"In June 2007, the Fraser Institute held a conference in Toronto, Ontario, titled, "Immigration Policy, Border Controls, and the Terrorist Threat In Canada and the United States."The chapters in this volume, which arose from this conference, raise fundamental questions about weaknesses in Canada's current immigration policies and procedures." "The contributors to this volume identify serious threats and weaknesses in the immigration, asylum, and border regimes from both Canadian and American perspectives. The authors are not opposed to effectively managed immigration or allowing genuine refugees who pose no security threat to enter the country through a well-vetted system. All believe that the vast majority of immigrants pose no danger, but are simply seeking to improve their freedom and prosperity. Nevertheless given the stakes raised by terrorist attacks, the entry of even a small number of potentially dangerous individuals should warrant major attention and policy review."--BOOK JACKET.

Annotation When the United States tightened its immigration policies in response to concerns over terrorism, Microsoft's Bill Gates and General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt warned that some of these restrictions were harmful to US economic interests. Further, academic and business leaders warned that the restrictions were causing many of the world's most promising international students of science and engineering to go elsewhere. Under pressure from the academic, science and business body, in February 2005 the US State Department eased the Visa Mantis Program by extending the validity of science-related visas from one year to up to four years. Will more rational policy reforms follow? US Immigration Laws examines many of the dramatic changes that have occurred to immigration laws in recent years, and points to areas that can be adjusted to reduce needless burdens while maintaining security. Many of the policy changes discussed were implemented after the attacks of September 11, 2001, but several of these laws were created throughout the 1990s, some after the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. The opening chapter examines that very event and the remainder of the book follows the progression of modifications in immigration laws in the US up to the present. The book concludes with an assessment of the future of immigration and immigration policies. This book is written for those who have an interest in current events, immigration, law, political science and the legislative reaction to terrorism. It is intended to provoke scholarly debate through a thorough examination of immigration policies as they have been influenced by the threat of terrorism. * Julie Farnam is an immigration specialistworking with universities, the International Rescue Committee, and community groups to counsel immigration applicants on student immigration rules and regulations, and adjustment of status applications and naturalization applications. Ms. Farnam also writes on immigration and.

Globalization, accompanied by more options for communication, has led to sweeping changes which mean that the economic, political and cultural realities of one country may influence those of other countries, despite them being geographically far apart. Increased migration, both within and across national borders, serves only to amplify the potential problems that this can cause. Trauma and violence are often associated with the migration process, and even where they are not, migration and immigration represent a massive challenge to individuals which frequently involves loss of identity, alienation and discrimination. This book is a collection of 16 papers from the NATO sponsored meeting entitled Perspectives on Immigration and Terrorism, which took place in Milan (Italy) in March 2010, and which focused on the psychological and socio-cultural precursors to the radicalization of immigrant youth in Europe. Some of the topics explored include: factors of cultural and ideological opposition to western societies; the growing pressure of the process of secularization; illegal aspects of terrorism; immigration as a possible trajectory for political radicalism; the interaction between traumatic experience and immigration; acculturation and adjustment to a new culture; potential predictors of terrorist behavior and the role of a sense of national belonging. The book provides many perspectives on the way in which vulnerability to radical ideology may develop among individuals whose lack of personal and social resources may result in alienation, frustration and desperation. It also offers solutions which might be implemented to mitigate or prevent this problem.

This important book examines why terrorism prevails in the otherwise stable and advanced democracies of Western Europe and why some countries have been more severely hit than others. The author maps the trends in internal terrorism in 18 Western European countries since 1950 and explains those trends, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. He uses a unique data set called TWEED, which covers around 9000 terrorist attacks and records the activities of about 200 terrorist groups over the post-war period. Offering a historical and comparative approach to terrorism, unlike the more usual focus on contemporary threats and developments, this book will appeal to political and social scientists and students, especially those working in comparative politics or on the causes of conflict. Academics interested in European studies and more specifically the conditions and developments of European democracy, and policymakers concerned with the development of the terrorist threat in Europe will also find the book of great interest.

