Dissecting the “Root Cause” Approach - A Discourse Analysis Of The Long Term European Migration Policy

Abstract: This thesis uses a discourse analytical approach based on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to critically analyze long term migration policies. Hegemony and antagonism are used to show the development of the “Root cause discourse”. The discourse is based on the assumption that mainly illegal migration from underdeveloped sender states to more developed receiving states will in time diminish due to social and economic development. The discourse is challenged by the “opposing discourse” that is based on post colonialism, anthropology, economy and deconstruction of the notion “development”. Deconstruction is used by post structuralism to show how "natural truths” are formed as political policies, it will also help to explain contemporary policy making from a historic view. The main purpose of the thesis is to map antagonism and hegemony by locating floating signifiers used by different discourses to create stable identities. The floating signifiers found in the analysis are “development”, “mobility” and “illegal migration”. The thesis also explains the evolvement of the root cause approach within the EU that has come to be a part of the “external dimension” and traces the presumed positive and negative effects on migration that the “Union for the Mediterranean” might have.