Any room at the inn? Migration and the securitising moves of political and religious elites in the UK

Abstract

This research aims to make a theoretical contribution to the Copenhagen School’s
securitisation theory by addressing its untenable focus on political actors. Using the
United Kingdom (UK) as a case study, it explores how messages are framed by both
political elites and religious elites in relation to migration. After an initial discussion
underlining the limitations imposed by an overreliance on political actors, the
selection of religious actors is validated. This percolates around three factors: the
Bourdieuan cultural capital that religious elites are endowed with; the unjustifiable
lack of scholarly attention that religion and religious actors have received in the
migration and in/tolerance literature; and the potential to contribute to the so far
intractable question of whether religion promotes tolerance or intolerance. Employing
critical discourse analysis, an intricate study of the rhetoric of both sets of elites is
undertaken. Findings demonstrate that the hegemonic discourses of political elites are
indeed based upon notions of threat and security. Contrastingly, the messages of
religious elites are on the whole aimed at desecuritising migration. Throughout the
analysis, the normative dilemma which exists at the core of securitisation theory,
namely, how to desecuritise an issue, is exposed and discussed. To conclude, two
points are addressed. Initially, the impact these findings have for future policy that is
designed to challenge the securitisation of migration. And secondly, scholars are
encouraged to expand upon the research by incorporating quantitative methods to
enable a precise measuring of the influence which religious elites and religiosity have
upon attitudes towards immigration.