Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Economics and Political Science - Department of Political Science

Any territory is subject to four major groups of entrants: refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and family migrants; but refugees and asylum seekers fall into the category of {u2018}forced migrants{u2019}. Since a long time ago, states started to portray forced migrants as a challenge to the protection of national identity and welfare provisions, and thus, forced migrants found their issue tackled from a security perspective instead of a humanitarian or, even, a political one.This resulted in putting the {u2018}liberal universalist{u2019} values into danger, because the EU, in its attempt to {u2018}securitize{u2019} the protection seekers, is carrying out a {u2018}dehumanization{u2019} process towards them. Actually, both discourses and practices have securitizing effects especially that the securitizing discourses give legitimacy to the practices that constitute migrants as the threatening {u2018}Other. So, not only do discourses designate migrants as security threats, but also, securitized practices of migration control prevent migrants from reaching the EU. Accordingly, this study was concerned, mainly, with the issue of securitizing forced migration in the EU and its Member States, and its impact on the rights of forced migrants and the role of the EU in the field of refugee protection.The study tackled the attitude of four of the EU member states (Hungary, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom) regarding forced migration in general, and during the recent migration crisis in particular, and thus, the comparative analysis approach was used. The study depended, as well, on the discourse analysis approach since the researcher referred to and analyzed several {u2018}securitizing{u2019} discourses (speeches and writings) by European leaders and institutions concerning migrants and asylum seekers. Moreover, the study tackled the international and European legislation upon which the EU and its member states depend in the field of asylum and migration; the European policy in the field of asylum and migration and how its development was affected by the security concerns; the refugee-migrant crisis that hit the EU and its member states in 2015 and its relation with the securitization approach; and finally, the problem of securitizing forced migration in the EU and the different factors that contributed to that

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