TY - JOUR

T1 - Conflating the Muslim refugee and the terror suspect

T2 - responses to the Syrian refugee “crisis” in Brexit Britain

AU - Abbas, Madeline Sophie

PY - 2022/9/30

Y1 - 2022/9/30

N2 - The Syrian refugee “crisis” has prompted contradictory responses of securitization of European borders on the one hand, and grassroots compassion on the other, that posit a universal conception of the human deserving of equal rights to safety irrespective of racial or religious difference. However, in the aftermath of the 2015 and 2016 Paris terror attacks there has been a backlash against refugees amid fears of Islamist terrorists exploiting refugee channels to enter Europe, as well as an upsurge in a populist nationalism framing Brexit and anti-Muslim hostility following recent UK terror attacks. I argue that the convergence of the “Muslim refugee” and the “terror suspect” as threatening mobilizes a racialized biopolitics present in intersecting counter-terrorism and asylum regimes that prioritise security concerns above human rights. I advance the Concentrationary Gothic as a framework for understanding continuities in logics of racial terror framing the “Muslim question” within the Syrian refugee “crisis.”.

AB - The Syrian refugee “crisis” has prompted contradictory responses of securitization of European borders on the one hand, and grassroots compassion on the other, that posit a universal conception of the human deserving of equal rights to safety irrespective of racial or religious difference. However, in the aftermath of the 2015 and 2016 Paris terror attacks there has been a backlash against refugees amid fears of Islamist terrorists exploiting refugee channels to enter Europe, as well as an upsurge in a populist nationalism framing Brexit and anti-Muslim hostility following recent UK terror attacks. I argue that the convergence of the “Muslim refugee” and the “terror suspect” as threatening mobilizes a racialized biopolitics present in intersecting counter-terrorism and asylum regimes that prioritise security concerns above human rights. I advance the Concentrationary Gothic as a framework for understanding continuities in logics of racial terror framing the “Muslim question” within the Syrian refugee “crisis.”.

KW - Brexit

KW - counter-terrorism

KW - Muslim question

KW - racial

KW - security

KW - Syrian refugee crisis

U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2019.1588339

DO - 10.1080/01419870.2019.1588339

M3 - Journal article

VL - 42

SP - 2450

EP - 2469

JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies

JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies

SN - 0141-9870

IS - 14

ER -