2
The question that is to be explored in this paper is how one group – immigrants or
third country nationals (in European Union lexicon) – came to be progressively targeted
as a security threat by European policymakers and elites. The focus is on why
immigrants
1
are perceived as a security threat in Europe and why it is likely that they will
continue to be targeted as such in the near future. I argue that there are three aspects to
human security: economic, political and social (Graham 2000). As all three of these
aspects of security are currently under strain in the European Union (EU) member states,
immigrants are likely to continue to be the focal point of security policy, even though
they may have nothing to do with the economic, social and political dislocations that
Europe faces in the 21
st
century.
A focus on why immigration and immigrants have become the prevailing security
issue of the 21
st
century highlights how this occurred, why it is likely to continue until
economic and social conditions change in Europe, and how member state policies may
actually be leading to increased insecurity and isolation among immigrants. In addition,
even though immigration policy has progressively been framed at the EU level (since the
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1999), the implementation of immigration policies, and the
salience of immigration as a political issue for national elections has occurred most
radically at the national level.
The 2004 enlargement of the EU is also likely to strengthen this focus on
immigrants as a security concern, rather than diminish it as the EU widens, because eight
out of the ten new member states (the central and eastern European states) have greater
economic, social and political problems than do the other 17 member states. The
1
Immigrants are broadly defined as any person living in an EU member state who does not have EU
citizenship. This definition includes illegal and legal migrants.
Convention