Frame Immigration Research Articles

The securitization of immigration in Poland. Social and political contexts

Currently, immigration issues occupy an important place in the debate on the future of Europe. One of the central themes of this debate is the issue of security. In spite of the functioning of supranational integration structures, individual states still remain a fundamental factor in shaping migration. In many cases, the issue of immigration is subjected to the process of securitization, framing immigration as a threat. It is the speech act that is important in this respect, being a kind of securitizing tool. Since 2015, one can notice elements indicating that the process of securitization of immigration has been present in Poland, too, which, among other things, is a consequence of the change of the ruling party, the immigration crisis that has taken place in Europe, and the migration situation on Poland’s eastern border. The article presents the factors that influence the process of immigration securitization. Additionally, it includes numerous statements from Polish politicians securitizing the problem of immigrants as well as the results of social surveys on attitudes towards immigration. The analysis of the collected material leads to the conclusion that the securitisation of immigration in Poland is not a completed process and that this process concerns a geographically defined group of immigrants.

Pandemic Politics: Immigration, Framing, and Covid-19

AbstractThe covid-19 pandemic has revived a longstanding, and understudied, trope in American politics: the association of immigrants with disease. There has been a great deal of scholarship on the economic, cultural, and criminal threat frames attached to immigrant groups in media coverage, but little to date has specifically examined how national and local sources have framed covid-19 in the context of immigrant communities. In this paper we analyze the prevalence of two different framings of the pandemic in national and local online news outlets over the first year of the pandemic: immigration as a public health threat to the nation, and covid-19 as a threat to immigrant communities within the nation. We find significant differences between national and local coverage, with the former more likely to frame immigration as a covid-19 threat, while local news outlets were more likely to discuss the threat the virus posed to already marginalized immigrant communities.

Gendering immigration: media framings of the economic and cultural consequences of immigration

ABSTRACT The media are found to be racialized in framing immigration. Yet, little is known about how the media across regions are gendered in their framings of immigration as economic and cultural issues. Drawing from a representative sample of newspapers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.K., and the U.S., this paper conducts a framing analysis of over 1,700 news articles to examine the media’s gendering of the economic and cultural consequences of immigration. This paper shows that the media identify migrant men at a higher rate than women when framing immigration as an economic issue and that the media identify migrant women at a higher rate when framing immigration as a cultural issue. However, the findings also suggest that the media do so subtly—the gender of immigrants is rarely revealed but implicitly suggested via stereotypes and cues. This paper provides empirical evidence supporting feminist theory and fills a gap in current literature by adding the intersectional dimensions taking gender and migrant status into account. It offers insight into how the media discursively construct migrant men and women are to illustrate the gendered division of their impact on the economy and culture.

Evolution of negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the main media of Southern Europe

The Mediterranean migration crisis especially affects three Southern European countries that represent the main gateways into the continent for immigrants and asylum seekers: Spain, Italy, and Greece. In recent years, feelings of rejection towards migration have been increasing in all of them, accompanied by a simultaneous increase in the number of hate crimes. Similarly, the representation of these groups in European news media seems to have worsened, especially since 2015, the year in which the migratory crisis significantly worsened. This coverage could be affecting European citizens on emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal levels and thus should be rigorously analyzed. The present study is based on the theory of framing and, specifically, on visual framing to analyze the connotative representations of immigrants and refugees spread by the reference media of Southern Europe through images, paying more attention to the negative frames in particular, which represent displaced people as a burden or threat. Specifically, 360 photographs taken between 2014 and 2019 and published by the main media in Spain, Italy, and Greece were subject to content analysis. The findings show a temporal increase in the negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the analyzed media. Differences were also found between countries, with Greece presenting a higher percentage of images with negative frames, as well as a greater predominance of this type of frame compared with the other countries. Finally, differences were identified between the media themselves, including the Greek Kathimerini, a media outlet that stands out for the amount and prevalence of photographs framing immigrants and asylum seekers as a burden and threat. Resumen La crisis migratoria del Mediterráneo afecta especialmente a tres países del sur de Europa, que son la principal puerta de entrada de inmigrantes y solicitantes de asilo en el continente. Estos países son España, Italia y Grecia, y en todos ellos los sentimientos de rechazo a la migración han ido en aumento en los últimos años, acompañados por el incremento simultáneo de los delitos de odio. De igual forma, la representación de estos grupos en los medios informativos europeos parece haber empeorado, especialmente a partir de 2015, año en el que la crisis migratoria se agravó mucho. Esta cobertura podría estar afectando a las actitudes de los ciudadanos europeos hacia los desplazados, por lo que conviene analizarla de manera rigurosa. El presente estudio se basa en la teoría del encuadre y, en específico, en el visual framing para analizar los marcos connotativos de inmigrantes y refugiados que transmiten los medios de referencia del sur de Europa a través de sus imágenes durante la crisis migratoria, prestando una mayor atención a los marcos negativos, los que representan a estas personas como una carga o amenaza. Así, a través de un análisis de contenido se examinaron 360 fotografías publicadas por los principales medios de España, Italia y Grecia entre 2014 y 2019. Los resultados muestran un incremento temporal de los marcos visuales negativos de inmigrantes y refugiados en los medios analizados. También se encontraron diferencias entre países, presentando Grecia un mayor porcentaje de imágenes con marcos negativos, así como una mayor predominancia de los marcos negativos que el resto de países. Por último, se identificaron diferencias entre los propios medios, siendo el griego Kathimerini el que destaca por tener una mayor presencia de imágenes con marcos de carga y de amenaza, y una mayor predominancia de estos marcos en sus fotografías.

