Securitization without Security:
How Migration is Shaping the Global Order
Project deliverables
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles
Tsourapas Gerasimos, “Credible Fictions: How States Stage Refugee Governance for Geopolitical Gain,” Journal of Refugee Studies 39, no. 1 (2026): 22–40. Editor's Choice; open access. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feaf068
Tsourapas Gerasimos and El-Anis Imad, “Instrumentalizing Crisis as Capital: Eco-Humanitarian Rentierism and the Global Politics of Aid,” International Affairs 101, no. 6 (2025): 2149–2172. Open access. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaf185
Policy reports
Empociello Emma and Garcia Jalil Melendez Greta, “How the United States is Using Third Countries to Expand Immigration Control”, Migration Information Source, MPI, October 2026.
Anatomies of a Crossing
Temizyurek, Selim (text), and Morgan Miller (visuals). “Anatomy of a Crossing: Türkiye.” (2026) Securitization without Security, Developed under the supervision of Professor Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Birmingham. Based on fieldwork by Samet Apaydın
Neubecker, Sarah (text), and Stuti Kulkarni (visuals), “Anatomy of a Crossing: The Darién Gap.” (2026) Securitization without Security, Developed under the supervision of Dr. Emma Empociello. Based on fieldwork by Dr. Tatiana Padilla, Sarah Neubecker, and Sara Sharpe (summer 2025).
Kulkarni, Stuti and Theodoropoulos, Andreas (visuals). “Libya’s Migration Diplomacy in the Central Mediterranean.” (2026) Securitization without Security, Developed under the supervision of Professor Gerasimos Tsourapas, based on a report with research assistance from Aidan Kelly.
Notes from the field
Apaydın, Samet. “Mobile Migration Points.” Securitization without Security, August 22, 2025.
Apaydın, Samet. “The Presidency of Migration Management.” Securitization without Security, August 25, 2025.
Apaydın, Samet. “The Gate to Europe – Izmir.” Securitization without Security, November 30, 2025.
Apaydın, Samet. “Changing Dynamics – Basmane.” Securitization without Security, December 1, 2025.
Fallone, Andrew. “Working in an Economy Under Pressure.” Securitization without Security, May 30, 2026.
Fallone, Andrew. “Living without Legal Migratory Status Under Compounding Pressures.” Securitization without Security, March 31, 2026.
Fallone, Andrew. “Speaking Out in a Civil Society Under Pressure.” Securitization without Security, April 1, 2026.
Garcia Jalil Melendez, Greta. “Everyday Securitization at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.” Securitization without Security, July 12, 2025.
Garcia Jalil Melendez, Greta. “Sunday Morning Tour with a Local Fronteriza.” Securitization without Security, July 13, 2025.
Neubecker, Sarah. “Migration, Visibility, and Urban Margins in Santa Fé.” Securitization without Security, July 9, 2025.
Neubecker, Sarah. “The ‘Big Brother’ of Urabá.” Securitization without Security, July 13, 2025.
Neubecker, Sarah. “The Ones Left Behind.” Securitization without Security, August 1, 2025.
Padilla, Tatiana. “Where Are All the Migrants?.” Securitization without Security, July 18, 2025.
Sharpe, Sara. “Navigating Dangerous Spaces.” Securitization without Security, July 20, 2025.
Sharpe, Sara. “Traces in the Jungle, Trash in the Street.” Securitization without Security, July 20, 2025.
Project workshops
December 11, 2026 (forthcoming), “The Diplomacy of Migration Control: Agreements, Audiences, and the Politics of Implementation,” project workshop organized by Gerasimos Tsourapas, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul.
September 10, 2026, “Integration as Protection; Rethinking Migration Governance to Counter Securitization and Reduce Vulnerability”, project workshop organized by Katrina Burgess and Emma Empociello, Mexico City.
March 19, 2026, “Mapping Securitization in Motion: Understanding Migration Governance Systems in the Americas”, project workshop organized by Katrina Burgess and Emma Empociello, Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego.
Conference panels and presentations
September 6, 2026, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, “Securitisation without Security in Global Migration Politics,” full paper panel (Division 52: Migration & Citizenship).
Tsourapas, “Acting as If: Credible Fictions and the Persistence of International Cooperation”
Empociello & Burgess, “The Impact of “Reverse Flows” on the Darien Gap and Southern Mexico”
March 22, 2026, ISA Annual Convention, “Hedging, Hosting, and Externalising: The Geopolitics of Migration Diplomacy”; Signaling Alignment, Resisting Convergence: Migration Hedging in Egypt and Mexico; Tsourapas & Burgess
September 8, 2026, “Visualizing Migration and Human Security in Türkiye”, Mediterranean team (Morgan Miller and Selim Temizyurek), Fletcher School, Tufts University, 8 September 2026
April 7, 2026, “Between Politics and Personal Choice: Migration Decisions Across the Americas”, Americas team (Emma Empociello, Greta Garcia Jalil Melendez, Stuti Kulkarni, Sarah Neubecker)
Dr. Katrina Burgess at the September 2026 workshop in Mexico, “Integration as Protection: Rethinking Migration Governance to Counter Securitization and Reduce Vulnerability.”
Contact Us
Henry J. Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Tufts University
160 Packard Ave.
Medford, MA 02155 USA