Emotions at the Border: The EU’s Affective Governance of Migration

This paper examines the securitisation of migration in the EU from the angle of emotions, exploring their role in discursively justifying the reinforcement of the EU’s border regime in two key periods: the 2015-2016 refugee crisis and the 2023-2024 implementation of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. It delves into how the emotional framing of migrants as security threats has evolved in the European Commission speeches and the corresponding developments in border policies. Situated at the intersection of critical security studies, border studies, and the sociology of emotions, the study employs emotion-focused research methods to understand how the affective construction of migration as a security threat legitimises restrictive border policies. Using an Emotion Discourse Analysis (EDA) framework, it argues that fear and pity—both present in the EU’s framing of refugees and asylum seekers—function as mutually reinforcing conditions for the securitisation of migration, despite their apparent incompatibility. A comparative analysis of the two periods further reveals how this emotional framing has evolved in the Commission speeches alongside an increasingly restrictive border regime.