From Crisis to Continuity: The Lasting Impact of Covid-19 on Migration Securitisation in the Netherlands
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2025-06-19
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en
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This thesis examines whether migration has been securitised in Dutch political discourse throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, using securitisation theory and building on trends observed since the 2015 displacement crisis. Based on the Copenhagen School and process-oriented approach, this analysis focusses on Dutch political party manifestos across three election cycles. A Content Analysis method was used for this in order to quantify the qualitative data and track how migration discourse evolved among ten major political parties. Findings reveal that while Covid-19 did not cause a migration crisis, it reshaped the discourse surrounding it as if it had. Across the political spectrum, parties were found to have increasingly framed migration as an issue of management and control, with securitising language rising most prominently during and after the pandemic. The findings align theoretical expectations, whereby broader societal anxieties were shown to lead to a securitised migration discourse, aided by strong audience acceptance and institutionalisation. This thesis argues that this process of an unrelated crisis still securitising the migration debate, despite desecuritisation attempts, is indicative of a shifted baseline, where exceptional framing has become the new norm in Dutch political language on migration and something to note during future crises.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen