Words That Govern : Framing of Migration in the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum

In our globalised world, migration has become increasingly prominent on decision-making agendas. Over the years, the framing of this phenomenon has been vastly alternating depending on spatial, temporal and contextual settings. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum (NPMA) is the EU’s latest attempt to tackle this matter. This thesis examines how the NPMA frames migration in its institutional discourse. The chosen theory for this study is Framing Theory along with a methodological combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and Framing Analysis. They are used in order to look at what values and principles are highlighted in NPMA official texts, and how they shape the EU’s self‑presentation as a normative actor. Humanitarian and Securitising discourses have been used in order to analyse the chosen data. The results show that the EU frames migration as a discursive duality using hybrid frames by blending humanitarian and securitising discourses. The NPMA uses moral values, such as solidarity, dignity, and the protection of human life, intertwined with frames of risk, crisis, and control. This directly shows that humanitarian and securitising frames are strategically co‑deployed rather than being presented as competing logics in order to justify restrictive measures while maintaining the EU’s normative self‑presentation.