Identitarian Populism: Securitisation of Migration and the Far Right in Times of Economic Crisis in Greece and the UK

Abstract

Western states have sought to integrate securitisation measures within migration regimes as asylum seekers and other migrant categories come to be seen as agents of social instability or as potential terrorists seeking to exploit immigration systems. Security concerns have topped western political agendas since the attacks of 9/11, and given that these attacks were carried out by non-state agents, the Cold War argument that security should also be about combating non-military threats was resurrected by governments in the west. Included among the non-military threats to state security is migration, the idea being that liberal migration regimes advance cross-border risks — for example, that of terrorism — while more restrictive regimes minimise such threats and improve national and societal security. In the Greek case, harsh austerity measures imposed upon Greek citizens resulted in even harsher anti-immigration measures imposed upon immigrants. Securitisation of migration in Greece, especially after the outbreak of the current economic crisis in the country, was followed by the emergence of a populist far right party as a considerable political force.