Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Geography

Director of Thesis

Dr. Austin Crane

Second Reader

Dr. Caroline Nagel

Abstract

Conceptualized in 2022, the U.K.-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership sought to relocate the responsibility for processing and integrating newly arrived asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda in exchange for significant development funding. Employing a critical discourse analysis using Norman Fairclough’s three-pronged model, this project examines British and Rwandan parliamentary transcripts and media sources to understand how both governments employed frameworks of human rights obligations, humanitarianism, securitization, and development to justify and to criticize the deal. As previous scholarship focuses on the British framings of this policy, this thesis aims to highlight the Rwandan perspective and compare the approaches taken by each government to illuminate the two-sided nature of the agreement. The findings reveal that while the partnership was presented as a humanitarian and collaborative effort to solve a migration ‘crisis,’ its framings fundamentally reflected unequal power relations between the U.K. and Rwanda—though these inequalities were nuanced by Rwanda’s agency in the policy’s aftermath. Despite the policy’s termination following the 2024 British parliamentary elections, its creation represents a significant shift toward the externalization and outsourcing of migration management. By situating the agreement within the broader context of the shrinking global access to asylum, this thesis underscores how such bilateral deals normalize the erosion of international human rights obligations and potentially reshape the future of global asylum policy.

Comments

Recipient of the 2025-2026 Dr. William A. Mould Senior Thesis Award.

First Page

1

Last Page

119

Rights

© 2026, Miranda Borland

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