Secular States in a “Security Community”: The Migration-Terrorism Nexus?

Abstract

This article discusses the disintegration paradox as set against the backdrop of the Brexit referendum and the migration crisis in Europe. In face of an apparent inability effectively to address the challenge of migration, and tested by disintegrative dynamics of which Brexit is just one example, religion has been brought back to narratives employed by societies perceived as secular. The instrumental use of religion and, as a consequence, the emergence of a migrationterrorism nexus, obscure our ability to understand and address the migration crisis as well as the subsequent disintegrative dynamics in the European Union. In this context, this article makes a case that, while the concepts of migration and the migrant have to be revisited, it is fundamental that the agency (individual and plural) of the migrant be brought into the analysis. In this way, migration can be viewed as a complex phenomenon that is a function of the postmodern and post-Westphalian reality, whereby the EU becomes a nomadic hub defined by “fluid frontiers” rather than binary divides. The migrant’s agency serves as the key to decode a complex matrix of strategies that could be employed to address the disintegrative dynamics that the current migration crisis exacerbates. Acknowledgements The authors express their appreciation to the Faculty Resource Network (FRN) for the opportunity given to Professor Anna Visvizi to conduct this research at NYU New York as well as to Belen Presas Mata, Bongha Lee, Ossama Ayesh, Melissa Salyk-Virk, and Negin Njn for their editorial comments and research assistance. This article is available in Journal of Strategic Security: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol9/iss3/3