The nexus of securitisation, crimmigration and externalisation of migration management

This thesis examines the interconnectedness of securitisation, crimmigration, and the externalisation of migration control, arguing that the synergy of these frameworks has reconfigured the policies that states deploy to govern mobility, particularly those within the Global North. The principal research question of this paper asks: How do securitisation and crimmigration influence the development and implementation of externalisation policies in migration control? Drawing on securitisation theory, crimmigration scholarship, and critical legal studies, the thesis develops an interdisciplinary analytical framework to examine how these processes intersect in both discourse and practice. With the utilisation of case studies, including, among others, the cooperation of the European Union with third countries such as Turkey, Libya and Tunisia, and the offshore asylum processing model of Australia, the thesis demonstrates how securitised narratives portray migrants as threats, legitimising the criminalisation of mobility and enabling the extension of migration control beyond national boundaries. The findings of this thesis indicate that securitisation provides the ideological justification for the adoption of punitive measures, while crimmigration operationalises them through detention, deportation, and legal exclusion. These practices are then externalised through bilateral and multilateral agreements and the outsourcing of enforcement, often to countries with ineffective rule of law. This regime presents significant legal and ethical challenges, particularly in relation to non-refoulement, due process, and the erosion of accountability. The thesis argues that this model of migration management is neither sustainable nor normatively defensible; it instead demands a rights-based, legally coherent, and internationally accountable approach that reinstates protection at the centre of migration policy.