This paper addresses the changing governance of the social through the conjunction of international, national and local strategies where attempts to regulate migration and promote community safety meet. Migration has been increasingly subjected to processes of securitization and criminalization that encounter and align with new pressures in domestic crime and safety policies. The paper offers a critical evaluation of the sociological grand narratives that frame these events, arguing instead for a more nuanced analysis of the instabilities and volatilities of governance strategies and practices and the normative issues that they bring into view.