Security Concerns in the EU Neighbourhood: The Effects of EU Immigration and Asylum Policy for Ukraine

Abstract

The securitization of migration — that is, the discursive construction of migration as a security issue in political discourse — in the European Union (EU) since the 1980s has received a great deal of attention from scholars.1 From nationalists to welfare chauvinists, immigrants are blamed for undermining national unity, ethnic purity and social cohesiveness, and for abusing social security programmes. The depiction of immigration as a threat to societies in EU member states has blurred distinctions between immigrants and asylum seekers, as well as between legal and illegal immigrants.2 More recently, the figure of ‘the foreigner’ has been associated, through security discourse, with Islamic fundamentalism and the threat of terrorism. Such discursive linkages have resulted in a highly defensive and exclusionary approach to European migration management, with an emphasis on control (both internal and external), policing, surveillance and containment.3 Faced with difficult decisions in managing migration, European governments have sought international cooperation on the issue.KeywordsEuropean UnionOrganize CrimeAsylum SeekerIllegal ImmigrantEuropean Union Member StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.