Representations of Europe at Times of Massive Migration Movements: A Qualitative Analysis of Greek-Cypriot Newspapers During the 2015 Refugee Crisis

Abstract

This paper presents a thematic analysis of a media criticism against the European Union (EU) during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis in one member-state, the Republic of Cyprus. Three inter-related negative representations of Europe were identified in the Greek-Cypriot newspapers studied at the time: inhuman Europe, fragmented Europe and Europe as perpetrator. All three represented Europe as unable or unwilling to deal with a crisis that Europe itself partly caused or reproduced. This media criticism focused on questioning Europe across pessimistic lines without offering or considering alternatives, thus served to reproduce the EU status quo. The paper discusses the implications of these findings in understanding the role of the media in the con-current skepticism towards EU in other member-states.

KEYWORDS:

• media representations
• refugee crisis
• Europe

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Maria Avraamidou http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9781-1181

Notes

1 For more information on the methodological approach and method of analysis see also Avraamidou et al. 2018.

2 The Hungarian fence covering the country’s southern borders was constructed in 2015 as a reaction to refugee movement to Hungary.

3 By using the color blue, the writer means right wing governments.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme research and innovation programme under grant agreement 649436.

Notes on contributors

Maria Avraamidou

Maria Avraamidou (corresponding author) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia.

Irini Kadianaki

Irini Kadianaki is Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia. Email: [email protected]

Maria Ioannou

Maria Ioannou is a Lecturer at the University College Groningen. Email: [email protected]

Elisavet Panagiotou

Elisavet Panagiotou (MSc) is a Researcher at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia. Email: [email protected]