Securitization of migration and the far right: the case of Greek security professionals
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12219 |
| Published date | 01 April 2016 |
| Author | Gabriella Lazaridis,Dimitris Skleparis |
| Date | 01 April 2016 |
Securitization of migration and the far right:
the case of Greek security professionals
Gabriella Lazaridis* and Dimitris Skleparis**
ABSTRACT
Since the events of 9/11, security concerns have gained unprecedented dominance on western
governments’national and international political agendas; Greece has been no exception. The
success or failure of a far right party, like Golden Dawn, depends on the effectiveness of the
government to regulate immigration and to develop policies aimed at combating the racism
which pervades the political culture of society at this particular juncture, when the country is
experiencing severe crisis. The aim is to provide an account of the rationale of the securitiza-
tion of migration from the perspective of Greek security professionals. We argue that the
extreme securitizing perceptions of security professionals have been exploited and assisted by
far-right extremist groups, which instilled racial violence, hate speech/crime into society,
resulting in patterned, unreflective, and routinized security practices and discourses which are
more in line with the beliefs and values advocated by the extreme right.
INTRODUCTION
The “securitization”of migration in Greece started in the early 1990s (Karyotis, 2012). The eco-
nomic and political changes that took place in East Central Europe and the resulting mass influx of
migrants into Greece led to repeated restrictive actions, ranging from intensifying border controls to
sweeping operations concluding in massive deportations and xenophobic reactions against the
“other”(see Lazaridis and Wickens, 1999). The rhetoric for the adoption of intense securitization
policies and measures to control cross-border movements intensified with the current economic cri-
sis and the resulting social, economic and other conditions of insecurity for citizens which provided
a fertile ground for far right groups in Europe, and in Greece particularly, to use migration as a
core target of their anti-”other”politics and actions.
The concentration of immigrants in a few large cities, particularly in the greater Athens area,
heightened tensions that had existed since the early 1990s when Greece became an immigration
host, and highlighted the shortcomings of immigration policies and the lack of integration policies.
Immigration has since become a vote winner in Greece. The success or failure of a far right party,
like Golden Dawn (GD), depends inter alia on the effectiveness of the government to regulate
immigration, and develop policies aiming at combating the level of racism which pervades the
* University of Leicester
** ELIAMEP, Athens
[Correction added on 18 February 2016, after first online publication: The reference Bourbeau, P. 2014 and Skleparis,
D. 2015 were previously missing, as a result the paragraphs were re-written to include the full citations now marked
in bold.]
doi: 10.1111/imig.12219
©2015 The Authors
International Migration ©2015 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (2) 2016
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
political culture of Greek society at this particular juncture where the country experiences an eco-
nomic and socio-political crisis.
The aim of this article is to provide an account of the rationale of the securitization of migration
in Greece, from the perspective of Greek security professionals,
1
and to provide an insight on how
this rationale was hijacked and reproduced by the far right. The article is divided into two parts.
The first part looks at Greek security professionals’intensified practices and the logics of securitiz-
ing migration; the second part looks at the rise of the far-right in Greece and the ways in which
they used the securitization of migration as a vehicle for justifying their anti-”other”hate speech
and crimes. The argument put forward is that these practices and logics of Greek security profes-
sionals have been exploited/hijacked by far-right extremist groups, which have instilled racial vio-
lence, hate speech and crime into Greek society and subsequently subverted the country’s national
security, the thing they were aiming to protect in the first place.
The article draws on face-to-face interviews: 10 with GD activists, 15 with pro-migrant civil and
state organizations and victims of hate speech and crime and 19 with Greek security professionals
from the Hellenic Police and Coast Guard, allocated by the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen
Protection after a formal request was submitted. The interviews were conducted in Athens, Oresti-
ada, Alexandroupoli and Lesvos in 2012-13. Access to additional interviewees was gained through
already established contacts, taking into account the requirement of specialization in migration
issues. Our sample is comprised of male security professionals.
2
Six of them were high rank offi-
cers, 46-60 years old, and thirteen were low rank officers, 30-45 years old.
Furthermore, 12 Masters dissertations on migration issues prepared by Greek elite
3
security pro-
fessionals during their study at the School of National Security and the Hellenic National Defence
College were analysed. Access to these dissertations was gained after formal applications requesting
access were submitted to the aforementioned institutions. Both institutions provide education on a
postgraduate level to senior members of the Hellenic Police, Armed Forces, Coast Guard, Fire Bri-
gade, and civil servants of the broader public sector responsible for state security issues. What ren-
ders these dissertations so important is the fact that they are produced by individuals who will
most probably occupy the highest rank positions within the field of security professionals.
SECURITIZATION OF MIGRATION: THEORIES OF EXCEPTION AND ROUTINE
This article argues that GD took advantage of pre-existing securitization processes (i.e. securitization
discourses and practices) regarding immigration, and by exploiting them in a period when Greece was
economically unstable, was able to attract voters. In its current configuration, the literature on securiti-
zation –the process of integrating an issue into a security framework that emphasizes policing and
defence –relies mainly on two logics. According to Bourbeau (2014: 187–88), “in its current con-
figuration, the literature on securitization –the process of integrating an issue into a security
framework that emphasizes policing and defence –relies mainly on two logics.”One is the logic
of exception, which postulates that security is a process designed to combat existential threats via
exceptional measures. The current benchmark in securitization research, the analytical frame-
work proposed by the Copenhagen School (CoS), relies on the logic of exception (Wæver, 1995;
Buzan, Wæver and de Wilde, 1998). The other is the logic of routine (Bigo, 2002; Balzacq, 2011;
Huysmans, 2006) which views security “as a collection of routinized and patterned practices, typ-
ically carried out by bureaucrats and security professionals, in which technology comes to hold a
prominent place”(Bourbeau, 2014: 188).
As Bourbeau (2014: 193) argues, “the securitization process is first and foremost about a
performance - a process of doing something - and refers to decisions that are socio-histori-
cally informed”, characterized by recurrence and reproduction. Yet the securitization process
Securitization of migration and the far right 177
©2015 The Authors. International Migration ©2015 IOM
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