Just Like Your Brother
Racism and the Migration Crisis — Whose Fault Is It?
Created by Jodie Boyce | Sarah Parvaresh | Sandra Abdullatif
Moises was a regular 19 year old boy, just like your brother, your son, or any teenager in the street when he died. But Moises was an asylum seeker. Growing up in El Salvador, the country was too dangerous and he fled to seek shelter in the United States. Even though he left his home to find safety, he did not find it in America because of the anti-immigration tone of the press and within society. For example, armed raids against refugees are highly publicised, which scare many of them away, including Moises. That’s why he made the decision to self-deport back to El Salvador thinking he would be safer there. Little did he know that shortly after his return armed strangers would gun him down while he played football.
Fear created specifically by press coverage is a worldwide issue, but the British press has one of the “most aggressive” attitudes towards migrants — and in turn, the British public. These refugees don’t have their own voices — so the stories we hear are those constructed by the media we read, hear, or see. But remember, this is constructed — it isn’t always the true story or reflection.
The words used in the media we consume impact our opinions more than we might think. Language is a powerful tool, and tabloids exploit this power in their headlines and coverage. By using aggressive wording and focusing on negative themes, the press are able to “scaremonger” the public. In the case of the European migrant crisis, the press tends to dehumanize migrants and cause social tensions.
We must remember that migrants are people in need. By looking at different types of press coverage, you can see that tabloid news - which are typically dominated by sensational stories - tends to show migrants in a less favourable light than others. They frequently focus on Syria and ISIS, and the negative effects they have caused. They used strong negative words while talking about refugees and possible refugee terrorists, including “butchered,” “slit…throat,” “violent,” etc.
On the other hand, the more ‘credible’ news sources focused on Germany and other institutions. Overall, their headlines were more vague and focused on institutional or larger problems rather than individual people. They use words and terms such as “Islamic State,” “hate crimes,” “bombing,” etc. which is visibly less influenced by personal or societal bias than the previous collection of words.
When looking into the media coverage of the migrant crisis in Europe, it’s obvious that one country has a more “aggressive” tone in the press than others: Britain. With 4.6 million refugees leaving Syria and millions more from Afghanistan, Somalia and Kosovo, there is a growing concern with false migrant stereotypes. Tensions have grown so large in Britain that enough people voted to leave the European Union, also called Brexit. The campaign to leave was led by the Leave group who focused on migrancy as a major problem, and was widely covered by the British press.
But this story isn’t just about headlines. This story is about people. And these are the people.
Ewa Banaszak, currently in Britain
Ewa is one of many Polish-born migrants who feel unsafe in Britain following the European Union referendum. After a torrent of verbal abuse, Ewa and her partner were the victims of serious hate crime. Late in the evening when her entire family was home, the shed in their garden was deliberately burnt down with a letter reading “Go back to your f***ing country” posted on the letter boxes, confirming the arson was an act of racial hatred.
“Go back to your f***ing country next be your family” — From the note
With the negativity in the press that is shown previously, it is argued that this kind of crime is increasing and somewhat more ‘allowed’ in British society due to the media’s coverage of the leave vote, with tabloids like The Sun openly supporting and representing the leave vote. The images below depict the attack.
Ahmed Khurdur, currently in Britain
Ahmed Khudur escaped from Iraq in the unrest of 2006, halfway through university education, to Jordan. Finishing his studies in banking and finance, he moved on again to complete further education in Britain with a friend from Jordan. After returning to Iraq after a VISA problem he returned to Britain, but his friend was not so lucky and was killed by gunmen: “He was my best friend.”
The impact of media framing meant that his own friends would complain about migrants taking all the housing, and he lived a life troubled and distorted by his refugee status. He describes his frustration; “it’s difficult being an immigrant when it’s not your choice to be an immigrant.”
Nabi Mehrabi, currently in Britain
Many of Nabi’s closest friends have started a petition and are asking as many people as possible to contact the Home Secretary and urge him to help. Unfortunately, with the way that most of the media outlets frame migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East, it is quite difficult to find many supporters for his cause. Nabi will most likely be sent back to his unsafe, war-torn country.
These stories show that there is so much more to refugee’s than a number, a problem, or a nuisance — each and every person crossing those seas and seeking asylum is a human being, risking their lives to run from an original risk of death. This is something each and every one of us needs to understand, and we need to look further than the tabloid headlines reading “illegals have landed” like those slapped on the front page of The Sun. More people need to look further than the newsstands, look further than the xenophobia in societies and educate themselves on what we call “media literacy” — the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Not necessarily to produce, but to access and analyze beyond a brief reading and think more about the media they consume and how it has been framed.
This is the beginning of a long struggle to improve the public perception of refugees and migrants, but it is the first and very important step.
Talk about things; Tell people about framing; Tell people about the media; Tell them about this publication. Spread the word.
This story was created by a team of students at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. It exists as part of a digital publication called MOVE which aims to educate readers on the social, political, and cultural impacts of global migration. All stories published in MOVE were created at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change by students and faculty from around the world.
