Securitisation of Migration in the Language of Slovak Far-Right Populism

Abstract

Although the Slovak Republic is not a country of immigrants, since 2015 the topic of international migration has dominated its political discourse. Due to the migration situation in 2015, Slovak politicians have also begun to use the topic of migration to mobilise their voters. Paradoxically, there are no significant differences among the relevant Slovak political parties on this topic, hence Slovak politicians take a similar approach to the issue of migration. This article focuses on the People's Party Our Slovakia as a leading representative of far-right populism. We intend to explore how Slovak far-right populists articulate the issue of international migration. Our analysis has found that the language of far-right populists reflects a dichotomy of “we/us” (good) vs. “they/them” (evil). Far-right populists emphasise the negative consequences of migration, as they perceive migrants as a threat to national security. In-depth analyses of political texts have revealed that the securitisation of migration by far-right populists has several dimensions. Migrants are perceived as a threat to the economic, political and cultural security of the state.