Geopolitics of Border Securitization

Sovereignty, Nationalism and Solidarity in Asylum Reception in Finland

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4950806
AutoresEeva-Kaisa Prokkola (0000-0003-3237-6953, Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume25
Fascículo4
Páginas867-886
Data de publicação2020-08-07
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2018.1520213
OpenAlexW2896902075
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas33

The paper examines the recent security interventions at the northern Finnish-Swedish border crossing point in the town of Tornio, the particular focus being on the 2015 migration influx in which Finland received a tenfold increase in asylum applications compared with the previous years (~3000 → 32 476 asylum applicants). The resultant securitization of the Finnish-Swedish border and the organization of asylum reception practices, in which nongovernmental organizations played an important role, created tension between the Finnish and Swedish authorities, borderlanders, and within wider Finnish society. An empirical study of various materials (documents, interviews, social media debates and media reports) is used to examine the coexistence and intertwining of different border securitization practices and discourses. The analysis is structured around three story lines that disclose border securitization as multiple and aims to problematize the assumption that states, as entities holding sovereign authority, fully determine matters of border securitization. Firstly, the state intervention examined here occurred through and fully depended on collaboration with local authorities and nongovernmental actors. Secondly, nationalistic groups mobilized demonstrations against immigration and started independent street patrols in the name of security, throwing into question the effectiveness and authority of the state government in matters of border securitization. Thirdly, the discourses of the securitized Finnish-Swedish border reflect the wider solidarity crisis between EU countries with respect to shared sovereignty. The study complicates the understanding of border securitization as a straight forward state effort and provides a picture of a hybrid border securitization environment

Business · Economics · Economy · Geopolitics · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Securitization · Sociology · Solidarity · Sovereignty · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration