Gendered and Racialised Border Security: Displaced People and the Politics of Fear

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics of constructing current migration from the so-called Global South in ‘risk’, ‘crisis’ and ‘fear’ terms that translate into xenophobic, racialised and gendered processes of ‘othering’ people who are displaced. This is done within the framework of a ‘coloniality of power’ (Quijano 2000b) perspective, understood as the ‘colonial power matrix’ (Grosfoguel 2011). This is how the location from which the current racialised and gendered politics of fear is being constructed. The notion of racialised security leads to racialised masculinity of the ‘Other’, while stigmatising migrant men. These colonial narratives that have created ‘knowledge’ about other masculinities have been invoked and re-articulated within the current racialised processes of securitisation of migration. They have supported construction of the sexual assault of ‘our’ women as the public security concern. Consequently, racially marked rape becomes an important part of State security, linked to national territory and border control.

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Published: 2020-08-05
Pages:75 to 86
Section:Special Issue: Migration, Vulnerability and Violence
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How to Cite
Korac, M. (2020) “Gendered and Racialised Border Security: Displaced People and the Politics of Fear”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(3), pp. 75-86. doi: 10.5204/ijcjsd.v9i3.1590.

Author Biography

University of East London
 United Kingdom

Maja Korac is a sociologist; her research interests are in the area of conflict, gender and displacement; conflict, intervention and development; gender, migration and integration. She has held positions at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford (Britain), Centre for Refugee Studies and the Centre for Feminist Research, York University (Canada), and University of Belgrade (Yugoslavia/Serbia). She has experience of consultancy work for governments and non-governmental organisation. Currently, Maja co-directs the Centre for Social Justice and Change, at UEL. Her single authored books include Remaking Home: Reconstructing Life, Place and Identity in Rome and Amsterdam published by Berghahn Books Oxford in 2009 (Serbian translation 2012); Linking Arms: Women and war in post-Yugoslav States published by Life & Peace Institute, Uppsala in 1998, and Captives of Their Sex:  Social Identity of Young Rural Women Between Traditional Culture and Contemporary Values published by the Institute of Sociological Research, University of Belgrade  in 1991 (published in Serbo-Croatian). In 2003, she co-edited a book entitled Feminist under Fire: Exchanges across War Zones, Toronto: Between the Lines (Sinhalese translation 2008; Croatian translation 2004), as well as Women in Conflict Zones, Special Issue of Canadian Women’s Studies, 2000, Vol. 19, No. 4, York University Publications. Maja Korac published widely in edited books and academic journals such as: Identities, Women’s Studies International Forum, the Journal of International Migration and Integration, Sociology, Gender and Education, Social Sciences and the Journal of Refugee Studies.