Schengen area shaken: the impact of immigration-related threat perceptions on the European security community

Abstract

In light of the recent European refugee crisis, the article uses the concept of security community (SC), in order to explore the destabilizing impact of immigration-related threat perceptions on the Schengen Area. Theoretically, it is nourished by the will to support efforts by security community researchers to explore the challenges besetting security communities rather than just tracing their evolution. Viewed from a constructivist prism, the article describes how through a complex social process, immigration-related threat perceptions can trigger a security dilemma dynamic among SC states, undermining the SC's basic trust and common identity, and encouraging states to abandon cooperative norms for unilateral defensive practices. Empirically; we show how immigration-related threat perceptions are working against the Schengen regime by examining well-established evaluation indicators in the SC literature. Finally, two avenues for future research are suggested in considering how to surmount the negative dynamics: the first draws on existing desecuritization literature, the second builds on existing SC literature addressing the rehabilitation of collective identities and trust among an SC's members in times of crisis.

Smart and secure borders through automated border control systems in the EU? The views of political stakeholders in the Member States

“…Here some strands in critical border studies help to analyse the potential consequences of such views, warning how any divergence on the part of the Schengen security community from the path of regional integration and solidarity could send Europe back to the traditional power politics of national interests, self-reliance and mistrust (Alkopher and Blanc 2016). Such a return is possible since right-wing Eurosceptic populism has become mainstreamed (Brack and Startin 2015), especially in our cases of the UK (Auel and Raunio 2014) and Finland (Leruth 2015).…”

“…These observers associate such technologies with securitisation, that is, processes in which issues are brought under the security logic of emergency measures, delimiting public debate and involvement (Lodge 2004, Muller 2011. Scholars criticise the securitisation of migration, especially in the post-9/11 context (Alkopher and Blanc 2016), and the ensuing entanglement of security and immigration policies (Muller 2004, Dijstelbloem et al 2011, potentially undermining, for example, asylum seekers' rights (Palm 2013). The research also identifies threats to users' privacy due to biometric identification and European databases (Broeders 2007, Harel 2009, van der Ploeg 2009, Friedewald et al 2010, Mordini and Rebera 2012.…”

“…At the beginning of 2016, several Schengen Members started to re-establish border controls in response to immigration-related threat perceptions. By eroding trust and common identity, these unilateral decisions may eventually dissolve the security community upon which the Schengen area stands (Alkopher and Blanc 2016).…”

Workplace bullying of immigrants working in Sweden

“…In the year 2000 Sweden had 11.3% foreign-born residents, and by the end of 2017 this figure was 18.6% (Statistics Sweden, 2018). In 2015, Sweden and the rest of Europe had to deal with one of the greatest migrations in modern times (Alkopher & Blanc, 2017). This made the idea of immigration salient.…”

Thick Europe, ontological security and parochial Europe: the re-emergence of far-right extremism and terrorism after the refugee crisis of 2015

“…An additional fuelling factor for boosting European anxiety levels was the succession of violent extremist and terrorist attacks on European soil occurring from 2015 onwards 1 -Paris, Brussels, London, Copenhagen and Nice, among others contributed to an extreme degree of antagonism, in relation to the origin and religious background of most refugees, promoting a fertile ground for far-right parties to discursively and politically associate migrants and refugees to criminality and terrorism (Ben-David & Matamoros-Fernández, 2016;Bilić et al, 2018;Colombo, 2018;den Boer, 2008;European Commission, 2019;Galpin, 2017;Jaeger, 2018;Krzyżanowski, 2018;Leonard & Kaunert, 2019;Liebhart, 2020;Petričušić, 2016;Triandafyllidou, 2018;United Nations, 2019). This major shifting point marked the beginning of novel security narratives and the framing of migrants as a refugee threat (Alkopher & Blanc, 2017;Bello, 2017;Bigo & Tsoukala, 2008;Bourbeau, 2011;Huddy et al, 2005;Koser, 2018;Lazaridis, 2015;Leonard & Kaunert, 2019, p. 3;Trimikliniotis, 2019). Borrowing from Browning, de la Salla, Kinvall, Mitzen and Rumelli, we provide an analysis through the paradigm of an ontological security perspective, exploring the EU's existencial anxieties and narratives linked to EU as a spatial mooring or Homespace (Browning, 2018a, p. 251;Della Sala, 2017Kinnvall, 2016Kinnvall, , 2018Mitzen, 2018bMitzen, , pp.…”