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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:African migration as the search for a wonderful world: an emerging trans-global security threat?
Author:Obi, Cyril I.ISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:African and Asian Studies (ISSN 1569-2094)
Volume:9
Issue:1-2
Pages:128-148
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:international migration
globalization
North-South relations
regional security
migration policy
External link:https://doi.org/10.1163/156921010X491290
Abstract:This article critically analyses the framing of African migration in hegemonic global security discourses as a source of transnational threats to developed and stable parts of the world. Such concerns have increased since 9/11 and the inception of the Global War on Terror, and are likely to grow in the wake of the global financial meltdown. It explores the globalization-migration-development nexus as it relates to how Africa has become an object of securitization based more on the manipulation of fear, than on reality. This underscores the point that the perception of 'illegal' African migration as a threat to Europe's southern borders is constructed and deliberately exaggerated for political ends. Thus, the article argues that the barriers designed to reduce or prevent African migration in a 'borderless world', have more to do with hegemonic politics, and less to do with any real danger. It also discusses the ramifications of the securitization of Africa in relation to the ways it is feeding into international support for the military and policing capacity of African States. This, in some regards, is taking place at the immense social cost of popularly-rooted democratization, social development and sustainable peace in the continent - thereby increasing the threats facing African people. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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