Migration and Security in the Mediterranean: a Complex Relationship

Abstract

In June 1991, The Economist carried an article warning that ‘exploding populations plus stagnant economies’ would ‘force more and more North Africans to get to Europe by fair means or foul’.¹ A spectre appeared to loom of a Western Europe under siege from its poorer and less stable neighbours. Attention began to focus ever more sharply on the apparent threat of massive ‘south-north’ migration into Western Europe from the Third World, particularly from the Maghreb, with sensationalist newspaper headlines warning of an impending ‘migrant invasion’. The rise of Islamic militancy and the outbreak of civil war in Algeria only added to these fears, particularly in Southern Europe. In January 1994, The Financial Times carried an article which warned that:

developments [in Algeria] threaten Europe on several levels. Civil war invariably produces large flows of refugees, many of whom in this case would be bound to cross the Mediterranean. Their arrival would exacerbate racial tensions. The war could spread to North African communities in Europe. Islamic militants … might resort to terrorism not only against Europeans in Algeria, but against targets in Europe itself … [A]n Algeria racked by civil war … would be likely to stagnate economically. Europe could face more and more poor and angry people on its very doorstep.²