Securitisation of International Migration in the Context of Economic and Societal Security: The Case of the “Front National” Party of France

The phenomenon of international migration, which was encouraged by many European countries in the past to meet their workforce needs, as of the end of the 1990s, has been increasingly considered as an international security problem posing a threat to the national, societal and economic security of both the international system and developed and developing countries, and has become a subject securitized by far-right parties. Especially after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, the immigration and anti-immigrant sentiments and actions were concentrated in the Western world in general, and Europe in particular, reaching a pinnacle during the Arab Spring. Far-right parties have risen in response to migration and anti-immigration discourses, securitizing international migration by claiming that immigrants disrupt European society’s homogeneity, and increase integration problems, unemployment, and crime rates. In this study, in which the securitization of international migration on a socio-economic and political basis within the framework of far-right parties in Europe is examined through the example of the Front National Party in France, it is concluded that immigration will continue to be securitized in Western European countries where the far-right is on the rise.