Is there any relationship between immigration and terrorism? Critical analysis from human rights perspective. Europe: security for or against the displaced?

Abstract

Since the end of the Second World War, there has never been such a large and dramatic humanitarian crisis as the result of the uncontrolled flow of refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants that worsened during the year 2015. According to official UNHCR figures collected in its 2018 statistical year book, the number of refugees in the world increases every year to exceed the figure of 68 million. Of this number, 1.1 million arrived in Europe during the recent years with the hope of rebuilding a truncated life. 5000 could not even touch land and drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015. The situation for the "lucky ones", those who reached the continent, however, has revealed the lack of political will, and has shown how much this crisis scares certain sectors of public opinion and how it has generated only clashes over the possible linkage of said immigrants with terrorist groups due to their origin (mainly Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan). Additionally, the recent terrorist attacks in Europe have not left society indifferent, creating a sense of terror that has had, as a consequence, effects on European policies adopted and, consequently, on their implementation by the Member States. In short, the result has shown the picture of a clumsy and completely fractionated continent by the quotas imposed under a “feeling of border permeability” that provokes insecurity and questions the idea of sovereignty. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a true relationship between immigration and terrorism, framed in the European context, and to observe which have been the political and legal measures carried out by the European Union (as a body), and more in particular, by Belgium, France, Spain and Germany due to the relevant role they have played within the migratory crisis, while assuming counter terrorist measures. Key words: migration, terrorism, jihadism, securitization, human rights, European Union.