Udochi, Great

From entry to exit: how and why the European Commission politicised EU emigration
2025

This paper addresses how and why emigration has become politicised within the European Commission through an analytical method of framing analysis and a historical institutionalist theoretical framework. It is based on emigration-related documents produced by the Commission and interviews with officials. Descriptive findings show that: 1) emigration is salient within the Commission, involving an increasing range of actors both horizontally, across offices, and vertically from low to high-ranking officials; 2) the Commission’s stance on emigration has shifted from a positive and neutral view to a more negative one; 3) emigration is increasingly framed as a regional issue, with its political implications becoming more prominent, although economic concerns remain central. Explanatory findings reveal how the regional geography of political discontent increased the politicisation of emigration and how the institutional context of the EU regionalised the discourse, enabling the Commission to leverage its competence in addressing a threat it perceives as existential.