The EU’s cartographic imaginations of immigration: A critical analysis of the EU’s immigration discourse under the EuropeanAgenda on Migration
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2018-10-22
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en
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Abstract
A crucial characteristic of immigration discourses is the use of maps, that is, cartographic imaginations. In this thesis I have researched how an immigration map created and published by the EU’s border agency Frontex co-constructs the EU’s immigration discourse. In order to do so, the EU’s immigration discourse needed to be unravelled. The EU’s immigration discourse fuels anxiety and xenophobia. The migrant is often labelled irregular or illegal, compared with an unstoppable natural force, or even with the enemy during war time. The undocumented migrant is reduced to a depoliticized life and is outside EU law, which is used to legitimize the inhumane treatment undocumented migrants receive. Furthermore the EU links immigration with internal security issues such as terrorism. Even though there is no evidence between terrorism and immigration, arguments like this are applied to justify border securitization and the systematic screening of undocumented migrants. Several concepts such as ‘the undocumented migrant’ (the unidirectional, unstoppable, large arrows), the border securitization and justification of the inhumane treatment (impenetrable, black border) and ‘our space’ vis-à-vis ‘their space’ (the greyish colour that accentuates Schengen countries) are visualized in a way that co-constructs this discourse.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen