20–23 Jun 2023
Europe/London timezone

The (im)possibility of desecuritisation: interculturalidad and refugees in South America

23 Jun 2023, 10:45

Description

This paper analyses the intersections between desecuritisation and critical interculturality, or interculturalidad, in a ‘Global South’ migratory context. Existing literature on desecuritisation of migration has given prevalence to Global North locales. Equally, scholars have debated the (im)possibility of desecuritisation in the societal sector reflecting European concerns. It has been established that the process of desecuritisation is linked to how societies understand and respond to diversity. For instance, in Central and Eastern Europe, desecuritising ‘Others’ could be either an impossibility at worst and at best, managed or reconstructed through intercultural or multicultural policies (Roe, 2006; Juttila, 2006). In light of this limited explanation to desecuritisation, this study brings to the fore interculturalidad. As an endemic concept to the Latin American experience, interculturalidad offers a ‘Global South’ decolonial view of inclusion which could help further understand desecuritisation outside Europe. This paper addresses the puzzle of the (im)possibility of desecuritisation through the study of the desecuritisation of refugees in Ecuador during the post-neoliberal tide (2007-2010). Ecuador constitutes a fascinating case given the paradigm shift in migration policies, practices and discourses, from a securitisation approach to a rights-based position. Drawing from existing Latin American literature on interculturalidad and empirical data from interviews, this paper proposes an innovative conceptual bridge between desecuritisation in particular and security studies more broadly, and intercultural approaches to diversity in a South American case.

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