News Media Trends in the Framing of Immigration and Crime, 1990–2013

AbstractFew social problems engender as much public and political debate as the alleged link between immigration and crime. Contrary to the findings of much empirical literature, the majority of the public believe that immigration increases crime and that the foreign born are especially prone to offending. Among many factors, the way prominent news media describe the immigration-crime link may help explain the disconnectedness of scholarship and public opinion over the past several decades. Using a unique database of over 2,200 news stories drawn from among the highest circulation national papers for 1990 through 2013, the current study employs time-series trend analyses to examine the prevalence of different media frames used to explain the immigration-crime link and whether those frames have changed systematically over time. Our results reveal that most immigration-crime news stories describe immigrants as especially crime-prone or as increasing aggregate crime rates. Moreover, this framing has increased in prevalence over time, as have narratives inaccurately describing undocumented immigration as a crime itself, while framing immigrants as victims of crime has declined significantly over the 1990–2013 period. These changes occurred systematically in only some newspapers. We discuss implications for research, policy, and the public engagement of scientific evidence.

Framing immigrants as seekers of social benefits: the impact of the Great Recession at the family-level and the development of anti-immigrant anxieties

Substantial research has addressed the association between economic factors (e.g., employment rate) and perception of immigrants among the general public in the host societies. This study used the Transatlantic Trends Survey 2014 to examine whether the characterization of immigrants as social benefits seekers is related to one´s family financial situation being greatly affected by the Great Recession. We conducted a series of ordinal logistic regressions to compare three different geopolitical contexts, namely the United States, the Southern Europe region, and the triad France-Germany-United Kingdom. Our results confirmed that framing immigrants as social benefits seekers is indeed related to one´s family being greatly impacted by the Great Recession. Significantly, the direction of such association varies among contexts, as those greatly impacted by the crisis in Southern Europe showed lower odds of framing immigrants as social benefits seekers, while the opposite happening in both the United States and the triad France-Germany-United Kingdom. Recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Is the Cure a Wall? Behavioral Immune System Responses to a Disease Metaphor for Immigration

Humans have evolved a capability to identify and subsequently avoid communicable pathogens. The current research tested whether activation of this system can be co-opted by disease metaphors, which frame abstract social issues as concrete disease risks. We predicted that language framing immigration as a disease would elicit heightened anti-immigration attitudes and greater support for restrictive social policies (study 1), tested whether this effect was moderated by pathogen concern (study 2), and compared aversion to disease metaphors with concerns of literal disease (study 3). We identified conditions under which the disease framing generally produced more anti-immigrant attitudes, particularly among individuals with stronger chronic disease concerns. Furthermore, we also identified boundary conditions for such effects, such that disease metaphors demonstrated limited efficacy in the presence of a literal disease threat. We explain these results at the intersection of evolutionary and conceptual metaphor theories.

Framing Immigrants: News Coverage, Public Opinion, and Policy. By Chris Haynes, Jennifer Merolla, and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2016. Pp. xxi+278. $32.50 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewFraming Immigrants: News Coverage, Public Opinion, and Policy. By Chris Haynes, Jennifer Merolla, and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2016. Pp. xxi+278. $32.50 (paper).David P. LindstromDavid P. LindstromBrown University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 124, Number 2September 2018 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/698890 Views: 321Total views on this site For permission to reuse a book review printed in the American Journal of Sociology, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The politicization of immigration in Italy. Who frames the issue, when and how

AbstractItaly is one of the most representative ‘new immigration countries.’ Between the 1980s and the 1990s, it became a major country of destination for immigrants coming from Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. As a result, since the mid-90s, immigration has gained salience within the Italian political debate. Building on the existing literature on agenda-setting and framing studies, this article studies the evolution of the immigration issue in Italy over the last two decades. It focuses on the framing and, more specifically, the position political actors tend to adopt when debating on immigration. In particular, the main research questions are: to what extent is the framing of immigration associated with the traditional left vs. right spectrum? Do incumbent political parties tend to adopt a different position toward immigration than opposition parties? This article analyses party competition dynamics over the immigration issue in Italy from 1995 to 2011. The author carried out a political-claim analysis of articles from two Italian national daily newspapers. Findings show that immigration is more a positional issue than a valence one. Political actors’ positions towards migration appear to be anchored to the old left vs. right dimension of the political conflict. This demonstrates that parties’ engagement within the political conflict goes beyond electoral campaigns. Finally, being in government seems to play a crucial role in ‘softening’ the way party actors frame immigration, in terms of both the arguments used and the pro- or anti-immigration positions adopted.

