Framing Migration in Finnish Party and Government Programmes (2019–2027)

Abstract

International migration has become one of the most prominent and contested political issues in Europe, particularly since the 2015 refugee crisis. While migration may be understood as a humanitarian responsibility, an economic resource, or a social challenge, it is increasingly framed in political discourse as a matter of security. In Finland, debates on migration have gained political significance, reflecting broader tensions between the country's humanitarian welfare-state tradition and concerns about national identity, public order, and the sustainability of the welfare system. This thesis examines how migration is framed in Finnish party and government programmes and analyses the extent to which these framings reflect securitising or desecuritising tendencies across the electoral periods 2019–2023 and 2023–2027. The research gap was addressed through a qualitative frame analysis informed by securitisation theory, examining party and government programmes. The empirical data comprise official party and government programmes produced during two consecutive Finnish electoral periods (2019–2023 and 2023–2027). Drawing on framing theory and the Copenhagen School’s securitisation approach, the analysis identified the dominant migration frames in these documents and assessed whether they portray migration as a security threat requiring exceptional measures or as a matter of ordinary political governance. The analysis identified five dominant frames: Migration as a Security Issue, Migration as an Economic Resource, Migration as an Integration Challenge, Migration as Governance and Regulation, and Migration within the Welfare State Framework. The findings showed significant differences between political actors and electoral periods. While some parties primarily framed migration through economic, humanitarian, and governance perspectives, others increasingly associated it with security concerns, public order, and the sustainability of the welfare state. The analysis also revealed a shift towards more restrictive and security-oriented migration governance in the 2023–2027 period. Overall, the findings suggested that Finnish migration discourse was characterised by the coexistence of securitising, desecuritising, and pragmatic policy-oriented approaches rather than a single dominant understanding of migration.