The Reality of Refugee Diplomacy: EU-Turkey agreement and political narratives of legitimization

The EU-Turkey Statement was introduced in March 2016 as a solution to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, with the aim of limiting irregular migration to Europe and securing the EU’s external borders. As an act of externalization of the European border and migration control, the agreement has been regarded as controversial. This paper attempts to answer how the EU-Turkey Statement has been framed in the political discourse as an attempt to legitimize the externalization of European border and migration management to a ‘safe third country’. The research question will be addressed through document and discourse analysis, and with the analytical lenses of humanitarianization, securitization and externalization of the Statement, its evaluations, and the political discourses surrounding it. In summary, the result of this analysis shows that the EU-Turkey Statement has been framed as a humanitarian and security crisis in order to justify a questionable externalization policy.

《欧盟-土耳其联合声明》(EU-Turkey Statement) 于2016年3月出台，旨在应对持续发酵的叙利亚难民危机，核心目标为限制非正规移民涌入欧洲，并筑牢欧盟外部边境防线。作为欧洲边境与移民管控外部化的一项举措，该声明一直颇具争议。本文旨在探讨如下问题：《欧盟-土耳其联合声明》如何在政治话语中被构建，以将欧洲边境与移民管理外部化的行为合法化，并将其包装为"安全第三国"方案。本研究将通过文献与话语分析，结合人道化、安全化与外部化的分析视角，对该声明、相关评价及围绕其展开的政治话语展开研究。综上，本次分析结果显示，《欧盟-土耳其联合声明》被构建为一场兼具人道与安全属性的危机，以此为颇具争议的外部化政策提供正当性依据。