Migration and Asylum in the Accession Process of Turkey to the EU - A Case of 'Securitisation' According to the Copenhagen and the Paris Schools of Critical Security Studies?

Abstract: This study contributes to the current literature on migration and asylum as an empirical study that evaluates the increasing claims about their securitisation, in the context of membership negotiations between the EU and Turkey. Departing from the theoretical frameworks of the Copenhagen and the Paris Schools of critical security studies, the study moves onwards to propose an analytical framework that comprises both discursive and non-discursive practices. Accordingly, the study analyses official EU and Turkish discourse on migration and asylum as well as particular security technologies and bureaucratic policies (namely visa policy, border controls and readmission agreements) which are required to be implemented by Turkey as part of its accession to the Union. The study concludes that, although migration and asylum is not securitised in the accession process of Turkey to the EU in the Copenhagen School’s sense of the term; insecurity is inscribed into migration and asylum related themes through complicated linkages between policy issues, and negotiations in favour of the short-term political interests and fears of the EU and Turkey.