Security in Times of Migration: Towars a Glocal Definition and Practice of Security. The Case of the Syrian Refugees in Bulgaria

Abstract

In the summer of 2013, the number of Syrian refugees crossing into Bulgaria increased significantly. The preferred governmental rhetoric in this regard was characterized predominantly by the jargon of ‟threat to the national security”. In November 2013, the Bulgarian Parliament reconfirmed its earlier decision to grant a five-year residence permit for non-EU nationals against a deposit of 1 million BGN (approx. 500,000 euros) in a Bulgarian bank.
The arrival of Syrian refugees was also met with a series of xenophobic attacks and patriotic marches against the ‟immigrants’ terror”. Furthermore, the plans of the government to set up ad hoc refugee camps in the vicinity of some small towns and villages provoked general anxiety, live chains and blockades of the roads. Parallel to this, a broad-based humanitarian campaign was iniated on the part of informal social groups, organizations, and universities.
How is the term of ‟security” to be defined today in times of intensive transnational movements of people? The statist parameters of the ‟security dilemma”, outlined by John Herz in 1950, has long proved insufficient to take into account the role of the human factor in the current world developments. Moreover, we are observing a reductionist adaptation of its traditional theoretical and pratical implications in form of social ‟exclusion” and ‟inclusion”; individual biopolitical profiling of migrants in the name of defending a territory; transnational management of personal biographies ‟in advance”; augmented technical and organizational cooperation among police and secret services. Nevertheless, such approaches often seem to generate a feeling of insecurity among the ‟normalized” local populations in the host countries as well as open tensions among them and the immigrants.
This paper addresses the necessity for a critical formulation of the concept of ‟security” today. In this sense, the uneven manifestations of the globalization with respect to different social and ethnic groups of people should be firmly brought into this investigation. A ‟glocal” research perspective needs to be reconfirmed. Second, a contemporary understanding of security should be constructed more in terms of rights, justice, and prosperity and be positively (embracement) instead of negatively (defence) oriented.
Keywords: migration, security, globalization, Bulgaria