the development of societal insecurity and questions and complaints concerning migrants as perceived threats in host societies.  This complex situation has increasingly contributed to the securitization of migration. However, the securitization of migration itself also plays a crucial role in increasing prejudiced attitudes towards migrants. While the exclusion from life opportunities – for both newcomers and the established – can develop into sources of different types of extremism, for instance far-right violent groups and terrorist groups, which, ultimately, mutually reinforce each other.

Speaker biography

Valeria Belloa Political Sociologist (PhD 2007, University of Florence) who has taught and published in the fields of Sociology, International Relations and Political Science, is Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM) since December 2012. Previously, she was “Marie Curie” Intra-European Research Fellow at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (Spain). She has also worked as both Assistant Professor of Political Sociology and the Sociology of International Relations (2005-2009) at the Department of Sociology and Social Sciences Methods and Assistant Coordinator at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (2003-2009) of the University of Trento (Italy). She mainly works at themes such as prejudice, extremism and the securitization of migration. She is generally interested in how dynamics of identity formation change as a consequence of globalization and mobility. Her research interests also concern the role of non-state actors in the areas of migration, interethnic and international relations and human security.