The Role of Data during the European Migration Crisis: Frontex and Data Management

Abstract

This research is designed to address the usage of situational and personal data by the EU Border Agency, Frontex as a result of securitization processes during the European Migration Crisis. In doing so, this study applies the theoretical framework established by Bourbeau (2014) to combine the parallels of the Copenhagen and Paris Schools. This enables a deeper observation of the crisis and broadens the scope for the study of securitization. This study uses discourse-analysis and process-tracing methods to determine if securitization of migration occurred during the crisis, what role data played in doing so, and to what extent practices in data management became institutionalized. This study uses Frontex as the primary point of reference for its practices in data management, and political discourse of the European Commission. By analyzing Frontex' activities in combination with discourse from the Commission, this study finds that discourse and practices work to reinforce one another, and therefore not only has migration been securitized, but it has allowed for the expanded use of data management practices. This has in turn worked in a cyclical motion to reinforce the position of Frontex within the migration-security nexus and ensured practices involving data analytics become institutionalized.