DISKURSIV FÖRÄNDRING AV CENTRALA AKTÖRER I ÅRSRAPPORTERNA OM FRIT

Abstract

This study examines how the European Commission discursively constructs and legitimizes the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRIT) and the roles of key actor in its annual reports from year 2017, 2021 and 2025. Situating the analysis within critical research on external migration governance, the study focuses on following research questions: (I) How are FRIT, the European Commission, Turkey, refugees, host communities and migrants’ roles constructed and legitimized in the annual reports of FRIT year 2017, 2021 and 2025? How do these roles discursively change over the span of time from 2017, 2021 and 2025? Using DiscourseHistorical Approach (DHA) as both methodology and theoretical framework, the study analyses nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivization and intensification/mitigation strategies. The findings of the study demonstrate a clear discursive shift across the reports. The study concludes that the annual reports do not merely describe policy outcomes but actively construct and normalizes an asymmetric power relation between the European Commission and Turkey. Through technical language, quantification and appeals to expertise, migration governance through FRIT is progressively depoliticized and institutionalized. The discursive development from crisis response to permanent administration reveals how language functions as a mechanism for sustaining institutional legitimacy and consolidating the European Commission’s authority in external migration management.