Making-up (un)deservingness

The term ‘irregular migration’ is a highly politicised and contested one, employed by policymaking institutions to problematise the entry of migrants in a particular way and to advance certain policies (Jørgensen, 2012). This thesis argues that constructing refugees and asylum-seekers under the umbrella of ‘irregular migration’ allows the European Commission (EC) to put forward policies that are today widely contested by human rights organisations. Following the theoretical frameworks of Schneider and Ingram (1993), Bacchi (2014) and Van Leeuwen (2007), it is argued that our way of talking and problematising certain population groups (the policy discourse) does not neutrally reflect society, but plays a performative role in shaping policymaking used to address the group (the policy design). This thesis aims to answer the following question: how is the policy discourse on irregular migrants used by the European Commission to legitimate its policy design on irregular migration in the period of the refugee crisis 2015-2021? Based on a post-structuralist epistemology, interpreting policies as a continuous discourse, this thesis is based on a discourse analysis of 18 documents (policy briefs, speeches, press releases, etc.) on migration and asylum from the EC published in the period of the refugee crisis 2015-2021. The thesis contributes to academic literature by complementing Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) seminal theory on the social construction of target groups with a discursive methodology inspired by Van Leeuwen (2007). Doing so enables to empirically analyse how the EC’s problematisation of migrants through the notion of irregularity shapes and legitimates the EC’s policy design — a connection that is not operationalised by Schneider and Ingram (1993). As a result of the research, this thesis concludes that the notion of irregularity enables the EC to speak about migrants through the notion of irregularity in two distinctive ways — through a humanitarian and a securitisation discourse — enabling the institution to legitimate different aspects of its policy design on migration and asylum that affect refugees by the same token. Overall, the societal relevance of this thesis lies in its contributions demystifying the reason why refugees and asylum-seekers can be targeted through policies of deterrence by the EC, and these findings can be used as basis for policy recommendations.