Discourses of National Security about Migrant Crisis at the Latvia-Belarus Border

• In Event: Shifting Language Policies and Practices in the Shadow of the War in Ukraine (II)

Abstract

Latvia’s border with Belarus is not only a 173 km long-national border but also an external border of the EU and NATO. In recent years, the border has turned from a socioeconomic periphery into an epicenter of migration influx regulated by the government and widely discussed in media. In August 2021, a state of emergency was declared due to the increasing number of migrants from Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This framework allowed to prevent border crossing and suspended the possibility to seek asylum. The state border guard’s public data as for November 2023 indicates that 22.450 attempts to cross the border have been deterred since then.
Our goal is to discuss how the actors involved (government, border guards, media, international organizations, and local inhabitants) discuss the situation at the border, and how it has affected border area's linguistic makeup. To do so, we will use LL data (e.g., prohibition signs to cross the border or posters with an invitation to report on persons who do not ethnically correspond to the population of Latvia) at various border locations, audio announcements at the green border in various languages (including in Arabic), media (local, national and international), in-depths interviews with local residents, and official accounts by government and state border guard. Such comparative approach reveals the role of media while shaping the discourse of national security while on ground level migration crisis has affected the local LL in a scattered way.

Authors

• Anna Elizabete Grike, Latvian Language Institute (University of Latvia)

• Solvita Burr, University of Latvia