Securitising the future: Dystopian migration discourses in Poland and the Czech Republic

This paper presents findings of a comparative study carried out in Poland and the Czech Republic, which analysed the societal attitudes towards migration and migrants in Europe. Our research shows that the reaction to migration in Poland and the Czech Republic constitutes a reversed (bottom up) securitisation. Moreover, contrary to the majority of security challenges where the immediate threats are understood to be more dangerous than those placed in a distant future, when it comes to securitised migration, the threat projection increases the further into the future it is cast, and immediacy loses its potency as a catalyst. Societal discourses on migration foresee a dismal future which becomes more and more dystopian with the passing time. •Where migration is concerned, the further into the future, the more severe issue it becomes.•In societal discourse on migration dangers looming in the future rather than anchored in the present was dominant.•The threat projections form a coherent dystopian story that offer a plausible story about the future.•Using the dystopian warnings enables exploration of long-term political solutions that could defuse the envisioned time-bomb.