About the workshop
Over the past few years, the EU has experienced a significant surge in the inflow of migrants and refugees, one that has challenged the EU’s internal cohesion and has often been speciously used by populist and nationalist movements to fuel public concerns. At the same time, terrorist attacks have multiplied across Europe, some of them perpetrated by first or second generation immigrants claiming allegiance to Islamic fundamentalist groups. Despite all the efforts made by EU institutions to problematize the connection between migration and terrorism, the link is ever more immediately drawn within the public debate, with repercussions in the public perception of the two phenomena. The implications in terms of policy approaches, but also in the normative sphere, are manifold, and a deeper reflection on the precise terms of such implications is in order.
On a global level, ethical issues are raised not only by terrorist groups smuggling and trafficking migrants in view of a financial profit but also by the evidence that massive migration and terrorist radicalization may also be regarded as having some common roots in persistent global inequalities. Moreover, some of the measures undertaken to fight global terrorism have in fact generated more refugees. All these cases have important ethical implications and call for an attentive reflection on what may be considered a just response by the international/global community.
There is no easy solution to the clash among differing justice claims, but a scholarly reflection on these issues might help us contribute to a more educated public and political debate, at both a regional and global level, and to some extent to contain the securitization trends that seem to inform the reactions to these phenomena, despite their being at variance with most justice criteria.
To discuss these topics, the University of Bologna Team of GLOBUS organised a workshop at the University Centre of Bertinoro, on June 4-6, 2018.
Programme
Monday, 4 June (Room: Church)
15.00 – 15.30 Welcome and introduction
Filippo Andreatta, Director of the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna
Stefano Bianchini, Head of the Forlì Campus of the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna
Sonia Lucarelli, GLOBUS Team leader, University of Bologna
Helene Sjursen, GLOBUS Coordinator, ARENA Centre for European Studies
15.30 – 16.30 Keynote speech: The geopolitics of European home affairs cooperation: justice
beyond borders?
Roderick Parkes, Senior Analyst, European Union Institute for Security Studies
16.30 – 18.30 Round Table – The Migration-Terrorism Alleged Nexus and Global Justice
Chair: Michela Ceccorulli, University of Bologna
Marco Balboni, University of Bologna
Thomas Diez, GLOBUS Team leader, University of Tübingen
Sonia Lucarelli, GLOBUS Team leader, University of Bologna
Dario Melossi, University of Bologna
Tuesday, 5 July
(Room Jacopo da Bertinoro)
09.00 – 10.45 First session – The EU, migration and terrorism – Part 1
Chair: Helene Sjursen, ARENA Centre for European Studies
Christopher Baker-Beall, Nottingham Trent University
EU Counter-Terrorism Policy: The threat of the ‘returning foreign fighter’ and the securitization
of migration, travel and border control.
Nikola Tomic, University College Dublin
Testing the limits of the EU’s comprehensive approach to crisis management: the case of Syrian migrants
Sarah Léonard, Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Migration and Terrorism in Europe: The Impact of Schengen
Discussant: James Sperling, University of Akron
10.45 – 11.00 Coffee break
11.00 – 12.45 Second session – The EU, migration and terrorism – Part 2
Chair: Pundy Pillay, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Christian Kaunert, University of South Wales, and Sarah Léonard, Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussels
The Refugee Crisis in the Mediterranean: Securitizing Practices, Terrorism and Foreign
Geopolitical Actors
Wael Garnaoui, Paris Diderot University
The Migration to the Jihad: The Mirror of the Desire
Discussant: Ben Tonra, GLOBUS Team leader, University College Dublin
12.45 – 14.15 Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 Third session – Migration and terrorism: non-European experiences
Chair: Thomas Diez, University of Tübingen
Sreeram Chaulia, Jindal Global University
The Two-way Causation of Migration and Terrorism: Asian Experience
Jim Sperling, University of Akron
Terrorists in America: Imported or ‘Made in America’?
Jessica Field, Jindal Global University
Fear and Exclusion: the securitisation of Rohingya refugees in India
Discussant: Michela Ceccorulli, University of Bologna
16.00 – 16.15 Coffee Break
16.15 – 17.45 Roundtable: The view of the stakeholders
Chair: Sonia Lucarelli, University of Bologna
Barbara Sargenti, Deputy prosecutor, Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Direction of the Italian
Republic
Giulio di Blasi, Member of the Cabinet of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy
Federico Soda, International Organisation for Migrations
Michele Tarlao, Head of the Italian State Police trade union (Silp-CGIL)
Wednesday, 6 June (Room Jacopo da Bertinoro)
9.00 – 10.45 Fourth session – Securitizing migration at home
Chair: Antonio Zotti, University of Bologna
Silvia D’Amato, University of Florence
When the opposites attract. The relationship between foreign policy and the migration-terrorism nexus in the French far right and radical left discourse
Attila Melegh, Corvinus University of Budapest, and Márton Hunyadi, Hungarian Academy of Science, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Minority Studies
Positional insecurity and the attack to the ideas of global justice in Hungary
Alvise Sbraccia, University of Bologna
Detention as a Field of Ambivalence: Radicalization and Deradicalization in the Italian Prison System
Discussant: Enrico Fassi, Catholic University Milan
10.45 – 11.00 Coffee break
11.00 – 13.00 Round Table – Maritime Operations in the Mediterranean: Security and Human Rights Considerations
Chair: Marco Borraccetti, University of Bologna
Giorgio Grappi, University of Bologna
Giorgia Linardi, Legal Adviser and Mission Coordinator for External Relations, Sea-Watch
Ettore Socci, EU Operation Sophia (EUNAVFOR MED)
Ben Tonra, University College Dublin
Any questions should be directed to sps.globus@unibo.it or michela.ceccorulli2@unibo.it.