Securing human rights or humanising securitisation? Assessing the normative coherence for human rights in the EU migration actions

Abstract

Ensuring a Normative Coherence for Human Rights in migration governance is crucial for the European Union’s credibility. The EU has a strong commitment to respect and promote human rights in its internal and external actions due to its role as a ‘normative power’ (Manners, 2002, p. 238). In that regard, the Union has witnessed a shift from statecentric control to the regionalisation of migration management, with a focus on a holistic approach aligned with human rights standards to safeguard migrants’ well-being. Yet, balancing human rights implementation and migration strategies becomes challenging as a consequence of the securitisation of migration. This dissertation aimed to analyse how normatively coherent are the EU migration governance strategies with the organisation’s core values which include a commitment to human rights. An innovative framework on Normative Coherence for Human Rights was adopted for research purposes. The thesis found that actions involving border control and returns resulted in a decrease in the consideration of migrants’ rights, leading to three significant consequences. First, the emergence of partial coherence for human rights in migration strategies, resulting in normative incoherence for human rights. The second consequence involves a significant challenge to the EU’s status as a normative power. And lastly, the potential risk of the regionalisation of migration governance failing to succeed.