The impact of Migration Securitization on the Approach of the European Union in Providing Development Aid

The European Union is the largest donor of development aid in the world by providing about the half of global development aid by its members. Meanwhile, the biggest recipients are mostly found among the neighbors of the European Union. The main question of this research is: What role does the securitization of immigration play in European Union's development aid? The main hypothesis states the European Union's development aid has shifted its function from the poverty alleviation to the migration control due to the securitization of immigration. In this research, the qualitative method and statistical analysis with the documentary method as the method of collecting data are used within the theoretical framework of Buzan and Weaver’s securitization theory. The results of this research indicate that development aid has become a tool of the European Union's foreign policies in line with the migration securitization discourse, and the quality and quantity of the aid are both affected by the security concerns of the EU members. In fact, the migration securitization discourse has moved from the national to the supranational level in the European Union, and due to the amendments made in the Lisbon Treaty for the sake of a common security and foreign policy under the management of the European External Action Service and budgeting the development aid, development policy has been undermined and hollowed out by diverting its focus from poverty alleviation to migration crisis management.