The linkage between immigration, internal security, border controls, and the integration of immigrants and their prodigy is increasingly complex. It is both a source of, and symptomatic of, some of the most salient problems facing both Europe and the United States today. The convergent trend on both sides of the Atlantic is to implement restrictive immigration measures allegedly designed to fight terrorism. Counter-terrorism policy is thus used as a way to regulate the flow of immigrants and to increase the surveillance of established minority groups. These measures reinforce existing negative perceptions of immigrants and legitimize prevailing policy patterns.

Such trends generate a series of crucial questions: Does the securitization of immigration issues actually contribute to the enhancement of internal security? Does the use of counter-terrorist measures help to solve the problems commonly related to immigration, such as border controls, migrant integration, and social cohesion in host societies? If so, paradoxically, how can we explain the increasing number of illegal immigrants, the resilience of ethnic tensions, and the emergence of ‘home grown’ radicalization?

In this seminar, Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia examines three interlocking processes that fuel ‘the dynamics of security/integration policy failure’. The first relates to the spiral effect of border escalation. Designed to prevent illegal immigration and terrorist threats, she argues that border controls in fact generate new immigration flows and increase insecurity. Second, the increasing volume of counter-terrorism activity has led to the proliferation of similarly flawed policy institutions in the United States and Europe: hampered by a vague definition of terrorism, they have expanded and tackle security issues unrelated to terrorism. Third, the impact of the securitization of immigration may actually increase alienation and therefore facilitate terrorist recruitment. The net effect is the creation of a self-fulfilling prophesy of a permissive environment of violence.

Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, educated at Sciences Po (Ph.D., HDR), is an associate professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers - State University of New Jersey. She is also co-director of the ISI Immigration Research Network and Senior Researcher affiliated to the Center for Political Research, Sciences Po Paris. Professor Chebel d’Appollonia specializes in the politics of immigration and anti-discrimination in the United States and Europe, racism and xenophobia, extreme-right wing movements, immigrant integration, and urban racism. She has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, both at universities in France (Paris III-Sorbonne, and the Columbia University and the University of Chicago Programs in Paris) and in the US (New York University, University of Pittsburgh). Professor Chebel d’Appollonia was selected as the Buffet Chair Professor at Northwestern University (2005) and a visiting fellow at the Ford Institute for Human Security (2004-2006), and at the European Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh. Furthermore, she was awarded the EU-US Fulbright scholar in 2006. In addition to three books (including one on the Far Right in France, and another on Everyday Racism) and five edited volumes, Professor Chebel d’Appollonia recently co-edited the book with Simon Reich Immigration, Integration and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008). She is currently working on the book Immigration, Security, and Democracy in the United States and Europe (under review at Cornell University Press).