Migrants and minorities as a security threat: a global long-term perspective

Leo Lucassen, International Institute of Social History (IISH)

When it comes to (im)migration the issue of ‘security’ is mostly framed as part of the failed or difficult integration process of newcomers in established (nation) states.The second type of security issues arises when the receiving population for nativist, xenophobic, religious or racist reasons violently turns against migrants or minorities that they regard as not belonging and as an immediate threat to the homogeneity and culture of the native ingroup, and the often also violent reactions that this sparks. For a deeper understanding of this nexus, we need a wider approach than the preoccupation with established and powerful receiving societies.To go beyond this limited approach we should also include violence by what Patrick Manning has dubbed ‘invading migrants’ against native populations and against enslaved migrants from elsewhere, with African Americans as the best example.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 163. New Perspectives on Nativist Discourses