Cross-border masculinities: Agentic masculinities in Europe's refugee crisis

Applying the theoretical framework of masculinity studies in association with migration studies and using discourse analysis methodology, this dissertation shall look into the methodological and practical limitations on defining and dealing with refugee men as gendered subjects in the European Union. As humanitarian border management defines the scope of engagement with refugees in the EU case, this dissertation will analyse how humanitarian border management's overemphasis of refugees as vulnerable subjects in need of protection and basic needs led to disregard over gender-based identities of refugee men especially. It results from lack of engagement between masculinity and migration studies, which cooperates only in small instances, mostly on approaching refugee women as gendered individuals. This dissertation takes the sexual harassment incidents taken place in the 2016 New Year's Eve celebrations as the case study to apply discourse analysis. Its repercussions in the European Union policymakers and public will prove incapability of the European Union engaging with refugee identities from a gender-based perspective while its repercussions among feminist circles will demonstrate how gender could have incorporated into the official and public responses. This dissertation will argue that by overemphasising vulnerability and ignoring gendered identities of refugee men, the European Union's humanitarian border management led to a harsher transformation from compassion to moral panic among the public and the European policymakers. Key Words: Humanitarian border management, refugee men, Europe, vulnerability, gender, Cologne, sexual harassment.