Irregular and infected? Covid-19 and the securitisation of migration across the Mediterranean

Organised by

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• GGP: Global Governance Programme

Scholarship on the securitisation of migration mainly focuses on the framing of irregular entries as harbingers of terrorist attacks and criminal activities. In this presentation, Cusumano argues that infective diseases have replaced terrorism and crime as the main frame underlying the securitisation of migration. To this end, Cusumano examines media coverage of irregular migration in three European countries of first entry – Italy, Spain, and Malta – between 2013 and 2020, combining a content analysis of newspaper articles and pictures. Results show that discourses framing migrants as a health threat skyrocketed after the Covid-19 outbreak, although they had already become important in the securitisation of irregular migration to Europe since the 2014 Ebola outbreak. The framing of migrants as carriers of infective diseases has been pervasive across media outlets in all EU countries of first entry, but is slightly more prominent in conservative newspapers. In addition, Cusumano’s analysis highlights the potential of combining textual and visual content analysis to harness the strengths of both discourse and practice-based securitisation theories. 

Links:

• Global Governance Programme