A “Refugee Crisis” Unfolding: “Real” Events and Their Interpretation in Media and Political Debates

ABSTRACT

This article offers a comparative overview of the case studies included in this Special Issue with the aim of providing a narrative of how the refugee emergency in Europe has unfolded during the period 2014–2016. I look at the ‘real’ events as they happened, identify which events were taken up in the different national political scenes and media landscape as highly relevant, and then identify on the basis of a meta-analysis of the findings of the different articles, the main interpretative frames used to make sense of the refugee emergency. This meta-analysis allows me also to relate the discourses with the actual policies adopted or decisions taken with a view to addressing the emergency. The article focuses on contrasted discourses, how they are politicized in different countries and how they are eventually brought together adopting a frame of ‘reason’/rationalization that reconciles solidarity with public order.

KEYWORDS:

• Mediterranean
• mediatization
• refugee crisis
• solidarity
• rationality
• threat
• discourse

Notes

1. For a more detailed overview of how the EU Parliament presents this approach, see “On the frontline: The hotspot approach to managing migration” (2016). Retrieved from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/556942/IPOL_STU(2016)556942_EN.pdf.

2. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Commitee and the Committee of the Regions. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/background-information/docs/communication_on_the_european_agenda_on_migration_en.pdf (consulted October 3, 2016).