The Dual Representation of Migrants in Spain: Between Labour Mobility and Securitization

Studies on migration governance have recently turned their attention to the various ways whereby governing institutions, parties, civil organizations, and other intermediate institutions shape migration influxes. A particularly relevant approach in migration governance studies explores the role of these organizations in representing the migrant figure as acceptable or unacceptable in specific political contexts. Spain, as many other countries in Western Europe, has faced various challenges related to migration governance in recent times, especially during the last crisis with Morocco in June 2022. Furthermore, the radical right party Vox, which entered the Spanish parliament in April 2019, has increasingly politicized migration issues, changing political competition and issue salience regarding this theme. This paper seeks to analyze to what extent these new conditions of party competition have transformed the main representations of migration that are mobilized by political actors in Spain. This study develops a longitudinal analysis of the changing debates on migration in the Spanish parliament before and after the entrance of the party Vox in the Spanish parliament and across the various crisis-like events related to migration. It relies on a computer assisted discourse analysis of parliamentary debates and campaign speeches from 2015 to 2022.