Securitizing, re-securitizing, or de-securitizing migration? The representation of Ukrainian asylum seekers in The Guardian during the first year of the Russia-Ukraine war

• Autor(a) principal: Martins, Ana Isabel Ferreira
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/30487
• topic: Securitização -- Securitization; Migration; Russia-Ukraine war; The Guardian; Migração; Guerra entre Rússia-Ucrânia

In the last decades migration has become increasingly considered as a potential security threat by the European Union and, as a result, several initiatives were implemented with the intention to strengthen European borders. However, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine may have opened the door to the re-securitization of asylum seekers as the massive influx of refugees became understood as a matter of human security, international assistance, and fundamental human rights rather than a threat to domestic security and social stability. Against this backdrop, this dissertation investigates how has the Ukrainian refugee crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine been framed by The Guardian? Do these representations reify the idea of refugees as potential sources of national and societal insecurity, or do they focus predominantly on the conditions of insecurity experienced by refugees? Grounded upon the framework of securitization theory, and operationalized through the method of content analysis, this study analysis fifty-two articles published by The Guardian during the first year of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The thesis puts forward two main conclusions. First, it shows that the framing of Ukrainian refugees went beyond the human layer of insecurity and helped to re-securitized multiple referents to be protected and threats to be secured. Second, and against the original formulation of securitization theory, it argues that the framing of some groups as being systematically insecure can actually contribute to ensure their human rights and facilitate their integration into host societies.