Over the past decades, and across different contexts worldwide, migration has become inseparable from a narrative of crisis. This special issue seeks to unpack the connection between migration and crisis. Our introduction proposes a migration as crisis framework, designed to understand and analyze the genesis of this specific perception of migration, on the basis of an interplay between social “subjective” constructions of reality and “objective” migration dynamics. Migration as crisis rests upon a fragmented, changing, and contested assemblage of events, representations, and practices, which in turn call for specific ways of governing migration. The link between migration and crisis can be activated or not, and may or may not be correlated with empirical realities. By engaging with migration as crisis (rather than migration crisis), denaturalizes and historicizes the relationship between migration and crisis, and unpacks the processes through which key actors (including media, policymakers, civil society, and academics) frame migration as such.

The articles deal with migration as crises in discourses and policies of diverse actors across various European, Middle Eastern and African contexts: "Migration as Crisis? German Migration Discourse at Critical Points of Nation-Building" by Christiane Fröhlich, "Justice in the Jungle: Litigation and Judicial Violence in Calais Refugee Camps at the French–UK Border" by Annalisa Lendaro, "Talking about Migration in Times of Crisis: A Textual Analysis of Narratives by IOM and UNHCR on Migrants and Refugees" by Brandon Green and Antoine Pécoud, "Symbolic Rewards as Migration Diplomacy: Crisis and Containment in EU–Turkey Migration Cooperation" by Shoshana Fine, "Institutional Creation as a Local Governance Response to Syrian Refugees: The Case of Turkish Municipalities" by Başak Yavçan and Fulya Memişoğlu, "The Bosnian War and Refugee Policy: Crisis Management and Migration Control" by Clara Lecadet, "Deterring Migration in Times of Crises: The Ethics of Behavioral Change in Migration Information Campaigns" by Nassim Majidi