Politicization of Migration Policies in the Visegrad Group’s Member States: A Means of Creating External Enemies of the Political system?

Year 2023, Volume: 32 Issue: 1, 57 - 73, 08.04.2023

Przemyslaw Osiewicz

https://doi.org/10.26650/siyasal.2023.32.11213865

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to examine whether the process of politicization of migration policies in the member states of the Visegrad Group is used to create the image of external enemies of these societies. The main assumption is that the leaders of the V4 states intentionally politicize migration issues and use them to achieve internal objectives. The official migration strategies of these states conform to generally accepted norms. Yet, the narrative of executive bodies fosters the ‘we-they’ division and the negative image of immigrants. Migrants are shown as external enemies and a source of potential threats to state security. The main theoretical contribution of the article is the original typology of creating the image of migrants as enemies of the state. The empirical contribution, in turn, is based on an in-depth analysis of a selected case, a group of V4 countries that so far have not been compared in terms of the dominant arguments serving to create the image of migrants as enemies of the state. The main research hypothesis is as follows: the politicization of migration issues in the V4 countries serves to create specific types of images of external enemies and is used instrumentally to achieve objectives in domestic politics.

Keywords

Visegrad Group, Migration policy, Politicization, V4, Migrants

Supporting Institution

the National Science Centre, Poland

Project Number

Grant 2018/31/B/HS5/01410

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