Chapter 8 – Media reporting of migrants and migration

Chapter 8 – Media reporting of migrants and migration

Transatlantic unity on display: the “white legend” and the “pact of silence” in Madrid’s Museum of the Americas

ABSTRACT This article examines the history and recent pro-immigrant installations of the postcolonial Museum of the Americas in Madrid. It critically relates the Hispanist “White Legend” regarding the benevolence of Spanish colonialism to both the “pact of silence” following Spain’s Civil War and the current Spanish orientation towards immigrants from Latin America. Despite significant recent reconceptualization, the museum continues to put forward a narrative in which Spain is represented as a benevolent and civilizing contributor to Latin America. The museum’s more recent inclusionist turn to welcoming and serving Latin American immigrant communities in Spain does not complicate the pro-colonialism stance but rather, through a strategically neutral curatorial style, further serves to insist on a positive framing of the past. The exhibit analysed in this article highlights the innocence of Latin American children in order to frame immigration as positive while simultaneously supporting the “White Legend”. Contemporary Spanish tendencies towards forgetting or silencing the past have a deeper history than is usually recognized, and in this case study, these tendencies work to occlude not just the violence of the colonial period but also the inequities of today’s immigration.

Different groups, different threats: public attitudes towards immigrants

ABSTRACTResearch on attitudes towards immigrants devotes much attention to the relative effects of economic and social-psychological factors for understanding sentiment towards immigrants, conceived in general terms. In this article, we advance this work by arguing that the context framing immigration concerns leads publics to associate different types of immigrants with different threats. An issue context that diminishes support for one ‘type’ can boost it for another. Evidence from an original survey experiment in Britain supports this claim. Security fears affect attitudes towards Muslim immigrants but economic concerns bear on views towards Eastern Europeans. While concern about crime adversely affects sentiment for East Europeans but casts Muslims more positively, cultural threats have the opposite effect. By shifting the focus onto the qualities of different types of immigrants, we highlight the importance of the target immigrant group for understanding public attitudes.

An Emerging ‘European’ News Portrayal of Immigration?

This article presents a quantitative examination of how newspaper articles in the UK, France and Italy most commonly frame immigration and migrants. A developing literature on the securitisation of policy and discourse related to migration suggests the prominence of this narrative, but the prevalence of this particular portrayal of migration has not been placed into comparative context through cross-country analysis of the relative prominence of various immigration-related issues. To test the securitisation thesis I tabulate not only security narratives in the press, but also economic ones, comparing the relative frequency of these two broader narratives. The results indicate that it would be premature to speak of a pre-eminent securitised meta-narrative within the European press. I find that overt references to physical threat or crime occur relatively infrequently, with only the mention of the border being more common. Instead, issues with economic implications, such as the labour market, asylum and fiscal costs, exhibit at least equal salience, though the degree to which the press grants attention to specific economic or security issues varies substantially between countries.

Local and National Accounts of Immigration Framing in a Cross-national Perspective

The aim of this article is to identify whether differences exist in local and national news framing of immigration. Using 12 years (2001–2012) of print media data from 15 Canadian and British print media sources, this article presents the first attempt to look for systematic differences in cross-city, within-country and cross-national framing on the subject of immigration. Contextual variables such as change in the unemployment rate and in the rate of foreign-born within cities and countries are introduced to test the robustness of the findings from a computer-automated content analysis. Findings suggest that, contrary to expectations, there is little by way of systematic evidence that national and local newspapers frame immigration according to different concerns. Furthermore, cross-city news coverage does not vary based on local contextual factors such as changes in the unemployment rate or rate of foreign-born. Indeed, it would appear that there is little evidence to support hypotheses that local coverage attends only to the ‘local consequences’ of immigration such as crime and unemployment, and that national concerns such as border security and broader economic outlook are solely the purview of national media. Rather, there are far fewer differences in the content and tone of immigration framing among print news sources than conventional wisdom might suggest.

