Securitization of migration in Switzerland in OECD reports from the 1990s to the present

Global developments such as the Balkan Wars, which began in the post-Cold War era, and the subsequent enlargement of the European Union (EU) have brought about a number of changes in the world. One of these changes has been migration. Both regular and irregular migration have shaped both the internal balances of countries and the relations between them. Switzerland, one of the countries where these regular and irregular migrations are observed, has been significantly affected by migration flows. Initially, the influx of refugees and laborers from Balkan countries in the 1990s and early 2000s led to a reassessment of the country's migration policies. The policies and decisions that have changed over the years have played a significant role in migration processes in a region that includes Switzerland. This situation encompasses a broad history in Switzerland. In this context, this study aims to examine, chronologically, how Switzerland’simmigration policies have changed since the 1990s; in terms of legal regulations, institutional transformations, and the attitudes and effects of political and social actors. The primary source for this research is the migration reports published by the OECD starting in 1997. This research, based on securitization theory, identifies the securitization processes of discourses using thematic and content analysis methods. The MAXQDA analysis program was used for the analysis. A hierarchical structure was created in the analyses, starting from the top and moving downwards: “Main Category,” then “Category,” then “Subcategory,” then “Code,” and finally “Subcode.”