The Relations of Terror and Immigration: Preventive Solutions

Abstract

After the September 11th attacks, the U.S. government implemented immigration reform to defend against terrorism, creating an institutional link between the two spuriously related issues of immigration and terrorism. This M.A. thesis examines the relationship between terrorism and immigration. It concludes that policies constructed from the rhetoric supporting this relationship to be misguided. A more useful approach would be preventive, recognizing the number of interrelated issues encouraging the simultaneous rise of immigration to and terrorism against the U.S. The U.S.'s experiences of immigration and terrorism cannot be separated from the nation's global enforcement of neoliberal policy and exacerbation of structural violence. Saudi Arabia and Mexico are examples of two countries of which the U.S. has been impacted by its global regulating. Using World Systems Theory, I propose the U.S. will find more preventive solutions to immigration and terrorism if it allows a theory of connections to influence its international policy.