This paper focuses on the Swedish migration discourse and investigates if and to what extent it is dominated by a security perspective. Analysing a number of official texts and documents I want to show how the discourse describes migrants and what implications this carries with it for the migrants and for the Swedish migration politics. Through discourse analysis I have analysed whose security that is prioritised, the Swedish or the refugees, who is the refugee and the asylum seeker, and who is the illegal migrant in the Swedish official migration discourse. As a theoretical frame for the analysis I have used theories on migration and security. These include theories on the securitisation of politics, the globalisation and the creation of political identity from the nation state perspective and theories on the connection between migration and security.

My results show that a security discourse is dominating the Swedish official migration discourse and is therefore defining our reality and the identities of refugees, asylum seekers and illegal migrants. Migration is in this discourse seen from a national security perspective where migrants in different ways are perceived as threats to Sweden. The perhaps main and most surprising find is the way that the migrants are described as part of the reason why generous refugee politics are not possible, and also indirectly why the public support of the right to seek asylum should decrease.

I have found that several of the theories on migration and security are important to be able to understand and analyse the Swedish official migration discourse.