Seminar: Crisis or Security Threat? How Migration is Framed in Politics and Media

Migration is increasingly framed as a security issue, with some governments accusing rivals of manipulating migration flows for political leverage. Cases such as Belarus’s facilitation of migrant crossings into the EU and Russia’s alleged role in redirecting migration routes toward Finland are just two examples of a broader trend.

But what drives these narratives of migration as a security threat? To what extent do they respond to genuine challenges, and when do they serve political or ideological agendas? This seminar brings together experts from policy, media, and humanitarian fields to critically examine the growing intersection of migration and security, questioning the assumptions behind these narratives and exploring their real-world implications.

Speakers:

• Heidi Erbsen (PhD, Media and Communications) is a researcher specializing in media discourses on migration, EU integration, and Estonia’s Russian-speaking population. Drawing from media analyses conducted in 2016, 2018-2019, and 2022, she will discuss how European migration "crises" have shaped public perceptions, constructed narratives of threat, and framed the EU as a unified or fragmented actor in response to migration challenges.
• Sigrid Solnik is a humanitarian professional and applied anthropologist with extensive experience in civil society, debate moderation, and social change initiatives. She will bring a humanitarian sector perspective to the discussion, addressing the deepening securitization of migration and how prevailing narratives impact asylum seekers and humanitarian work.

Core Questions to be Explored:

• How do different actors (scholars, journalists, humanitarian workers) engage with and respond to the framing of migration as a security issue?
• What are the trade-offs between national security concerns and asylum rights?
• Who defines what constitutes a migration-related "threat," and what criteria are used?
• How do media narratives and political discourse contribute to securitization, and who benefits from these framings?
• What does the shift toward securitization mean for international human rights and asylum law?

Moderator: 

Timothy Anderson (Researcher, TLÜ School of Humanities / Eur-Asian Border Lab)

This seminar is part of Tallinn University’s Eur-Asian Border Lab Forum that brings together research and pressing border issues.

Refreshments provided after the event