Security threat: a reality or right-wing political discourse phenomenon
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Security threat: a reality or right-wing political discourse phenomenon Marium Fatima 1 & Ghulam Ali Murtaza 2 & Shahid Ahmed Afridi 1 & Arshi Saleem Hashmi 1 Received: 23 September 2018 / Revised: 5 May 2019 / Accepted: 10 May 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract This article studies the potential paradigm shift in Europe linking refugees’ influx with the security phenomenon through the works of intellectuals belonging to Copenhagen and Paris School. The article has been written exclusively in the milieu of the Civil War in Syria which brought migrants/refugees into the international limelight as a threat to security after 2011. The paper initially examines the Political position occupied by right wing and the rightist politicians’ discourse on refugees in Europe. Afterwards the paper discusses discursive phenomenon of securitization in the framework of theory on the premise of the works of different scholars of the field. The last section probes the construction of refugees as a threat to security in Germany as a unique case which underwent securitization and de-securitization. Turkey presents another case study to investigate the security threat posed by the refugees as a reality or misconception in the ambit of the theoretical framework and how the securitization narrative influenced the Turkish policies towards refugees.
Introduction Attacks on US World Trade Centre in 2001 left deep social impact on the communal relations between Muslims and Christians/white people not only in America but the effects also rippled across the European society. A powerful nationalist movement emerged in West tilting towards right-wing politics defying the fundamental pluralist values. Nationalist rhetoric unmistakably made its way into mainstream media (print and electronic), the parliamentary debates became more divisive, and institutional response to religious identity was discriminatory but justified on account of national
* Marium Fatima [email protected]
1
Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, National Defense University, Islamabad, Pakistan
2
School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK
M. Fatima et al.
interest and state security (Berti 2015). Since majority of European countries are democratic; therefore, the rise of right wing signifies popular support to the nationalist propaganda of these political parties. The Political discourse concluded in state attempts to ban Muslim cultural symbols, wrongful depiction in the media and discrimination against Muslims in military services. Legal enactments against Veil/Burkini in France and Germany, Minarets and Halal Zabeeha in Switzerland are institutionalized measures explicitly suppressing the cultural identity of Muslim community. After the Syrian civil war in 2011, laws against refugees entering Europe denote another level of xenophobia. BJewelry Law^ sanctioned the Danish Government to impound every valuable from asylum seekers to finance their accommodation that is another example of a controversial legisla
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