Abstract: This thesis is a critical examination of the European Union's border externalization strategies towards North African countries, with a focus on their discursive and practical implications from the year 2019 to 2024. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Post-Colonial theory, this study explores how public discourses by EU leaders shape perceptions of migrants and international relations, highlighting the endurance of colonial legacies. By analyzing recent public speeches and interviews, the thesis investigates the complex interaction between language, power, and policy, disclosing how modern practices of border management perpetuate historical patterns of dominance and exclusion. Through a detailed examination of a selection of EU actors’ speeches, this study argues that in spite of claims of mutual benefit, externalization policies often reinforce unequal power dynamics, and discriminatory perceptions of migrants and North Africans and contribute to a securitized and exclusionary approach to migration. The findings challenge the effectiveness of border externalization, suggesting a reassessment of policies due to their detrimental social and political impacts.

This thesis investigates the European Union’s response to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, focusing on the strategy of externalizing border controls through agreements with Turkey and Libya. Employing a combination of qualitative textual analysis and interviews, the study examines the humanitarian and legal implications of these agreements, particularly in relation to the criminalization of NGOs’ activities on the Central Mediterranean Route. The findings reveal a dual process of criminalization, both at the European level through operational shifts and the implementation of Codes of Conduct, and at the national level through policies targeting NGOs, such as Italy’s “Codice di Condotta per le ONG” and “decreto Salvini-bis”. The examples of the SeaWatch-3 and IUVENTA boats demonstrate how these processes hinder NGOs’ operations and shape public discourse on migration. The thesis concludes by highlighting the ongoing challenges in the Mediterranean Sea and the need for further research to understand their implications fully.