The Securitization of Migration in Greece 2011-2019: A Discourse and Practice Analysis

Abstract

The European migration crisis, and in particular, the ongoing Greek refugee crisis that burst in 2015, have resulted in the resurgence of the constructivist depiction of migrants - and since 2015 of refugees - as a threat to host countries. Yet, in the case of Greece, the securitization of migration and its various political, social, and economic implications have largely remained underexplored. In this context, the primary goal of this paper is to present the findings of a PhD research revolving around the evolution of the securitization of migration in Greece through the decoding of the security logic that governs and drives political elites in terms of speech acts and securitization practices for the period 2011-2019. The main hypothesis and central argument of this paper, that is, that migration in Greece from 2011 to 2015, but also the refugee crisis of 2015 to 2019, are subject to continuous securitizing procedures, are confirmed through the use of the methodological approach of discourse analysis in speech acts of political elites (Copenhagen School) in conjunction with the examination of securitization practices (School of Paris).More specifically, the discourse analysis focuses - separately but also synthetically - on the periods 2011-2013, 2014-2018 and finally on 2019, attempting to unfold the securitization patterns and the (institutionalized) emergency measures that were applied in Greece during the periods under examination. For each period, speech acts, securitizing actors, referent objects, and extraordinary measures as well as securitization practices were examined. In total, discourse analysis (Copenhagen School) was performed on 116 texts such as Program statements, Parliamentary Debates, Press Releases, Television Interviews, Police Statements, Church Statements, Political Party Programs, and Internet Websites, Newspapers and Legal Texts. Moreover, a large number of separate securitization practices, as stated by the Paris School of Security, were examined. The result? - Migration in Greece from 2011 to 2019, is highly securitized.