Let’s call it what it is: hybrid threats and instrumentalisation as the evolution of securitisation in migration management

ENThis Insight examines the discourse surrounding the instrumentalisation of migration and its impact on monitoring the EU’s external borders. It analyses the regulatory response, focusing on the Instrumentalisation Regulation, to determine if an exceptional emergency response is justified. The article explores recent arguments regarding changes in factual circumstances, such as pushbacks and their human rights implications. It also investigates the invocation of hybrid threats and instrumentalisation of migrants in national legal contexts (Greece, Spain, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia) to justify systematic pushback practices. The Insight discusses EU institutions’ adoption of these arguments and their inclusion in legislative proposals. The article critically examines the regu-latory proposals from a fundamental rights perspective, questioning the extent to which the existing protection framework can be derogated. The Insight assesses whether a fundamental shift has oc-curred and if it warrants an exceptional response to safeguard the Area of Freedom Security and Justice, Schengen, and the Common European Asylum System. It offers an “insight” contributing to the ongoing scholarly conversation by providing a timely analysis of the legal implications of the instrumentalisation of migration, considering it as a continuation of the securitisation paradigm ra-ther than a paradigm shift requiring an exceptional emergency response, as exemplified by the pro-posed Instrumentalisation Regulation. Keywords: instrumentalisation – hybrid threats – external borders – fundamental rights – pushbacks – securitisation.