Securitization of French Migration Policies in the European Context. Effects on Human Rights of Migrants and Refugees.
Author: Shaima Jorio, shaimae.jorio@gmail.com
Department: Sociology
University: University of Québec in Montreal, Canada
Supervisor: Micheline Milot
Year of completion: 2020
Language of dissertation: French
Keywords:
Migration policies
, Securitization
, France
, Neocolonialism
Areas of Research:
Migration
, Human Rights and Global Justice
, Racism, Nationalism and Ethnic Relations
Abstract
The 2015 “Refugee crisis” in Europe and the terrorist attacks in France the same year led to major changes in the right of foreigners and homeland security. These include a state of emergency that lasted two years and the law “on homeland security and the fight against terrorism” passed on October 30th 2017. In this context, this research examines the consequences in terms of criminalization and othering that French migration policies may cause on migrants and refugees. This thesis focuses mainly on France's Code of Entry and Residence of Aliens and the Right to Asylum (CESEDA), and EU regulations and directives on migration and asylum.
The theoretical framework was inspired, among others, by the works of Idil Atak, Michel Foucault, Mathieu Rigouste, Sherene Razack, Didier Bigo, Claire Rodier, Giorgio Agamben, Abdelmalek Sayad, Didier Fassin, Micheline Milot and Jean Baubérot. By adopting a methodology which combines elements of dicourse and content analysis applied to legal texts, the research identifies the security measures included in CESEDA so as to see if they contribute to categorizing and othering migrants according to identity markers.
The objective is to understand how migration and asylum issues are built as a “security problem” and to identify how the shift of migration policies towards a “security paradigm” can have an important impact on human rights, such as the right to international protection and the compliance with the principle of non-refoulement.
The analysis period lies between 2001, due to the attacks of September 11th in New York and their sociopolitical effects in Western countries; and 2015 with the attacks of the January 7th at the premises of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and those of the November 13th in Paris and Saint-Denis. This choice finds justification in the convergence between the current international context and the return of the colonial legacy.
According to the analysis, stricter migration and border control in France fosters the criminalization of migrants who are already vulnerable and in precarious situations. Much of this criminilization is crystallized on a racial and religious marker.
Moreover, the thesis identified the presence of a colonial pattern in the way migration is governed by France.The restrictive measures that have been mobilised are part of a policy of exception that creates « lawless zones ». In these places, migrants are excluded from the protection of the law, they are Homo Sacer. Such places include hotspots such as in Greece and Italy, refugee camps, waiting areas in airports that can be converted into places of detention, and administrative detention centers, etc.
Furthermore, we notice that the stigmatization of Arab and Muslim communities is expanding to migants, especially those from African and/or Arab countries that are at war or are poor.
Finally, this thesis reveals the imminence of migration questions in Western and former colonizer countries such as France. These issues turn out to be strategic since they are rooted in sociohistorical power relations and reveal identity dimensions, particularly linked to debates on “national identity”, civilizational insecurity and fears of invasion.
