Reading against the grain: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of European Commission communications on migration within Tunisia (2017–23)

The issue of illegalized migration is now more pressing than ever, particularly in regions like Europe and North Africa. Against this backdrop, this article aims to probe into the dynamics of the European Union’s policy agenda on migration within Tunisia, a key country of origin and transit for migrants crossing the European borders in an unauthorized way. Using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach, the research investigates a 10,000-word corpus of the European Commission (EC) communications on this topic over the period 2017–23. Specifically, this work combines corpus linguistics methods – concordance, collocation and collocation networks – with the critical discourse analysis (CDA) notions of topoi and topics. The collocation analysis revealed the salience of the topic of legality in the Commission communications, constructing a two-part migration discourse that contrasts the perils of irregularized migration with the merits of legal alternatives. The European Union’s security vs. human rights dilemma was also clearly discernible in the corpus, critically setting securitization policies against humanitarian and democratic values. Equally important, findings uncovered the solution-oriented, pluralistic and comprehensive nature of the European approach to migration within Tunisia and the entire North African region. The study has theoretical and practical implications for the growing body of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) on migration. Its results can also inform future EU–Tunisia public and policy discourses around the complex phenomenon of unauthorized migration, with a view to better navigating emerging challenges.