Marino, Anna and Vestin Hategekimana

Framing Migration and Migrants Through Border Crises: The Case of Ceuta and Melilla
2025

In this paper, we analyze the framing of migration and migrants, reflecting on the relevance of specific disruptive episodes in the border context of Ceuta and Melilla, which divides Spain (and Europe) and Morocco (and Africa). We conduct framing analysis quantitively and qualitatively, developing a specific mixed-method approach which allows us to show how specific episodes impact frames with the potential of building specific narratives by actors at regional (EU level), national, and local levels. The analyzed borderlands present – at least – two lexical borders: one that is managerial and enhances the bureaucratization of migration as a process, thus invisibilizing the human aspect in the category of migrant; and another that is humanitarian, often challenging the bureaucratic approach by emphasizing the human side of migration. We argue that independent and activist organizations (IAOs), part of civil society, bring forward a humanitarian border through principled pragmatism. Representatives of the selected IAOs underline the worth of a pragmatic approach informed by the lived reality where a more humanitarian lexical border would be in line with principles and respond to ethical concerns while also being instrumental to the borderlands’ growth.