European Union readmission agreements as securitization instruments: The cases of Turkey and Pakistan

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: SELİM MÜRSEL YAVUZ

Danışman: BAŞAK KALE LACK

Özet:

Securitization theory argues that “security” is a speech act. By talking security, an actor tries to move a topic away from politics and into an area of security concerns thereby legitimating extraordinary means against the socially constructed threat. However, even though speech acts are also an area of concern, this thesis argues that the European Union (EU) officials do not necessarily use speech acts to move an issue to the security realm. Likewise, looking only to speech acts would not be enough to understand the securitization of migration in the EU. One should also consider the actions, ways of doing things, bureaucratic mechanisms, bilateral and multilateral agreements, and policy instruments in order to “feel” the securitization as it is argued by the Sociological Approach to Securitization. This research argues that European Union Readmission Agreements (EURAs) communicates migration as a security threat and legitimize the extraordinary measures against the constructed threat, and that EURAs are securitization instruments. This research adopts Sociological Approach to Securitization in order analyze EU’s readmission agreements with Turkey and Pakistan. Geographically, both Turkey and Pakistan became the main target for the EU to combat irregular migration because of the increased migration flows from or through these countries to its territories. EU’s readmission agreements with Turkey and Pakistan are the cases chosen for this research to have an in depth discussion on EU’s securitization of migration with readmission agreements. As it will be shown, although Turkey and Pakistan may not be considered as necessarily safe countries for readmissions according to international law and the EU law, the EU’s conclusion of readmission agreements with these countries without ensuring the safety of irregular migrants can be a proof of its perception of migrants as a threat.