SECURITIZATION OF MIGRATION IN THE POST-PANDEMIC CONTEXT: DISCURSIVE PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON SOCIAL INTEGRATION
SECURITIZATION OF MIGRATION IN THE POST-PANDEMIC CONTEXT: DISCURSIVE PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the process of securitization of migration in the post-pandemic context, with a particular focus on discursive practices that reshape public debate and their consequences for social integration in the environments of the Western Balkans and the wider Europe. The research was conducted through a mixed-methods approach integrating analysis of strategic documents of security institutions (2019-2025), qualitative analysis of a sample of 320 media articles on migration in five environments (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia) for the 2022-2024 period, and secondary analysis of survey data on citizens' attitudes toward migrants. The findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic generated a new narrative layer — the biomedical framing of migrants as a health threat — which has been superimposed on existing security, economic and cultural narratives, producing a phenomenon the author calls multilayered post-pandemic securitization. Four dominant patterns of discursive practices have been identified: biomedical framing (28%), classical security framing (34%), economic framing (22%) and civilizational framing (16%). The article introduces the concept of the Inverse Security Paradox of Integration (ISPI) — a phenomenon in which intensified securitization systematically undermines the very social cohesion it claims to protect — and empirically demonstrates its manifestation in the regional context. The implications point to the need for integral policies combining the regulation of media practices, education on migration and institutional reforms supporting integration.

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