Security Policies, Practices and Narratives on Migration in the Countries on the Balkan Route
Security Policies, Practices and Narratives on Migration in the Countries on the Balkan Route

Author(s): Ružica Jakešević
Subject(s): Sociology, Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: migration; securitisation; European migration crisis; Balkan Route countries; security policy
Summary/Abstract: Some of the recent and current practices and narratives in the European security environment point to the very strong trend of securitization and in some instances the most appropriate term would be ‘criminalisation’ of migration and migrants. Such trends were exacerbated by the mass movement of forced migrants mostly from the Middle East towards Europe, which was termed as the ‘European migration crisis of 2015/2016’. This crisis gave impetus to some negative developments at domestic, bilateral and European level, since there is still a lack of consensus between EU member states and European countries generally on the appropriate migration policies and on the nature of the current migration towards Europe. Such trends can be observed in different countries which make up the so-called Balkan Route, which stretches through the territory of six countries between Turkey and Austria/Germany. The mass inflow of migrants though this route was almost completely stopped in March 2016 after the EU-Turkey deal had been achieved. However, due to the rising tensions between the EU, especially some member states such as the Netherlands and Germany, and Turkey, there is an increasing concern that this route might be re-opened. This has motivated some changes in different countries which point out to increasingly security-oriented approach to migration, with the strong emphasis on prevention, effective border controls, push-backs, restrictive asylum policies and militarisation of usual police functions.

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