This project examines how the securitization of migration by the United States and Europe is affecting global peace and security. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, it is a collaborative initiative of the Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University Glasgow. It is led by Dr. Katrina Burgess and Dr. Gerasimos Tsourapas. 

The most highly securitized migrant routes are those traveled by migrants and refugees seeking entry into the United States and Europe. It is precisely along those routes that we expect to find evidence of serious and growing threats to the global order.  

First, there is evidence that securitized migration policies are fueling a loss of state authority to non-state actors embedded in illicit political economies along migratory routes.  

  • Paradoxically, the more the United States and Europe fortify their own borders and outsource migration control to transit countries, the more migrants rely on non-state actors such as smugglers, armed groups, and informal service providers to facilitate their journeys.  
  • As a result, illicit political economies with increasingly transnational dimensions have emerged at critical choke points along migration pathways to the United States and Europe.  
  • These illicit political economies support a variety of non-state actors, who not only transform local communities but also become key nodes for transnational criminal organizations intent on diversifying their portfolios to include migrant smuggling and human trafficking, often across continents.  

Second, a growing number of transit states are capitalizing on heightened securitization to punish and/or extract material concessions from the United States or Europe.  

  • Because of their strategic location along migratory routes, these transit states gain leverage through their ability to manipulate migrant and refugee flows deemed threatening when viewed through a securitized lens.  
  • While this leverage may not always be used for nefarious purposes, it encourages states to treat migrants and refugees as political pawns, leads to a domino effect as more transit states are encouraged to seek concessions from the United States or Europe, and opens the door for authoritarian and/or rogue states to further their agendas at the expense of global peace and security. 

Our project thus breaks new ground by highlighting these connections and exploring their implications for the international order. Following the research phase, we will be organizing workshops with relevant stakeholders to to co-create alternative scenarios for the global order in the next ten years.