Locking in Normative Change? : How EU financial frameworks entrench externalised migrationgovernance

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how migration governance has been institutionalised within the European Union’s Multiannual Financial Frameworks (MFFs), and how this process has produced lock-in effects that embed externalisation and conditionality in EU development funding. While existing research has addressed the externalisation and securitisation of EU migration policy, less attention has been paid to how financial frameworks stabilise these approaches over time. The study adopts a qualitative document analysis of EU policy and budgetary instruments across three MFF periods: 2014-2020, 2021-2027, and the proposed 2028-2034 framework. It combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach within a longitudinal comparative framework. The findings show that migration governance has become increasingly embedded within EU financial instruments, particularly through the integration of migration control into development cooperation and external action. Externalisation and conditionality emerge as central mechanisms, reinforced through funding structures, producing lock-in effects that stabilise specific governance approaches. These developments also suggest a broader transformation in how the EU’s normative commitments are interpreted and applied.