Imagining Far-right Terrorism explores far-right terrorism as an object of the narrative imagination in contemporary Western Europe. Western European societies are generally reluctant to think of far-right and racist violence as terrorism, but the reasons for this remain little understood. This book focuses on the extraordinarily complex case of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany, and high-profile instances of racist violence in Sweden and Norway. The author analyses the narratives surrounding far-right and racist violence, drawing on a broad range of empirical sources. Her account attributes the limits of imagining violence as far-right terrorism to elite practices of narrative control that maintain positive images of the liberal-democratic order in counterpoint to its two constitutive "others" – the far-right and racialised minorities. Situated broadly within the scholarly tradition of critical terrorism studies, the book breaks new ground in research on far-right terrorism by following its narrative traces across time, public spaces of contestation, and national borders. It also draws on material and findings originally written in German, Swedish, and Norwegian, which were previously not available in English. This much-needed volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers of terrorism and political violence, right-wing extremism, European politics, and communication studies.

Edward Alden presents a[n] ... investigation into the consequences of America's effort to secure its borders since 9/11. The result is a[n] ... assessment of the dangers faced by a U.S. that cuts itself off from the rest of the world--[Source unknown]

Immigration policy in the United States, Europe, and the Commonwealth went under the microscope after the terror attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent events in London, Madrid, and elsewhere. We have since seen major changes in the bureaucracies that regulate immigration—but have those institutional dynamics led to significant changes in the way borders are controlled, the numbers of immigrants allowed to enter, or national asylum policies? This book examines a broad range of issues and cases in order to better understand if, how, and why immigration policies and practices have changed in these countries in response to the threat of terrorism. In a thorough analysis of border policies, the authors also address how an intensification of immigration politics can have severe consequences for the social and economic circumstances of national minorities of immigrant origin.

Recent acts of terrorism in Britain and Europe and the events of 9/11 in the United States have greatly influenced immigration, security, and integration policies in these countries. Yet many of the current practices surrounding these issues were developed decades ago, and are ill-suited to the dynamics of today's global economies and immigration patterns. At the core of much policy debate is the inherent paradox whereby immigrant populations are frequently perceived as posing a potential security threat yet bolster economies by providing an inexpensive workforce. Strict attention to border controls and immigration quotas has diverted focus away from perhaps the most significant dilemma: the integration of existing immigrant groups. Often restricted in their civil and political rights and targets of xenophobia, racial profiling, and discrimination, immigrants are unable or unwilling to integrate into the population. These factors breed distrust, disenfranchisement, and hatred-factors that potentially engender radicalization and can even threaten internal security.The contributors compare policies on these issues at three relational levels: between individual EU nations and the U.S., between the EU and U.S., and among EU nations. What emerges is a timely and critical examination of the variations and contradictions in policy at each level of interaction and how different agencies and different nations often work in opposition to each other with self-defeating results. While the contributors differ on courses of action, they offer fresh perspectives, some examining significant case studies and laying the groundwork for future debate on these crucial issues.

Far from mere idle tales, rumors are a valuable window into our anxieties and fears. Rumors let us talk as a community about some very inflammatory issues--issues that may be embarrassing or disturbing to discuss-allowing us to act as if we are talking about real events, not personal beliefs. We can air our hidden fears and desires without claiming these attitudes as our own. In The Global Grapevine, two leading authorities on rumor, folklore, and urban legend--Gary Alan Fine and Bill Ellis--shed light on what contemporary rumors can tell us about the fears and pressures of globalization. In particular, they examine four major themes that emerge over and over again: rumors about terrorism, about immigration, about international trade, and about tourism. The authors analyze how various rumors underscore American reactions to perceived global threats, show how we interpret our changing world, and highlight fears, fantasies, and cherished beliefs about our place in the world. Along the way the book examines a wide variety of rumors-that the Israelis were behind 9-11, the President knew of the attack in advance, tourists wake up in foreign countries with their kidneys stolen, foreign workers urinate in vats of beer destined to be shipped to America. These rumors, the authors argue, reflect our anxieties and fears about contact with foreign cultures-whether we believe foreign competition to be poisoning the domestic economy or that foreign immigration to be eroding American values. Rumors are the visible tip of a vast iceberg of hidden anxieties. Illuminating the most widely circulated rumors in America in recent years, The Global Grapevine offers an invaluable portrait of what these tales reveal about contemporary society.