Representations of Unnacompanied Asylum Seeking Minors and Refugees in the Portuguese Media

Abstract: The topic of migration has become one that is gaining notice in society. With the number of migrants, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and child refugees rising rapidly in the past few years it has become a theme of great importance with global reach. These migratory fluxes blur the boundaries between voluntary and forced migration which were previously regarded as separate notions. The media plays a powerful role when it comes to define such concepts as well as creating representations of these populations and shaping the public perception of these individuals. Through this thesis, the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees constructed by the Portuguese media will be analysed using discourse analysis. The aim is to create knowledge about the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media as this means of communication is an important voice in the public and political debate concerning these populations. The results show that there are several dichotomies regarding the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media. Young migrants are represented both as security seekers and causes of insecurity, victims and survivors, passive agents which lack agency and active agents who use their agency to leave their home countries, as well as people worth supporting and people who had enough support. Discourse analysis provides information regarding the discourses used in the Portuguese media to represent unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees as well as the context in which the articles were written. Finally, there are several representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media, yet the ones whose discourse is stronger, in the five chosen articles, are the of young migrants as security seekers, victims that are worth being supported and that are mostly active agents in their journeys.