Migrants as military threat to the European Union?

Is migration to the European Union a security threat in need of a military solution?

There appeared an article on a paper to be released in day or so that describes climate change, to include “environmental migrants” as “security risks” to the future European Union. The seven-page paper is supposed to detail how climate change will increase security risks for the Union. As a result, the Union should, according to the paper, beef up its civil and military crisis response. However, a current paper by Javier Solana echoes this “concern.”

This “concern” also appears to follow the “concerns” of former Justice Commissioner, France Frattini, whose policies in “fortress Europe” tended toward xenophobia and the likening of “illegal” immigrants to "terrorists." “Illegal” immigration and the desire to obtain a better life are not crime, let alone terrorism. The treatment of migrants and especially “illegal” migrants as “a security threat” are not new concepts in the area of freedom, security and justice. What is new in the identification of this “concern” as caused by environmental problems in need of a possible military solution.

According to EUobserver’s 10 March article:

"The EU and member states should further build up their capabilities with regards to civil protection, and civil and military crisis management and disaster response instruments to react to the security risks posed by climate change, reads a paper by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner."

“‘Europe must expect substantially increased migratory pressure,’ says the report. ‘Populations that already suffer from poor health conditions, unemployment or social exclusion are rendered more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which could amplify or trigger migration within and between countries.’”

This article from the EUobserver sounds like the Union will become introverted and isolate itself from the problems of the world, while at the same time arming itself for an encroaching world. The European Union and the stated values of human rights and human dignity, including basic social justice, are best worked out through solution, such as advocating better distribution of global goods. The advocating of a better life for people suffering from long-term unemployment, social exclusion, endemic poverty, that prompt migration pressures are what the European Union could do at the United Nations and other international arena.

Once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the European Union will have powerful instruments to constructively, without military force, advocate and champion its social economic system world-wide. The European Union could advocate for social inclusion in rich nations, as well as poor nations. It would be more meaningful for the European Union to advocate for its values in all parts of the world, not just in Belarus, Russia, but also in the United States, as well. The best system for human beings, to address social-economic problems and create a world that attempt to include everyone is the European social economic system – and peacefully advocating this humane system is the best vocation for the reformed European Union.

EU must boost military capabilities in face of climate change – EUobserver
Countering globalisation’s dark side – Javier Solana