Illegal Migration: Personal Tragedies, Social Problems, or National Security Threats? (From Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade, P 11-41, 1999, Phil Williams, ed. -- See NCJ-184191)

• NCJ Number: 184193
• Author(s): Margaret E. Beare
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 31 pages
• Sale Source: Frank Cass and Co, Limited
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper surveys the issue areas and policy dilemmas related broadly to illegal migration.

Abstract

To understand illegal migration, one must understand the context: political, economic, and social environments; motivations of the illegal migrating populations and other non-illegal migrant groups; and the identity of those who exploit and/or are served by the illegal migrants. This essay discusses illegal migration within the wider debate over “security threats” which result as a consequence of transnational crimes, and questions whether illegal migration should be seen and responded to as a security threat. It concludes that, if human security is seen to be distinct from a more traditional focus on national security, and if human security is responded to in a manner that is not reliant on the police and the military, then the broader human security terminology can legitimately be applied to illegal migration. It argues that a predominately law enforcement or military response is seldom appropriate for the diverse issues that fall under illegal migration. Notes