Externalisation of Migration Policy: Elements of Politicisation of EU-Libya and EU-Turkey Relations in National Parliaments

The 2015 migration crisis brought up numerous questions on how migration should be dealt with in the European Union (EU), as well as in relation to third countries. This paper seeks therefore to examine and assess the extent to which the external dimension of EU migration policy has been politicised in the past few years. This research is focusing on two controversial ‘deals’ related to migration, i.e. EU-Libya and EU-Turkey cooperation frameworks.The aim of this paper is to analyse the diverse dimensions of politicisation in regard to the external dimension of EU migration policy in national parliaments. In other words, it investigates the extent to which the EU cooperation with Libya and Turkey regarding migration management is politicised. A comparison between French, German and Polish parliamentary debates constitutes the main case study of this research. The methodology used encompasses quantitative and qualitative methods, applied on data collected from 2014 to 2020.Prime consideration is given to the different elements of politicisation, i.e. salience of the issue, expansion of actors and polarisation of opinion. Thus, the results of this study contribute to further understanding of the patterns and the extent of politicisation of the external dimension of EU migration policy in national parliaments.