Securitisation at the Crossroads : The European Commission, Frontex and the Cost of Divergent Migration Frames

The ‘EU migration crisis’ of 2015 was marked by a strong humanitarian and emphatic narrative, calling for international cooperation to help save the people escaping war. Since then, migration narratives have become increasingly securitized, sidelining humanitarian needs and potentially contributing to fatalities and human rights abuses. The securitisation of Frontex, the EU’s coast guard agency, has been widely studied, however its policy-making colleague DG HOME has not. This thesis provides a comparative frame analysis of the department of the EU Commission responsible for migration policies: DG HOME, and its operational agency Frontex, revealing a divergence in their migration frames. Frontex adopts a more securitized approach, particularly in its solutions to migratory issues, whilst DG HOME emphasises legal and humanitarian frames more prominently. Moreover, the crisis of 2015 yielded more humanitarian frames in Frontex’s report of 2016, however that trend was not persistent in subsequent years. Grasping the divergence between the actors as well as the increasing security frame is important to understand the intersection of policy-making and operational actors, to better the process of establishing and implementing effective and humane migration policies, to ensure migrants their humanitarian rights.