ANALYZING SECURITIZATION OF MIGRATION DURING THE PANDEMIC: EXAMPLES FROM THE UNITED STATES
Journal Title: Journal of International Relations and Political Science Studies - Year 2021, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
In the last decade, the world has witnessed an increase in immigration opposition and securitization as an inevitable outcome through prioritizing certain governments that fuel up anti-immigrant sentiments. With the election of Donald Trump, the United States applied certain policies that not only made the asylum system more challenging but also constructed a bifurcation that prioritized U.S. citizens against “an enemy” where the country should be protected form. With the novel Coronavirus sweeping all over the world, the securitized policies of the U.S. affected migrant than most of other people and exacerbated their dire living conditions. The suspension of the Migration Protection Protocol hearings, a policy that the Trump administrated put into force in 2019 which sends migrants at the U.S. borders to Mexico to wait their asylum procedure being finalized, had drastic effects on asylum seekers who were sent to the most dangerous cities of Mexico. Several asylum-seekers that were interviewed later expressed experiencing sexual assaults and robberies that were a result of the MPP policy and the suspension of the MPP hearings due to COVID-19 which made them trapped there indefinitely. Likewise, an order that was enforced in the name of a public health, CDC issue that halted undocumented migration in the U.S., resulted with the expulsion of hundreds of thousands asylum seekers out of the U.S. territories without providing any chance to hear their asylum claims. In light of these examples, this study investigates the following: Has migration been securitized in the United States during the Coronavirus pandemic in the Trump administration? The implementation of MPP and the suspension of its hearings as well as the CDC order will be analyzed through using the framework of Securitization Theory. It will be argued that policies that were created as a result of securitization of migration like MPP creates violent conditions for migrants and results with the violation of asylum rights and non-refoulement principle. Furthermore it will be argued that the CDC order is not a necessary, proportional and a legitimate action. The analyses of these two examples suggest that migration is being securitized in the U.S. in the pandemic times.
Authors and Affiliations
Aslınur İNALCI
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