EUROPEAN SECURITY AND THE MIGRANT CRISIS
EUROPEAN SECURITY AND THE MIGRANT CRISIS

Author(s): Milovan R. Subotić, Miroslav Mitrović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Security and defense, Migration Studies
Published by: Institut za strategijska istraživanja
Keywords: migration; security; EU; Islamism; right-wing extremism; public opinion
Summary/Abstract: The topic of modern migrations and the associated effects have long since ceased to be of importance only to experts in the fields of demography, social and economic policy. The turbulent migration events in the second decade of the 21st century have shown us that modern migration has become a serious security issue for all European countries and the Union itself as never before. The security problems related to the massive wave of migration to Europe, mainly from the Middle East, and also from North Africa, are twofold. One side of the coin concerns general security problem that irregular migration poses for migrant transit countries and migrant destination countries. This is usually presented as a fear of Islamist extremists infiltrating migrant convoys to Europe, or more generally as a fear of the ”Islamization of Europe”. Another problem related to the dramatic migration flows to Europe is the rise of the radical right in many European countries and the emergence of strong anti-immigration and Islamophobic narratives. European national populist discourses have used the opportunity to emphasize more strongly the threat of Islamization of the Old Continent, and the fact that many of the asylum seekers were Muslims, who made the image of the ”Muslim invasion” even more effective. What also benefited right-wing populists were the terrorist attacks on European soil that coincided with the migration wave. Right-wing populism, based on the narratives of anti-migration policies, has also become a part of the electoral slogans of political parties, some of which have also become a part of the executive branch. This paper analyzes the problems faced by European countries due to the increasing insecurity caused by the sudden influx of migrants, and also the spread of rightwing extremism, which is a problem in itself in the complicated security algorithm today.

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