The Temporary Protection Directive - To activate or not to activate? : How the EU handled the refugee waves during the years 2015 and 2022

The purpose of this essay is to explain the reasoning behind the European unions activation of the mass protection directive in 2022, how well these motivations apply to the migration crisis in 2015, and whether the theories poststructuralism, Marxist critical theory, and postcolonialism believe the differences legitimize the decision not to activate the directive in 2015. The method used is a discourse analysis based on operationalisation of the activation of the directive and the main ideas of each theory. The result indicates that the situation during 2015 did lack a few of the aspects taken into account in 2022. However, all three theories argue that these aspects could be evaluated and seen from different perspectives, and therefore did not necessarily legitimize the inaction of the EU in 2015.