Constructing the 'North African Problem' in France (1920-1956)

A Colonial Genealogy of Migration Security Practices

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2236746
AutoresYazid Benhadda (0009-0003-4562-6541, Philipps University of Marburg, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen19
Número3
Fecha de publicación2025-06-06
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ips/olaf017
OpenAlexW4411761764
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas61

Despite its sophistication, most of the literature on the securitization of migration remains presentist in the sense that it has not yet truly integrated the colonial past. This paper seeks to correct this shortcoming, strengthening recent efforts to add historical depth and a postcolonial dimension to the securitization scholarship. In this endeavor, I propose what I call the colonial genealogical approach to securitization. This approach is built around three elements: the target population, the archive, and the normal. In this paper, I apply this approach to the securitization of North African migration to France. Mobilizing archival materials collected at the Centre d'Archives Diplomatiques de Nantes, the Archives de Paris, the Archives de la Prefecture de Police, as well as influential colonial literature on the question of the 'North African problem,' I shed light on the construction of North African migration as a 'security problem' in colonial France. I identify six nodal points in such construction: the criminal threat, the sanitary threat, the ethnic threat, the political threat, the economic threat, and the clandestine migration threat. Most echo the main tenets of contemporary securitization of migration. This demonstrates the importance of turning to colonial history to understand contemporary securitization processes and its practices

Colonialism · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Scholarship · Securitization · Sociology · China's Global Influence and Migration · Global Security and Public Health · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law