Introduction

Migration narratives in Northern Triangle, Mexican and US media from 1999 to 2019

“…Here, border security elements merely contribute to migrants' plight by pushing them underground and in pursuit of illegal means to enter the USA. While all three see migration as a problem, US narratives emerging from its worldview reflect critics' claims of media coverage ignoring the systemic and structural factors necessary to understand immigration policy (Benson, 2013; Suro, 2011) while NT and Mexican media appear more cognizant of these underlying drivers, namely the poor conditions driving migrants to leave their country of origin. Accordingly, the narrative trajectory of US policy narratives appears maladaptive to changing dynamics of migration through attachment to less reflective, routinized investment in border security.…”

“…Likewise, Miskimmon et al (2014) argue that frames, as analytical units, lack sequential and causal features. In this sense, research taking a framing perspective on immigration may contribute to short‐term analyses, resulting in coverage ignoring important systemic and structural factors necessary for deeper understanding (Benson, 2013; Suro, 2011).…”

“…Whereas some research has pointed to how media frames coalesce into stereotyped visions of migrants (Greussing & Boomgaarden, 2017), the predominate perspective drawing upon news frames places such discussions in short‐term, tactical descriptions of events driven by elites. Indeed, critics argue that coverage of immigrants ignores important systemic and structural factors vital for a deeper understanding of immigration policy (Benson, 2013; Suro, 2011) with empirical research exploring how news media describe immigration and how such coverage has shifted over time remaining underdeveloped (Harris & Gruenewald, 2020).…”