This thesis uncovers how a securitization of transnational migration has led to a reinforcement of territorial migration management and to the introduction of extra-territorial and intra-territorial migration management, jeopardizing the protection standard for asylum-seekers and refugees.
The thesis is based on an analysis of the Schengen Agreement, the European Neighborhood Policy, the Regional Protection Program and the Common European Asylum System. The theoretical framework of the Copenhagen School, the theory of Securitization has been applied in order to uncover how and why migration management has been securitized. The methodology of Social Constructivism has been guiding the steps of the analysis. The study is based on empirical data, ranging from newspaper articles to EU policy papers.
The main findings show that the area of free movement of capital, goods and labor created by the Schengen Agreement has been accompanied by control, as a response to the perceived threat of immigration. Gradually control of migration has expanded from being territorially confined to being extra-territorial and intra-territorial. Migration management has been exported to third countries, by being incorporated into the policy frameworks of the European Neighborhood Policy and the Regional Protection Program. Besides being exported to third countries, migration management has also appeared in an intra-territorial context, as the Common European Asylum System increasingly has been facilitating migration management inside the EU’s external geographical border. The new aspects of migration management have had quite a few consequences for refugees and asylum-seekers and the overall protection standard has decreased, as the overall control of immigration has increased.