Bibliographic note Putensen, J., 2019. Fortress Europe? Evaluation of Ideas for the Future of the EU. Master's thesis. Charles University, Prague. Abstract This thesis explores the use of the symbolic term Fortress Europe by political parties and move- ments in Austria, Germany, and Italy who are in favor of establishing a Fortress Europe and their ideas for what a Fortress Europe should look like. While the use of the term by left-wing critics of European immigration policies has been well covered in the literature, no author has yet analyzed the use of the term by political parties and movements that have started to demand a Fortress Europe since 2015. Based on an analysis of the appearance of the term Fortress Eu- rope in European media coverage conducted via the Factiva database, three countries with a relatively high use of the term in their media were selected for in-depth case studies. In partic- ular, the ideas of the following three extreme right groups were analyzed and compared: the Identitarian Movement Austria (IBÖ), the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), and Fortezza Europa (literal translation from Italian: Fortress Europe). It was found that their vi- sions of a Fortress Europe are very similar and aim to prevent any type of foreign immigration on a large scale in order to preserve...

This Master Thesis called "The Securitization of Immigration. An Assessment of the Extent of Securitization of Immigration in the German Political Discourse in the aftermath of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis" aims to identify the influence of the 2015 European refugee crisis on the German political discourse in reference to immigration and asylum. Since immigration became one of the greatest security concerns in the post-Cold War era, it appears plausible that the unprecedented high-numbers of asylum applications in 2015/16 triggered securitization in Germany. This impression is reinforced in reference to the increasing popularity of the anti-Islam, far-right PEGIDA movement and the right-wing populist party AfD. However, the merely welcoming attitude towards refugees among the German population, which attracted attention all over the world, challenges the securitization thesis, because the political discourse is assumed to be oriented towards public opinion. Thus, the political discourse in the aftermath of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis is assumed to be torn between fear (securitization discourse) and optimism (humanitarian discourse) in regard to immigration and asylum. By conducting a discourse analysis, contextualized speech-acts based on a generic structure used by Holger Stritzel were...

The thesis aims to look into the possibilities for the use of community work in the process of immigrant's integration into the society. The community work as an instrument of social work serves as a mean for building mutual bonds within a urban community, encourages development and exercise of the potential of the community and its citizens. This strengthens the active citizenship and involvement of the citizens in the processes that imminently concerns their lives. The thesis desribes the ways of possible inclusion of the immigrants in these processes in order for them to become equal fellow citizens of local communities and equal citizens of the country into which they decide to emigrate. The theoretical and philosophical background of this approach is an implementation and development of the political, civil and social rights that the immigrants acquire when given the permission of stay in certain country. The thesis describes results of a qualitative research lokking into community practise of two cities - Sheffield (United Kingdom) and Graz (Austria). These two examples describing the city council's involvement and the organizations-in-the-community's involvement are used to both define the realms of integration where the community work plays an undeniable role, and to come up with concrete...

This Master's thesis is analyzing the media portrait of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto in two American newspapers - The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. In this thesis, you can find the quantitative and the qualitative analysis of the image of Mexican president in the newspapers since his election in 2012 until the end of 2017. Peña Nieto is a member of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which was in power from 1929 till 2000. Peña Nieto is the first president after 12 years break who brought this party back to power. American presidential elections also took place during his administration and Barack Obama was replaced by Donald Trump. The thesis focus on three topics which are for many years the most critical parts of the U.S.-Mexican relationship: illegal immigration, the war on drugs and NAFTA. The analysis shows that Peña Nieto's image is portrayed in two opposite ways depends on the topic. He is presented as a competent leader in the questions of illegal immigration and NAFTA renegotiation. On the other, his leadership failed in the matter of drug issues in Mexico. The analysis also shows that Peña Nieto's image in the NY Times and the LA Times changed after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential elections. The difference of his image between the NY Times and the LA Times...

The recent usage of presidential directives by President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump initiated debates around limits of presidential power. Research on the presidential power has shown lack of focus on the presidential directives, misinterpretation and wrong terminology which resulted in false accusations of presidential overreach and abuse of power. This thesis argues that the political gridlock and increasing passivity of Congress have contributed to a shift between the executive and legislative power of government. This thesis will trace the extent to which Congress has become resistant to pass two of the key priorities of President Obama's political agenda - immigration reform and gun regulation, after which the President had to act on the issues unilaterally. The main aim of the thesis is to show that presidential directives of President Obama were not issued in a vacuum and that there were debates, persuasion and negotiations preceding the executive actions in an attempt to advance President's agenda in a form of bipartisan legislation rather than unilateral presidential directive.

