Refugee and refugee : An analysis of media tendencies and framing concerning refugee crises

Abstract: The Syrian civil war has displaced upwards 13 million people and was a major part of what constituted the migration crisis in the European Union in the years leading up to the culmination in 2015. According to researchers, this event marks the decline of European solidarity as the European Union member states continued to pass the reception burden onto each other. However, the recent events in Ukraine have re-sparked the solidarity principle once again, as countries are lining up to receive the Ukrainian refugees. Starting a conversation whether there could be a difference between refugees and refugees. Based on a content analysis, this thesis investigates the differences in media framing of the Syrian refugee stream and the Ukrainian refugee stream within the Swedish context by analysing 30 articles from three of Sweden's biggest news outlets. The study identified four major key differences in framing of the two migrant groups namely, (1) the aspect of gender, since women, children and elderly constitute most of the Ukrainian refugees, they are perceived as less of a threat than the young men who came to Sweden due to the Syrian civil war. (2) A shift in the underlying meaning of the words “solidarity” and “crisis” when referring to the two groups. (3) A shift in media and political discourse from debate to action, and (4) the focus on illegal verses legal refugees due to the difference in legislation, where one group is protected from needing to use illegal routes to enter a European country whilst the other is not.