The Politics of Proximity, Shifting Borders and Responsibility : Examining How Issues of Migration and Asylum are Represented Within EU Policy Between 2008-2020

Sammanfattning

EU migration and asylum policies between 2008 and 2020 increasinglyframe mobility as a security threat, legitimising exceptional measures and externalisedcontrol practices. Through a policy analysis, guided by the WPR approach, this thesistraces how migration is constructed as a problem of risk, instability and insufficientcontrol within three EU policy documents. Policy representations of migrants andasylum seekers rely on assumptions of risky Otherness to justify prioritising securitymeasures restricting access over safeguarding protection. Applying securitisationtheory along with post- and neo-colonial theory reveals how EU governancereproduced hierarchies of power based on racialised constructions of the Other. Theresults of the policy analysis demonstrate that policy does not merely respond to crisesbut actively produces them by narrowing access to rights and shifting responsibilitybeyond EU borders.