This thesis focuses on spatial distribution of immigrants in Italy. In the beginning, it presents three migration theories used in the thesis (network theory, Human Capital Model, institutional theory) and related hypothesis for the research. Then it summarises the migration history of Italy since the Second World War and the current situation. After that, the tex proceeds to the examination of the spatial distribution of immigrants in Italy. The examination is done in two ways. First, there is analysis of statistical data by correlation analysis which tries to find factors which explain the immigrants' distribution in Italy. Second is the analysis of the results of a survey done in Trieste, Italy, between March and June 2011 among the two largest groups of immigrants living in the province of Trieste (those with citizenship of Serbia and Romania). The main results are that one of the most important factors for the immigrants' distribution are the job opportunities and better earnings for themselves and for their families. Interestingly, the network theory wasn't supported by the research, especially for Romanians who seem to prefer provinces with less Romanians (and foreigners in general) already present. After the analysis, the results are compared with the situation in the Czech Republic. For further...

This diploma thesis "Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a Stakeholders of the Integration Policy in Relation to the Foreigners" discsusses the Czech integration policy and the role of these organizations in the process of formation and implementation of this policy. It provides basic insight into the integration policy and process of its making, focuses on the role of individual stakeholders in this process, examines the relationships between the concerned stakeholders and focuses on problem areas connected with the theme of this thesis. This thesis is based both on information obtained from available sources (legislation, strategies, researches, etc.) and the views and opinions of representatives of the nonprofit sector and employees of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, which were formed on the grounds of their experience. The process of integration of foreigners is closely related to the phenomenon of migration, which has been an integral part of the life of all societies in different periods of time. Now as in the past, when the topicality of this issue is confirmed by the overall statistics of the population in the world as well as by the number of migrants. The importance of this issue also underscores the fact that in today's globalized world, the rate of the consistency...

Apart from trade and drug control, immigration is one of the three major issues affecting U.S. - Mexican relations. The U.S. today has more immigrants from Mexico alone than any other country in the world has from all other countries of the world. The scale of this human movement, the persistence and the large proportion of the unauthorized low skilled migrants, which dominated this flow for decades, make Mexican migration unique. The decision to migrate North has always been driven by economic motives; the prospect of higher wages and a better living standard have been the main push factors, until recently. Since 2007/2008 there has been a significant change in the character of Mexican migration. This can be attributed to several factors influencing the process at once, but the primary reason is the escalation of drug related violence on the Mexican side of the border. The focus of my thesis is to analyze the transformation of Mexican migration since 2007/2008. I argue these years have been a turning point in the dynamics of migration for two reasons. Firstly, in 2007 the American economy turned into recession, which significantly affected the flow of unauthorized migration. Secondly, in 2008 the drug related violence in Mexico spiked dramatically. This had a deterrent effect on the unauthorized...

The master thesis "True Finns. Establishment of right-wing populism in Finland?" deals with political party True Finns (The Finns, PS), its historical development and current position in Finnish party system. The master thesis is devided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with populist radical right political parties (PRR), which have established themselves in a lot of Western Europe party systém (inluding Scandinavia). Finland represented a state which had been immune of PRR. The aim of the first chapter is to answer an question, which are the main reasons of PRR emergence, respectively which were the reasons which delayed the Finnish PRR. The second chapter is concerned with political party True Finns (The Finns, PS), its historical development and ideological profile. The chapter reffers to ideological and personal roots in Finnish Rural Party. A part of the chapter is ideological core used by Cas Mudde (nativism, authoritarianism, populism) which is supplemented by an economical programme. The final part deals with the parliamentary election 2012. The final chapter concerns with current PS position in Finnish party systém and with impact on finnish politics. The chapter is closed with positive and negative factors for the future development.

The master thesis titled Italian Political Discourse and Securitization of Immigration: the Case of the Maghreb revolutions in 2011 deals with the issue of mass immigration waves reaching Italian shores and, in particular, the tiny island of Lampedusa during the initial phase of the so called Arab Spring. Its main goal lies in reconstruction and interpretation of the political discourse led by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government presenting the immigration crisis as a serious threat to national and potentially to European security. The first part introduces the general theoretical framework. The securitization theory of the Copenhagen School was used as an instrument for the thesis, including major criticism raised by the authors belonging to the social constructivist approach. In the second part, the author tries to characterize the basic historical and political context and clarifies the specifics of immigration in contemporary Italy. The last segment contains structuralized discourse analysis of the 2011 events and explores the extraordinary measures adopted and implemented in reaction to the government rhetoric at both the national and supranational levels. In this respect, the author pays special attention to how the process of negotiations finally led to the revision of the EU...