Abstract
The expansion of research on migration over recent decades has neglected sending and transit countries. Whether in terms of their internal development, their diaspora policy, their shift from primarily sending countries to (potential) transit or destination countries, or the issue of return migration and reintegration into home societies – all these topics deserve further exploration. This paper seeks to redress this by examining Albania, a sending country with almost a third of its population living externally, and which is recently shifting to a transit and potential destination country. Media discourse on migration was analysed, recalling its power to reflect as well as shape public opinion. Employing a quantitative approach, media discourse on migrants from 2015 to 2018 was examined. Some 55 web-based media were identified, along with twenty TV channels, 61 TV programs, and 317 articles. A qualitative analysis was then used to detect the tone of the discourse and gain a deeper understanding of the messages conveyed. Results showed that migration from the perspective of a sending country has dominated Albanian media discourse over the monitoring period. Major identified issues include: migration and demographic challenges, migration and multiculturalism in societies receiving Albanian migrants, and asylum seeking as a recent trend in Albanian emigration often standing in the way of potential Albanian EU membership. The regional migration “crisis” and the potential of Albania becoming a transit or destination country for refugees has only gained limited attention. The binary of “our migrant” versus “the other migrant” became a key distinction.
Highlights
The unique power of the media—the so-called fourth estate —is a recognised mechanism for representing and shaping public opinion, understood as an aggregate of views of individuals in a society
This paper aims to fill that gap by: (i) exploring how migration is portrayed in the Albanian media, (ii) mapping and analysing migration coverage in the media, and (iii) drawing considerations on the potential that media frames on migration might have in shaping public opinion in Albania
Since the 2015 refugee “crisis”—and similar to other European and Balkan countries—there has been a steady rise in Albanian media coverage on migration
Summary
The unique power of the media—the so-called fourth estate —is a recognised mechanism for representing and shaping public opinion, understood as an aggregate of views of individuals in a society. Following the fall of communism in 1990, Albania rapidly shaped a predominantly sending country profile, experiencing several “waves” of out migration (see Barjaba and Barjaba, 2015), a trend which has persisted to nowadays (European Commission, 2021) These dynamics have been describes largely as intensive, irregular, and fluctuating due to the combined impact of economic and political push factors (Dhembo et al, 2019). It was only in 2018 that Albania began including asylum seekers and foreign residents in its Official Statistic, reporting in 2018 totals of 4386 asylum seekers and 9090 foreign residents (INSTAT, 2019) These figures have led to migration issues occupying more space in the Albanian media (Zguri, 2016), describing Albania both as a country of origin and a potential host country for migrants
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