Securitization

Securitization and Human Society in Australia: Climate Change

Versus Undocumented Migration

Introduction

States exist to protect their citizens from all security threats. To insure security, states have devised various machineries that facilitate response to insecurity with urgency. Australia is no different. The state has the constitutional mandate to secure its people. Australians have legitimate expectation that their government will protect them from any actor that threatens their survival. Yet, the government cannot fully address these security threats if it cannot identify them, prioritize, and act concertedly on them. The most common discourse amongst security analyst is what, between undocumented migration and climate change, poses the greatest security threat to Australian in the 21st century. This paper will delve into this debate and demonstrates that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Rather, their interplay has an exacerbating effect on security threat. To do this effectively, the paper will employ securitization theory as the analytical lens.

Theoretical Perspectives: Securitization

Securitization theory, an international relations theory, encompasses Copenhagen and Aberystwyth schools of thought. It conceptualizes security as an act of survival. For something to fall within the confines of security, it must be detrimental to existence of another object. The theory is essentially problem solving. It visualizes security threat as interplay of various aspects, political, social, economic, and environmental. When the state and other international players ensure that these aspects are functional, security threats diminish. Politics, regional and international, must exorcise security issues from politics an...

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