The Covid-19 Pandemic : Measuring the impact of global health threats on border controls

This research project examines the legitimacy of political communication regarding the incisive restrictions imposed on international and national mobility as well as social distancing as the global crisis provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic is unfolding. In view of their important political, economic and social implications, including for civil liberties, these restrictions demand for a heightened level of political legitimacy in order to be effective and to avoid a health crisis to develop into a political crisis. This research project examines the factual and normative arguments advanced by political actors, their timeliness, internal consistency and external congruence in three European states (France, Switzerland, UK) in connection with relevant international actors (EU, WHO, UN). This is done on the basis of an extensive dataset coding political communication on mobility restrictions on social media (Twitter), through press releases and in parliamentary debates from early 2020 to summer 2021. Juxtaposing political communication with political decisions, and triangulating the assessed legitimacy of political discourse with existing public opinion surveys and effective epidemic developments, the project will identify the conditions under which mobility restrictions imposed in European citizens have been communicated in an effective and legitimate manner, and under what conditions political communication has led to contestation and politicization. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which political actors appeal to notions of national versus European and/or international solidarity and identity, and how actors coordinate their discourses across national, European and international institutions. Eventually, this research will explain whether and why the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened existing social cleavages in European societies, and under what conditions such divides have been avoided.