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Article published In:
Media, Migration and Human Rights: Discourse and Resistance in the Context of the Erosion of Liberal Norms
Edited by Ekaterina Balabanova and Ruxandra Trandafoiu
[Journal of Language and Politics 19:3] 2020
► pp. 391–412

Migration controls in Italy and Hungary

From conditionalized to domesticized humanitarianism at the EU borders

ORCID logo | Glasgow Caledonian University, GSBS
| Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, DIRPOLIS
| Glasgow Caledonian University, GSBS

This article analyses the humanitarianism and securitisation nexus in effect to migration controls in Italy and Hungary. Noteworthy for our purposes is how the humanitarian discourse is undervalued as the EU border states emphasise either full securitisation or else securitisation as a condition for humanitarianism when it comes to border management and refugee protection measures. Our goal is to trace, on the one hand, how politicians conceptualise humanitarianism for the self and for the extension of the self; and, on the other, how they subscribe to humanitarianism for the other as long as the other follows what the self demands. Reflecting on the institutional and discursive nexus of humanitarianism and securitization in effect to migration controls, we trace political narratives of Europeanisation geared to affect the public. We refer to how securitisation challenges humanitarianism while undervaluing human rights for the other and foregrounding human rights for the self.

Keywords: Italy, Hungary, Critical Discourse Studies, securitisation, migration control, humanitarianism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptualisation
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Italy: Conditionalised humanitarianism
    • 4.2Hungary: Domesticised humanitarianism
      • 4.2.1Hungary defends the European borders
      • 4.2.2We do not want to become a nation of migrants
      • 4.2.3International migration lobby and its domestic partners are against us
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19092.kor
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