Law, Political Science and International Relations
3
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
SECURITIZING MIGRATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: From Welcoming Refugees to Dealing with Security Threats Laura Planas Gifra New Political Science, 2025 Recent legislative changes in the South African migratory system demonstrate that the country has gone from establishing a welcoming refugee system during the postapartheid era to a system that considers immigrants as national security threats. As countries around the world have advanced in securitizing migration as a response to events such as the high numbers of refugee flows or the terrorist threat, South Africa has also followed this tendency, increasing surveillance at its borders, restricting access to obtaining asylum seeker permits, increasing bureaucratic burdens, and making it more difficult for these groups to exercise their rights. There are several reasons why migration is more negatively viewed today, and political narratives are just one of them. Laws and policies have also securitized migration in South Africa. Altogether, this has great effects on the rights of immigrants in the country and their integration within the host society.
My research agenda addresses the legal and political dimensions of migration, security, and international order, as reflected in a series of peer-reviewed articles in journals such as New Political Science, Cogent Social Sciences, Migration Letters, and Revista de Derecho Migratorio y Extranjería, as well as earlier work in the Spanish Yearbook of International Law. These publications collectively contribute to debates on securitization, politicization, and the evolving role of law and politics in governing migration.
A key milestone in my scholarly work is my monograph Law, Security and Migration: The Nationalistic Turn in the International Order (Routledge, 2024), published by the internationally respected academic publisher Routledge. This book analyzes the impact of the increasing securitization of migration and argues that contemporary states are prioritizing nationalistic security strategies over multilateral cooperation, signaling a significant shift in the international legal and political order. Its publication with a leading press underscores the importance and broad relevance of my research within international law, migration studies, and security studies.
GRANT DETAILS
My research trajectory has been supported by highly competitive national and international funding schemes. I was awarded the Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Contract (2023) by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), a prestigious national grant aimed at fostering the incorporation of outstanding postdoctoral researchers into the Spanish research system. I also received the Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Grant (2023–2024), designed to promote the advanced training and internationalization of early-career scholars within the Spanish university system. Earlier in my career, I was granted an Erasmus+ KA107 International Credit Mobility Grant (2020) to undertake a research stay at the University of Cape Town, strengthening the international dimension of my work, and a Pre-Doctoral Scholarship from the Department of Law at Pompeu Fabra University (2018–2022), awarded on a competitive basis to support doctoral research excellence.
CONSULTANCY
I have professional experience as a consultant and adviser in the field of social policy and gender. In 2017, I served as a Consultant at the United Nations, Social Policy and Development Division (New York), where I contributed to policy-oriented research and analytical work on social development issues within multilateral frameworks. Prior to this, I worked as a Social Affairs Intern in the same Division (2016–2017), supporting research, drafting, and intergovernmental processes related to social policy and inclusive development. I also served as a Gender Adviser at MUGER, A.C. (Oaxaca, Mexico) (2017), where I provided expertise on gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives, contributing to program design and implementation at the local level.
