THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S FRAMING OF SOLIDARITY IN MIGRATION POLITICS

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze how the European Commission has framed the concept of solidarity differently in migration policies between the European Agenda on Migration and the New Pact on Migration and Solidarity, in order to comprehend how framing and reframing of policies can affect the development of European migration politics. In doing so, the driving ideas behind the Commission’s way of framing the issue will also be studied. Previous research shows that solidarity is a complex concept with many interpretations, which has created numerous misunderstandings in the EU’s agendas on migration. Based on the theories of agenda-setting strategies, bounded rationality and issue frames, a framing analysis is conducted on different policy documents and the two main agendas. The results of the analysis furthermore show that solidarity has been framed differently in the documents, depending on the situation and time in which it is written. It is also shown that the Commission’s way of framing the issue differently depends on its ideas of arousing interest or gaining authority. The overall result is thus that the concept of solidarity has become more important in the aftermaths of the crisis.