BEHIND THE WORDS: RISING SEAS, DROWNING VOICES - a critical discourse analysis of Swedish press narratives on environmental migration & displacement

Abstract: As the physical consequences of climate change continues to augment, possibly millions of people might be forced to migrate. Those most likely to be forced to move are people living in poor countries in the Global South where vulnerability levels are generally high and the capacity to adapt is often low due to socio-economic difficulties and political insecurity. In contrast, the countries most responsible for climate change, the industrialised countries in the West, will be primarily on the receiving end of this migration flow. This creates a precarious situation as it could be argued that Western countries carry an environmental and historical debt to the sending countries – calling for Climate Change Justice. By investigating the attitudes towards Environmental Migration and Displacement in Sweden, the purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of climate change migrants receiving a dignified migration in accordance to Climate Change Justice. Acknowledging the ability of media to portray as well as influence the attitudes of the general public, the study conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis on 27 Swedish newspaper articles to interpret the main narratives being told to society. Through looking at Social Representation Theory and Critical Theory, the study could hypothesise that the narratives told were likely evoke emotions of fear, guilt, and compassion among to public which generally leads to high public engagement on a topic. However, due to the narratives’ attachment to a business-as-usual approach to climate change, and an at times derogatory portrayal of the climate change migrants, the probability for this engagement to result in any significant change towards Climate Change Justice is thought to be low.