Words of (Un)welcome: Securitization & Migration Discourses in Ecuadorian Media

Abstract

This article explores how state and non-state actors compete to promote or combat securitizing discourses about migration through different media in a Global South receiving country. Drawing on theories of framing and securitization, the article traces the ways in which migrants in Ecuador are securitized, and the types of actors that are most influential in proposing salient frames that are invoked to justify specific policies or practices. It examines the role of agency by analyzing the presence or absence of migrant voices and other non-state actors in influencing the framing of news stories and in concrete policy outcomes. The article employs multiple methods, including content analysis of more than 800 newspaper articles on migration in three Ecuadorian newspapers over eight years, frame analysis of more than 100 television news videos, and discourse and social network analysis of more than 400 tweets harvested in the aftermath of an anti-immigrant incident in 2019. Given the centering of European experiences in dominant securitization theories, this work contributes a Global South perspective that illuminates the role of power and authority in the diffusion of securitizing discourses. It shows that the social construction of migrant identity and framing profoundly affects the human security of migrants.

Keywords: migration, discourse analysis, securitization, Ecuador, framing, Global South