3071-The political economy of new slavery

44 Migration and Security
past instances where states did not really concern themselves with where
new residents originated from, and were not bothered that they did not
have the capacity to control immigration and residence, administrative
or otherwise (Doomernik, 1998a). Such matters may have been dealt
with locally, not centrally, as is the case in Switzerland even today.
Yet, contemporary Western states all see the need to determine which
aliens are allowed entry, for which purpose and duration. Increasingly,
however, they are deemed to be out of control (Sassen, 1996a, 1996b;
van Amersfoort, 1996; van Amersfoort and Doomernik, 1998) and
unable to protect their borders against the arrival and settlement of
uninvited newcomers. As we have seen, there is some basis for this view.
It is, therefore, not surprising to note that the emphasis in the current
debate on the links between migration and security lies on the interests
of the receiving states. Furthermore, unsolicited immigration indeed
poses a number of challenges, especially on welfare states.
Welfare systems are founded on the idea of insurance policies
whereby the state acts as a national insurance company. There is no
great problem in such a system if it carries a few free riders because
the volume of their benefits is marginal to that of the total enjoyed by
the population at large. However, it is imaginable that the category of
free riders, that is, those drawing benefits without having contributed
premiums for a prolonged period of time, becomes so substantial that
the costs pose a threat to the economic well-being of the state. Such
could be the case when infinite numbers of migrants settle whose
arrival is not an immediate answer to labour market needs for workers.
Asylum seekers and refugees are a case in point. Still, up to now, no
economy has crashed because of their arrival. In fact, it is not at all
difficult to find economists arguing from either perspective: mass
immigration is good in macro-economical terms or plainly bad. For
those looking for threats, more (potential) problems can be identified,
yet, to the best of my knowledge, no serious contemporary examples
can be found in industrialized nations that would merit labelling
them a security threat. 11 If, however, we change our perspective from
an internal to an external one, we can identify security issues, albeit of
quite a different nature, that are not so prominent on the agenda of
politicians, policy-makers and the media.
Perverse pre-selection
We have already noted the growing importance of the smuggling
business in the arrival of asylum seekers and other unsolicited migrants
to the EU and the USA. Smugglers have shown themselves to be very