The Crisis of Migration Discourse: A Participatory approach for a new Lexicon of Migration (CMD) – CMD

Migration is often seen as an exceptional phenomenon, "as crisis" occurring beyond the realms of ‘normal’ national development and change. It is viewed as challenging and undermining the coherence of nation-states and national bounded identities and cultures. Such narratives have also strengthened populist and nationalistic movements that have spread divisions across Europe and have contributed to linking migration to perceptions of threat, often coupled with an increasing deal of xenophobic and anti-migrant hate speech. As environmental degradation is set to double the numbers of migrants crossing to Europe over the next decade, the project attempts to both highlight the complex role of public narratives in shaping responses to the perceived migration ‘crisis’ and to explore novel ways to de-escalate narratives of illegality and emergency.
CMD will engage with the impact that discourses and policies that construct migration through the lens of crisis have on people using unauthorised routes and are therefore illegalised to enter the EU and the UK. It aims to posit illegalised migrants as agents of change via impacting on the narratives of crisis and of illegality and related policy agendas by 1. examining the current construction of narratives around ‘illegal’ migration and their impact on policy making (construction) through textual analysis 2. deconstructing such narratives through intercultural and participatory encounters with illegalised migrants(deconstruction) and 3. reconstructing a ‘just’ lexicon of migration that aims to challenge and shift current practices of migration management, based on the illegalization and criminalization of specific mobilities. We argue for narratives and policies which will ultimately foster solidarity with the collective migrant ‘other’.