Migration controls in Italy and Hungary From conditionalized to domesticized humanitarianism at the EU borders.

Abstract

This article analyses the migration control narrative in Italy and Hungary at the nexus of humanitarianism and securitisation. We concentrate on how the humanitarian discourse is undervalued as the EU border states emphasise either full securitisation or else securitisation as a condition for humanitarianism when it comes to border management and refugee protection measures. We trace, first, how politicians conceptualise humanitarianism for the self and for the extension of the self; and, second, how they conditionalize humanitarianism for the other. Reflecting on the institutional and discursive nexus of humanitarianism and securitization in effect to migration controls, our aim is also to contextualise political narratives of Europe and how politicians use them to affect the public. We elaborate on this nexus considering how it foregrounds human rights for the self but challenges humanitarianism as it undervalues human rights for the other. In order to see how migration politics is framed for everyday consumption, we are referring to tropes emerging in major political speeches in Italy and Hungary, and develop two conceptual terms suggesting conditionalised humanitarianism and domesticised humanitarianism.