Constructing Security and Humanitarian Responsibility : How was the Repatriation of Women and Children from Al-Hol Constructed and Contested as a Security Issue in the Finnish Parliamentary Debate in 2019?

Sammanfattning

In this thesis, I investigate how the repatriation of Finnish women and children from al-Hol was constructed and contested as a security issue within Finnish parliamentary discourse in 2019. This thesis applies securitization theory developed by Buzan, Wæver, and de Wilde (1998). I conducted a qualitative discourse analysis of the Finnish parliamentary debate PTK 81/2019, which took place in December 2019, where Finnish political actors focused on the al-Hol repatriation controversy. The analysis is guided by four interrelated themes: security framing, humanitarian framing, legal-institutional framing, and political contestation. I argue that the parliamentary debate did not produce a completed or stabilized securitization process. Instead, the issue remained contested, and competing interpretations of security, humanitarian responsibility, legality, and citizenship struggled for authority. The findings reveal how some political actors constructed women and children as potential threats to Finnish society, while others challenged this framing by emphasizing children’s rights, citizenship, and the rule of law. I also demonstrate how references to Nordic and European states were strategically used to legitimize competing political positions and construct external authority within the debate. This thesis contributes to broader debates within European Studies by showing how tensions between national security and human rights are negotiated within national political discourse. The Finnish al-Hol debate illustrates how shared European humanitarian commitments do not automatically produce a unified European approach. These norms are continuously interpreted and negotiated differently through national political discourse. In this sense, this thesis demonstrates how common European commitments can result in fragmented and contested policy responses among EU member states.