An Internal ‘Press’-ing Divide : Power Dynamics Within the EU as Evidenced Through New Pact on Migration and Asylum Discourses

Abstract: When managing the reception and relocation of refugees within the EU, it is unsurprising that negotiating common policy and burden-sharing schemes are complex, contentious tasks (Thielemann 2003; Naurin 2015). Indeed, the individual geographic, political and economic positioning of member states are reflected in larger power dynamics within the EU, further complicating resolution on solidarity initiatives in asylum policy (Duarte and Pascariu 2017, Basile and Olmastroni 2020, Bauböck 2018). Within this thesis, I argue that these power dynamics are evidenced along EU core and periphery lines (i.e., states with external borders and those with primarily internal borders) and within negotiation discourses (Jäntti and Klasche 2021; Zaun 2018). By conducting a critical discourse analysis (CDA) with statements from the French and Greek national parliaments, as well the EU Commission statement, this project is able to pursue a comparative analysis of discursive approaches and highlight differences in discourses and power positionings. This, in turn, can also help us to examine why standstills in asylum policy negotiation proceedings persist. The structure of this thesis is in line with previous research which has examined how power and agency of member states is constructed through linguistic framing (Mainwaring 2014), and literature investigating complications that emerge with common immigration policy within the EU and the supranationally (Omelaniuk 2012, Hampshire 2013, Bauböck 2018).