The Polish experiences of visa policy in the context of securitization

Introduction

Polish policy versus foreigners underwent serious, deep-reaching changes over the last fifteen years. From the country of strict emigration policy, closing in its citizens within the State territory, Poland moved to the other pole of the universe - to an immigration policy aiming at closing out the unwanted individuals. After the euphoria of 1989, with the borders finally open to the Polish citizens but also to foreigners, the myth of Openness towards the outside world, so cherished among the liberated Poles, deteriorated gradually, being replaced by fears and insecurity related to specific parts of the outside world. In this paper I will try to demonstrate the limits of this change. In the first section, I will thus explain briefly the way Polish migration policy was created in the 1990’s, and the special place of the visa policy in this framework. I will also place these developments in the context of securitization. In the second part of the paper I will demonstrate how the visa policy has worked until the date. I will indicate possible limits to securitization. And then, finally, I will offer some conclusions and predictions referring also to the example offered by the EU member states-to-be, namely Bulgaria.

Securitization of Polish policy versus foreigners.

In the years 1989-2003, immigration issued were skillfully kept in the seclusion of cabinets. The responsibility for adoption of some solutions was in hands of few people, who had a luxury of working without political or public opinion pressures on the domestic scene, since immigration was just not a political issue. However, the way the policy was actually legitimized, indicates that an ongoing process of securitization took place.

I understand the concept of securitization as a usage of speech acts. As Buzan (Buzan et al., 1998) defines it: "The process of securitization is what in language theory is called a speech act. It is not interesting as a sign referring to something more real; it is the utterance itself that is the act. By saying the words, something is done.» [1] The securitization is most likely in the case of a politicized issue. The policy is securitized when a securitizing actor performs a securitizing move. Securitization of the policy is the process leading to a securitized policy discourse with very distinctive linguistic features (uses of certain topoi, rhetorical figures, disclaimers etc).

In case of the migration policy, the most important «securitizing» discourse is the discourse of threat to the internal security of the state. Wodak (Wodak, van Dijk 2001) showed that many of the politicians of the EU member states follow the philosophy of securitization while debating new solutions on migration policy. [2] They would just use specific topoi, as the «the burden», «bogus asylum seeker», «the boat is full» or «organized crime» to justify the solutions. Each usage establishes the idea of immigration as threat, not only in the military sense (this sense has been in use mainly since 9/11), but mainly in the social and cultural sense.

What is interesting, in an ongoing research, I have analyzed the Polish parliamentary debates and I discovered a surprising convergence of the Polish discourses with other national ones (Weinar 2005, forthcoming). The major puzzle that arises is that a country of low numbers of immigration should engage in securitizing discourses in the first place. However, this phenomenon might be explained by the socialization and policy learning strategies in the years before the EU accession.

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The Polish experiences of visa policy in the context of securitization