Blending Identities - A Discourse Analysis of EU Immigration Politics

Sammanfattning: In a time of globalization and increased international cooperation, the future of the nation state and nationalism is not obvious. International organizations, like the European Union (EU), are becoming more important and cooperation within the EU is constantly reaching new levels. EU is in some ways acting like a nation state and is trying to create a fellow-ship among the Member States for a stronger EU community. Immigration is an issue that is very linked with nationalism, and EU is slowly taking over the decision making in this area from the Member States. My discourse analysis of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, adopted by the European Council in 2008, shows that the EU immigration politics create conditions for an EU identity to emerge. EU is abolishing the borders between the Member States, but is at the same time reinforcing the ?outer? borders of the Union. This lends itself to the concept of a common EU territory. The European Pact is also referring to EU citizens as European citizens, which renders people living in Europe but outside the EU uncertain of where they belong. These politics strengthen the notion of ?us? (inside EU) and ?them? (outside EU) which contributes to a common EU identity. However, nation states still have an important role to play and their citizens are not ready to replace their national identities with an EU identity, but nothing prevents a dual national and EU identity from coexisting today.