ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between crisis and migration in the context of the border control policies of the European Union. It concerns the effect of crisis labelling on the handling of migration-related events at the external borders of the EU and the shaping of migration as a single field of EU concern and action for bureaucrats, or professionals of politics and security professionals. The chapter focuses on the developments surrounding the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 in North Africa. It argues that crisis labelling has been a recurrent practice for EU policy-makers in the field of migration since the end of the Cold War. The chapter also argues that not all the actors involved in EU border control share the reasoning and framing involved in crisis labelling. It examines crisis labelling in relation to the 2011 uprisings in North Africa and migration. The chapter discusses the relation between crisis labelling and border control activities.
