The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration After 9/11

The Roster of Security Measures Enacted by the Bush administration in the panic that followed September 11, 2001, is by now well-known. Common to all of those initiatives -- from Homeland Security Presidential Directive 2 to the USA PATRIOT Act -- is concern for the link between migration and security. This new appreciation of how people on the move pose a threat -- whether real or imagined -- will be a recurring theme of domestic policy and international relations for years to come. But the "securitization of migration" must first confront a perplexing tangle of long borders, large-scale labor migration, and throngs of tourist and student visitors. Policymakers are only beginning to catch up with this complicated reality. Raising vital questions about government policy, The Maze of Fear explores the many dimensions of the migration -- security link, including discussions of civil liberties, transnational organizations, refugee populations, and politically active diasporas. Book jacket.

John Tirman is a program director at the Social Science Research Council