Imaginaries and state-market relationships: The securitisation and commercialisation of migration in the European Union

As a concept rooted in Science and Technology Studies, imaginaries are seen to be capable of mobilising technologies and facets of the imagination that result in the creation of collectively held political or social visions. The sociotechnical imaginary framework aims to clarify the “continually rearticulated awareness of order in social life” and the processes committed to upholding this order made visible through practices (Jasanoff, 2015, p.38, 324). This thesis lays bare the imaginaries that configure the relationship between the securitisation of international migration and the EU’s security and defence market by investigating their connection in Horizon 2020 research and technology (R&T) projects. As a creative force, imaginaries work to legitimise relations between security and defence businesses and policymaking that shape material outcomes such as bordering practices and security R&T. These imaginaries relate to security and defence innovation as being able to achieve global competitiveness, while claiming to fix complex political and societal issues. The combination with imaginaries that associate migration and migrants with threat and criminality make deterring and combatting migration become self-evident answers for dealing with the issue. This sustains the demand for security and defence products and sees an increasing militarisation of civil society. The research also shows how a mode of governance that favours private participation in order to achieve political goals is used by the EU as a form of governmentality to assert political agency and reinforce its integration process.