Mass Migrations And The Emerging Socio-Political Constructs Of Identity, Interest And Security In Hosts State

Abstract

This paper examines two distinct phenomena in the regulation of Migration and refugee hosting: First, host states' requisite socio-cultural and ethnopolitical receptivity, which is a prerequisite for reducing migration-related violence and instability. Here, the socio-cultural receptivity of the host state and transnational ties with groups travelling in disguise or posing as refugees and migrants may mitigate violence. Second, regarding socio-cultural similarities, political representation, and legal systems for integrating migrant and refugee communities, host countries have little in common with migrant groups. Hosting nationalistic identities and social security preferences may exacerbate the marginalization and polarisation of migrant and refugee populations. The materiality of security concerns, as opposed to the perception of a security threat, may manifest ironically in both cases, where states closer to migrants in terms of identity and value may be unable to anticipate the potential for socio-cultural fault lines to be exploited and transformed into ethnopolitical issues, border vacillation, and the spread of crime and terror nexuses from trans-national migration links. In contrast, states with minimal socio-cultural proximity to migrants may face reactive ethnic and political mobilization based on ethnicity & Nationalism against or within migrants. The subject addressed in this paper is: what social constructs of identity and interest perceptions may emerge from widespread cross-border movement, posing political and internal security concerns in the host state in the long run?