The securitization of migration: investigating the EU's migration strategies towards Sub-Saharan Africa and the instrumentalization of EU-Africa development policies

This research is a critical assessment of the securitization processes in migration management following the migration crisis in Europe. It specifically observes the representations of (in)security during the securitization of sub-Saharan migration under the EU’s comprehensive agenda of ‘tackling irregular migration’. The fundamental objective is to; (i) observe and explain the path of the successfully securitized discourse, and the subsequent securitization activities and related interventions in border protection to address the perceived security threat, and to; (ii) examine the resultant strategic shifts and new policy practices under the EU’s new operational cooperation frameworks with African countries of origin and transit following the securitization of the migration agenda. The study shows how the EU’s logic of (in)security reinforces politics of fear and uncertainty, and contributed to the successful operationalisation of the established securitized institutional speech-acts with African collaborators to prevent irregular migration and protect migrants at risk. The examination also observes how the use of development as a strategy of control – “to tackle the root-causes of irregular migration” (European Commission 2016a) – followed the securitization of the EU Agenda on Migration, and how the new security-focused development programmes with African countries of origin and transit under the new Partnership Frameworks reinforces further securitization practices in migration.