Crisis, Control and Contradictions: The EU-Turkey Agreement and the Fragility of Normative Power Europe
(2025) STVM23 20251Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- The European Union regularly portrays itself as a normative power committed
to values such as human rights, solidarity, and the rule of law, while the EU
Turkey Statement of 2016 has raised questions about the coherence between
this self-image and the EU’s external migration practices. This thesis
investigates how the Statement is linguistically legitimised in political and
media discourse, as well as to what extent a tension between the EU’s
normative claims and its pragmatic governance of migration is shown. Drawing
on the theoretical frameworks of Normative Power Europe, Securitisation
Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analyses 30 selected texts,
which include official EU communications, statements by... (More) - The European Union regularly portrays itself as a normative power committed
to values such as human rights, solidarity, and the rule of law, while the EU
Turkey Statement of 2016 has raised questions about the coherence between
this self-image and the EU’s external migration practices. This thesis
investigates how the Statement is linguistically legitimised in political and
media discourse, as well as to what extent a tension between the EU’s
normative claims and its pragmatic governance of migration is shown. Drawing
on the theoretical frameworks of Normative Power Europe, Securitisation
Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analyses 30 selected texts,
which include official EU communications, statements by Turkish political
actors and international media coverage from March 2016 to March 2020. The
analysis focuses on how key terms such as “solidarity” and “responsibility”
are semantically framed to legitimise migration policy measures. The findings
reveal a dual discursive strategy, showing that the EU constructs itself as a
value-based actor while simultaneously using securitised and technocratic
narratives which externalise responsibility and portray migration as a threat.
Turkey is framed predominantly as an executive gatekeeper, obligated with
operational implementation but excluded from a normative role, while at the
same time, counter-discourses from Turkish officials and international media
challenge the EU’s moral authority and show discursive contradictions. This
research demonstrates that normative legitimacy is rather contested than fixed,
since it is constantly negotiated within a discursive field that is shaped by
asymmetrical power relations, competing interests, and divergent
interpretations of responsibility. In essence, the study aims to contributes to a
deeper understanding of how the EU attempts to connect its normative
credibility with their geopolitical agency in the realm of migration governance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9189457
- author
- Hussein, Jana LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM23 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- EU-Turkey Statement, EU-Turkey Agreement, Externalisation, Migration Governance, Normative Power Europe, Securitization.
- language
- English
- id
- 9189457
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-08 11:38:11
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 11:38:11
@misc{9189457, abstract = {{The European Union regularly portrays itself as a normative power committed to values such as human rights, solidarity, and the rule of law, while the EU Turkey Statement of 2016 has raised questions about the coherence between this self-image and the EU’s external migration practices. This thesis investigates how the Statement is linguistically legitimised in political and media discourse, as well as to what extent a tension between the EU’s normative claims and its pragmatic governance of migration is shown. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Normative Power Europe, Securitisation Theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analyses 30 selected texts, which include official EU communications, statements by Turkish political actors and international media coverage from March 2016 to March 2020. The analysis focuses on how key terms such as “solidarity” and “responsibility” are semantically framed to legitimise migration policy measures. The findings reveal a dual discursive strategy, showing that the EU constructs itself as a value-based actor while simultaneously using securitised and technocratic narratives which externalise responsibility and portray migration as a threat. Turkey is framed predominantly as an executive gatekeeper, obligated with operational implementation but excluded from a normative role, while at the same time, counter-discourses from Turkish officials and international media challenge the EU’s moral authority and show discursive contradictions. This research demonstrates that normative legitimacy is rather contested than fixed, since it is constantly negotiated within a discursive field that is shaped by asymmetrical power relations, competing interests, and divergent interpretations of responsibility. In essence, the study aims to contributes to a deeper understanding of how the EU attempts to connect its normative credibility with their geopolitical agency in the realm of migration governance.}}, author = {{Hussein, Jana}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Crisis, Control and Contradictions: The EU-Turkey Agreement and the Fragility of Normative Power Europe}}, year = {{2025}}, }