Framing Immigration in Western Europe

While immigration has become one of the most controversial political issues in Western Europe, we know surprisingly little about what motivates political actors to oppose or support it. Investigating the ways political actors frame immigration enables us to understand how they perceive the issues involved, why they centre their debate on certain causes and consequences and why they take the positions they take. Using newspaper data and a comprehensive frame categorisation, I analyse the framing strategies employed by political parties during the period from 1999 to 2006, in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. The results show that the framing of immigration depends on the actors involved, and upon the circumstances governing the dispute. On the one hand, the actors' left–right positions and government involvement serve as relevant explanatory factors. And on the other hand, sub-issue specific opportunity structures prove important. Citizenship models, however, do not appear to meaningfully shape the way immigration issues are presented. Instead, my research found indications suggesting the influence of indirect transnationalism.

The Treaty of Waitangi: Framing Immigrants' Occupational Practices in Aotearoa New Zealand

Signed in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement between Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and the British Crown. Consisting of three articles that symbolically represent the values of ‘protection, partnership and participation’ for all peoples in New Zealand, the Treaty is considered New Zealand's founding document. The essence of the Treaty was to establish a partnership that would allow two cultures, Māori and New Zealand/European, to reside side by side in the one country, thus forming the basis of biculturalism. For migrants coming to New Zealand from other parts of the world this socio-political document can both challenge and facilitate the settlement process. On the one hand, immigration policies typically assume one ‘majority’ when considering notions of integration; however under the Treaty, migrants face the challenge of integrating into a society that has two distinct cultures. Concurrently, the Treaty promotes the value and display of cultural difference, thus enabling migrants to engage in occupations that are reflective of their cultural heritage and serve to enhance well-being during the settlement process. This paper considers the socio-political implications of the Treaty of Waitangi, as underpinning the occupational practices of peoples residing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Using Ethnography to Inform Policy and Programs for the Integration of Immigrants: a Case Study in Andalusia, Spain

This paper seeks to extend the utility of ethnography to the planning of successful integration policy and programs for immigrants. I posit that, through a better understanding of the multiple and intersecting contexts in which immigration is located, especially in regard to how culture informs the way that host nationals frame immigration, policy makers and social scientists can work together to formulate policies and programs appropriate to local contexts that are more successful at fostering communities of inclusion and cohesion. Findings from a small ethnographic study completed in Andalusia, Spain, illustrate how experience-near approach, ethnographic research reveals opportunities for co-operation between host nationals and newcomers that can be used by policy makers and others concerned with the welfare of immigrants to foster integration and to promote social cohesion. In doing so, findings from this study demonstrate that culture is not simply a contested site used by members of the dominant group to exclude newcomers, but also a site in which there is the potential for co-operation between members of a community.

A comparative study of framing immigration policy after 11 September 2001

Immigration policy studies often assume the relevance of path dependency or contingency. This study weighs institutional changes, party changes and media as factors potentially driving immigration policy shifts after 11 September 2001. In spite of change with each of these factors, immigration policy debate in the USA and Canada presents framing as a vehicle for absorbing exogenous shock while maintaining consistency in terms of immigration policy orientation. The USA and Canada converge after September 11 in filtering immigration through the lens of terrorism. However, in the longer run political representatives in Canada frame terrorism around human rights issues and thereby return immigration to its distinct and familiar policy orientation of openness and inclusiveness. Historically, border security, which has been narrowly defined in terms of illegal immigration, and the economy compete for salience around US immigration policy. After September 11 US representatives frame terrorism around security issues that expand much further beyond illegal immigration, and strongly reinforce this particular security dimension of its immigration policy orientation.

Differentiating Sedimented from Modular Transnationalism: The View from East Asia

The dominant literature on transnationalism regards it as an alternative way of framing immigration, but the a priori exclusion of labor migrants from the scope of migrant transnationalism is untenable. Evidence from East Asia suggests that labor migrants, who are compelled by the prevailing policy regime in the region to become sojourners, engage in what can be called modular transnationalism. Labor migrants are East Asia's prototypical transmigrants when seen in light of the rising trend of immigration via marriage migration, in which case transnationalism can be highly constrained by the state and cultural politics. The discussion draws mainly, but not exclusively, from the transnational practices of migrants from the Philippines.

Framing Immigration: Varieties of Arguments, Actors and Opportunity Structures

Although immigration has become one of the most controversial political issues in Western Europe we know surprisingly little about the motivations that lead political actors to oppose or support it. Investigating the way political actors frame immigration enables us to understand how they perceive these issues, to which causes and consequences they direct our atten-tion and why they take the positions they take. By means of newspaper data and a compre-hensive frame categorization I will analyze framing strategies for a large variety of actors for the period 1999 to 2006 in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The results will show that immigration changes its meaning depending on which actors are in dispute about it under which circumstances. On the one hand, the actors’ left–right positions, government involvement as well as their resources and, on the other hand, sub-issue specific opportunity structures and external shocks are relevant explanatory factors. Citizenship models however do not shape the way immigration issues are presented. I found instead indications for indirect transnationalism. The results show that conflicts about immigration are embedded in broader political struggles.