Immigration Phobia and the Security Dilemma

Through a comparative study of immigration attitudes in the Russian Far East, the EU, and the United States, this book demonstrates that concerns about national identity and economic interests associated with migration are ignited by a unique perception of the security dilemma. Regression analysis and case studies trace support for expulsion of migrants to the need for self-defense within an environment of uncertainty. Highlighting migration as an national security problem is therefore logical, but counterproductive, and this book recommends instead the management of migration through economic incentives at the global, national, and local level.

Mikhail A. Alexseev is an associate professor of political science at San Diego State University. A former Kremlin correspondent of the News from Ukraine weekly, Alexseev was the first Soviet citizen to receive a Reuters' Fellowship at the University of Oxford and the NATO Democratic Institutions Fellowship in 1990. He is the author of Without Warning: Threat Assessment, Intelligence, and Global Struggle (St. Martin's Press, 1997) and is the editor of Center-Periphery Conflict in Post-Soviet Russia: A Federation Imperiled (St. Martin's Press, 1999). His articles have appeared in numerous journals, newspapers, and magazines including Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, Political Communication, The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and The Seattle Times.