16.03.07
Creating Security through Immigration Control
An analysis of European immigration discourse and the development towards a common EU asylum and immigration policy (nr 274)
NUPI-rapport | Oslo, NUPI | 103 sider |
ISBN 82-7002-185-7
I denne rapporten bruker forfatteren diskursanalytisk teori på immigrasjon og sikkerhet.
>> Summary
Increased immigration during the last few decades has coincided with increasing unemployment and economic restructuring in Western Europe. The issue of immigration became increasingly sensitive in the late 1980s after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, when a tide of illegal immigrants was expected to inundate the West. Today, images of ships loaded with refugees off the shores of Italy, or of trucks filled with illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel, have become disturbing, but no longer
rare features of European newspaper headlines. The impression is that of Europe being ‘swamped’, and unable to deal with the hordes of people standing outside its gates wanting in.
The purpose of this report is to discuss the extent to which immigration has come to be perceived as a security threat by European Union (EU) policy makers. The manner in which immigration issues are presented by policy makers at the European level is assumed to have substantive implications for the choice of instruments in the area. A second purpose is therefore to discuss the extent to which the development towards a common EU asylum and immigration policy could be interpreted as a security policy strategy.
Under the pressure of events since 1989, many scholars argue that the security concept should be widened to encompass new security policy challenges that have arisen. The post-1989 situation has suggested new scenarios, such as the end of bipolarity and the redefinition of borders. The point of departure of the report is the changing perception of what constitutes security threats, unravelled through an analysis of political discourse. Through a division of sectors, the so-called Copenhagen School offers a framework for analysis that structures the security debate, and that includes other referent objects than the state in security analysis. Asylum and immigration is regarded as a societal security issue when it is staged as a threat to a community, and the very identity of that community. As the report will show, most policy initiatives dealing with asylum and immigration at the European level have been control-inspired, and take place within frameworks that link asylum and immigration with the fight against organised crime, human trafficking and drugs control, such as the Schengen and Dublin frameworks. It appears that these aspects have by far prevailed over the need for stronger harmonisation and the creation of minimum protection standards in the common asylum and immigration policy.
Fulltekst
|
Hele publikasjonslisten
