Epidemics, national security, and US immigration policy

Abstract

What are relationships between epidemics, national security, and US immigration policy? This question is important because it sheds light on transnational or nontraditional security areas, American immigration policy, and a pressing issue for US leaders who have recently faced epidemics such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak that began in 2013. This article answers it and lays ground in the area by reviewing epidemics in world history, using International Relations and Security Studies works to specify dangers of contagions for states, and identifying three general immigration measures that American leaders have utilized from the seventeenth century to the present day to protect against contagions, which are (1) policies restricting entrance of foreigners thought to carry specified diseases, (2) the isolation or quarantining of immigrants with contagious disease, and (3) delegating the President with authority to stop immigration in the event of an epidemic abroad. This study has implications for research and contemporary US immigration policy.

Pathogens without borders

“…This research highlights the need to assess high-risk sexual behaviors from the ecological perspective to better understand the dynamics of disease transmission among frequent international travelers. To raise awareness, the public must be constantly reminded that outbreaks of potential health hazards can lead to unpredictable morbidity/mortality and security risks that place a burden on a nation's economic growth, emergency responsiveness and homeland security infrastructure [9]. Research findings from this study can offer social scientists, health care providers and policy makers preliminary findings to enforce preventive measures and intervention for international travelers in different settings (individuals, interpersonal, institutional and contextual), promote reliable health surveillance networks and provide a basis for drafting future health care, public health, international travel and immigration policies that strengthen national security and public health.…”

“…Overall, epidemic diseases not only threaten a nation's safety, development and well-being, but also impede population growth and impact medical preparedness through health risks impinged by pathogenic microbial agents (e.g. ailment, disability and death) [8,9].…”

Europe’s essential workers: Migration and pandemic politics in Central and Eastern Europe during COVID‐19

“…Historically, governments have relied on lockdowns, isolation, and quarantines to protect against contagious diseases. Policy‐makers have often framed epidemics as nonconventional security threats (Totten, 2015). In this framing, immigration policy gets deployed as a tool to protect citizens from external threat (Paul, 2015).…”

Migrations and some issues of public health from a historical perspective

“…Tyl ko część migrantów poradziła sobie z funkcjonowaniem w nowym miejscu. Proces migracji doprowadził niektóre osoby do medycznie potwierdzonych stanów patolo gicznych 12 . Do ciekawych wniosków doszedł norweski badacz Odeegard, który w 1932 roku odkrył, że Norwegowie, którzy migrowali do stanu Minnesota w USA mieli gene tyczne predyspozycje do psychozy, a później wśród nich rozwinęła się schizofrenia.…”