Gender in Securitization Theory: A feminist analysis of smuggling and trafficking governance in the EU

The securitization of migration in the EU is a popular subject in international security studies. However, securitization theory has long been criticized for being gender blind. To overcome this limitation, the thesis connects the Copenhagen School’s framework to the study of the ＂gendering＂ of migration by addressing the knowledge gap of how gender can be integrated into securitization theory. The aim is to identify how gender constructions contribute to the framing of the referent object and the existential threat in the securitizing moves by the EU. An adapted conceptual framework on securitization, gender, and migration is applied to the EU migration management architecture. Employing the qualitative feminist methodology of Critical Frame Analysis, the book explores how the securitization of smuggling and trafficking is rooted in gendered constructions of vulnerability and threat based on stereotypes of femininity and masculinity.