Framing migration and the process of crimmigration: A systematic analysis of the media representation of unauthorized immigrants in the Netherlands

Abstract

In this article we examine whether the proposal to criminalize illegal stay in the Netherlands was preceded by increased negative media attention for unauthorized immigrants. Using a corpus linguistics approach, we carried out a quantitative discourse analysis of all newspaper articles on unauthorized migrants over a period of 15 years. Our results show that the amount of media coverage actually strongly decreased in the years before the proposal, and this coverage was moreover increasingly less negative. This study thus nuances the somewhat popular belief that unauthorized migrants are increasingly portrayed in negative ways and shows that the framing of migrants as criminals is a more diffuse process in which the media seem to follow rather than fuel politics and policy.

#MigrantCaravan: The border wall and the establishment of otherness on Instagram

“…We found that otherness is delineated when an attempt is made to exclude and distance the dominant, acceptable behavior from that of the migrant who transgresses against the wall in his or her actions. This is emphasized through verbs that strengthen the idea of contrast, collision and a certain level of violence, such as plot, bust into, sneak and smuggle , and labels that explicitly criminalize human mobility behaviors, such as criminal, dangerous, invaders, lunatics, non-citizens, not asylum seekers , supporting other studies that have found similar strategies in immigration representations (Brouwer et al, 2017; Clark-Ibanez and Swan, 2019; Dunaway et al, 2011; Figenschou and Thorbjørnsrud, 2015; Horsti, 2007). This emphasis on behaviors and labels focused on illegality have also been found to be classic, straightforward strategies used to imply otherness (Greer and Jewkes, 2005), and establish migrants as a threat (Jengelley and Clawson, 2019).…”

“…In terms of the characterization of migrants, the current US administration has deepened a climate of political polarization by referring to any action by immigrants as illegal (Holpuch, 2019). This aligns with a solid body of research that supports the idea that mainstream media and dominant discourse from political figures have traditionally portrayed immigrants in a frame that focuses excessively on the illegality factor (Brouwer et al, 2017; Clark-Ibanez and Swan, 2019; Dunaway et al, 2011; Figenschou and Thorbjørnsrud, 2015; Horsti, 2007).…”

Strangers ante portas: The framing of refugees and migrants in the Czech quality press

“…of human smuggling). Some scholars label such frame as the illegality frame (Horsti, 2007; McKay et al., 2011) and others use the concept of criminalization or criminality (Breen et al., 2006; Brouwer et al., 2017; Greussing and Boomgaarden, 2017).…”

“…This may raise concerns about arbitrariness. To avoid this, some researchers applied a computer-assisted approach to frame analysis, sometimes combined with a linguistic approach (Brouwer et al., 2017; Lawlor and Tolley, 2017). These studies identified the frames either on the basis of emerging word clusters (Greussing and Boomgaarden, 2017) or specific linguistic relations between words (Blinder and Allen, 2016).…”

The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass detention, and deportation

“…For instance, Sub-Saharan women are linked to prostitution (Fabini, 2017), while Eastern Europeans are associated with violent crimes, and North Africans to drug trafficking (De Giorgi, 2010). And in the Netherlands, anti-immigrant narratives largely determined national elections, ultimately cementing anti-Muslim sentiments and links between criminality and immigration (Brouwer, van der Woude, & van der Leun, 2017;van der Woude et al, 2014).…”