The visual dehumanisation of refugees

Bleiker, Roland; Campbell, David; Hutchison, Emma; Nicholson, Xzarina

doi:10.1080/10361146.2013.840769

Cited by 282 publications

(210 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…On the other hand, the ascription of maliciousness turns the refugee into a dangerous stranger who threatens 'our' wellbeing; from a voiceless unfortunate they become a potential killer (Malkki, 1995). Instead of pity, this attribution of criminal intent incites fear and invites a politics of securitization: deportations or the closing of borders (Bleiker et al, 2013). Victimhood and malevolence, to sum up, contribute to an inherent instability of the refugee as a human being, for neither the sufferer nor the evil-doer ultimately partake the sphere of humanity.…”

Section: Refugees In the Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice and community in the 2015 refugee crisis: A content analysis of news coverage in eight European countries

Chouliaraki

Zaborowski

2017

International Communication Gazette

214

149

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Drawing on a Content Analysis of 1200 news articles on the 2015 refugee 'crisis' across eight European countries, we address the question of whether and how refugees 'speak' in the news. To this end, we categorized the language of these articles in terms how they narrated the subjects, status and contexts of voice. Our analysis establishes three different linguistic practices through which the voice of refugees is managed in the news -what we call practices of 'bordering': bordering by silencing, by collectivization and by de-contextualization. In light of these findings, we reach two conclusions. First, the distribution of voice in European news follows a strict hierarchy -one that relies on specifically journalistic strategies of selection and ordering yet reflects and reproduces broader hierarchies of the European political spheres. Second, this hierarchy of voice leads to a triple misrecognition of refugees as political, social and historical actors, thereby keeping them firmly outside the remit of 'our' communities of belonging.

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Section: Refugees In the Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice and community in the 2015 refugee crisis: A content analysis of news coverage in eight European countries

Chouliaraki

Zaborowski

2017

International Communication Gazette

214

149

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…And, indeed, the process of arriving in Australian territory became the focus of humanitarian discussions rather than the conditions that would be experienced on arrival and their long-term impact on health (which was the major focus of the AHRC Report). These conditions were much more problematic and complicated in humanitarian debates than the rhetoric of the 'stop the boats' agenda permitted (Bleiker at al 2013).…”

Section: Policy Responses To the 2015 Mediterranean Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

Stopping boats, saving lives, securing subjects: Humanitarian borders in Europe and Australia

Little

Vaughan‐Williams

2016

European Journal of International Relations

110

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In April 2015, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called on European leaders to respond to the migration and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean by 'stopping the boats' in order to prevent further deaths. This suggestion resonated with the European Union Commission's newly articulated commitment to both enhancing border security and saving lives. This article charts the increasing entanglement of securitisation and humanitarianism in the context of transnational border control and migration management. The analysis traces the global phenomenon of humanitarian border security alongside a series of spatial dislocations and temporal deferrals of 'the border' in both European and Australian contexts. While discourses of humanitarian borders operate according to a purportedly universal and therefore borderless logic of 'saving lives', the subjectivity of the 'irregular' migrant in need of rescue is one that is produced as spatially and temporally exceptional -the imperative is always to act in the here and the now -and therefore knowable, governable and 'bordered'.

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“…Second, the attribution of malevolence reduces refugees to 'faceless strangers' (Banks, 2011: 294) who threaten 'our' safety: from 'speechless emissaries' they become potential terrorists (Malkki, 1996). Instead of a humanitarian response, their criminalised agency mobilises fear and legitimises the securitisation practices that encamp or deport them (Bleiker et al, 2013).…”

Section: Victimhood and Threat: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: a visual typology of European news

Chouliaraki

Stolic

2017

Media, Culture & Society

210

160

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In this paper, we analyse how news images of the 2015 Syrian refugee ‘crisis’ visualise refugees and how, in so doing, they mobilise various forms of moral responsibility in ‘our’ mediated public life – various practical dispositions of action towards the misfortunes of migrants and refugees at Europe’s border. On the basis of empirical material from European news (June-December 2015), we construct a typology of visibilities of the ‘crisis’, each of which situates refugees within a different regime of visibility and claim to action: i) visibility as biological life, associated with monitorial action; ii) visibility as empathy associated with charitable action; iii) visibility as threat, associated with state security; iv) visibility as hospitality, associated with political activism; and v) visibility as self-reflexivity, associated with a post-humanitarian engagement with people like ‘us’. In conclusion, we argue that, important as these five categories of visibility are in introducing public dispositions to action towards the vulnerable, they nonetheless ultimately fail to humanise migrants and refugees. This failure to portray them as human beings with lives that are worth sharing should compel us, we urge, to radically re-think how we understand the media’s responsibility towards vulnerable others.

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The visual dehumanisation of refugees

Cited by 282 publications

References 23 publications

Voice and community in the 2015 refugee crisis: A content analysis of news coverage in eight European countries

Voice and community in the 2015 refugee crisis: A content analysis of news coverage in eight European countries

Stopping boats, saving lives, securing subjects: Humanitarian borders in Europe and Australia

Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: a visual typology of European news

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