ABSTRACT. Since at least the end of the Cold War, there has been a striking return to viewing migration as a security issue, within both Western policy and our scholarly inquiry. However, it is clear that this policy framing technique can often leave migrant populations vulnerable, threatened, and criminalized. Scholars within the Copenhagen School and critical security studies have provided an analytical apparatus to analyze this trend with their articulation of “securitization.” However, currently, the Copenhagen School largely neglects the fact that securitization is often forcefully challenged by an activist counter-narrative. Such actors reject immigration’s securitization and actively work to undermine this framing. Drawing upon field research with immigrant and refugee activist groups in the United States, I examine the response of these organizations to this discursive re-framing. Furthermore, I suggest ways in which an exchange between the international relations scholars and immigrant rights activists can broaden our understanding of the securitization of migration, and develop a richer account than is currently offered by the Copenhagen School. pp. 77–102

Keywords: securitization, immigrant, refugee activist group, counter-narrative