Securitization of migration and extreme right parties in the European countries: A comparative analysis on Hungary and Greece

The so-called "spring process", which started in Tunisia in 2010 and spread to the entire Arab geography, influenced the European countries from political, social and economic aspects due to the forced and irregular humanitarian migration it created as much as the countries it appeared. Irregular migrants trying to reach the European countries illegally, both in this process and afterwards, were accepted as a security problem in many countries. As a result, the relevant countries tried to legitimize their anti-immigration decisions by turning this issue into a security issue in order to prevent irregular migration. This thesis analyzes the transformation process of irregular migration into a security issue in Hungary and Greece, which are among the countries most affected by irregular migration to the European countries between 2011 and 2019, and the role played by extreme right parties in this process. The thesis makes use of the explanatory power of the securitization theory while analyzing the way immigration has become a security issue in these two countries. For this reason, the thesis makes an important theoretical contribution to the literature by combining the arguments of the Copenhagen School, which initiated the securitization studies, and the Paris School, which articulated a poststructuralist perspective to this field. Here it should be noted that the thesis argues that the arguments produced by the Copenhagen School and the Paris School on the securitization of migration are complementary rather than competing with each other. The results of this research show that anti-immigration decisions implemented in the European countries are primarily subject to a process of securitization. The extreme right parties, known for their opposition to immigration, play a functional role in these processes, facilitating the implementation of anti-immigration decisions. In addition, it is noteworthy that there is almost no ideological difference between the mainstream parties and the extreme right parties on the issue of anti-immigration.