‘It’s time we invested in stronger borders’: media representations of refugees crossing the English Channel by boat

Abstract

Refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats has become a common sight in the media, particularly since the so-called 'refugee crisis' in 2015. The number of boats crossing the English Channel between the French and UK coasts has been increasing as other migration routes have been closed down. This article reports the findings of a discourse analysis of 96 UK newspaper articles published in December 2018 when the daily crossings were referred to as a "major crisis". Adopting a broadly critical discursive psychology perspective, we identify the use of three main interpretative repertoires used within the media reporting. Firstly, a 'secure the borders' repertoire which positions the UK's borders as porous and easily breached, secondly, a 'smuggling is immoral' repertoire which works to position smugglers as to blame for the current 'crisis' and removes responsibility for the crisis from the Government, and finally, a 'desperate people' repertoire which worked to position the refugees themselves as vulnerable and in need of protection, but also as people who will engage in risky behaviours.We suggest that the use of these repertoires ultimately functions to obscure the need for safe and legal migration routes to the UK.

Uncertain futures: perceptions of refugees in a story completion task

“…Moore et al. , 2018; Parker et al. , 2022) while analysis of people's talk has been more limited and focussed on online or focus group data (e.g.…”

“…As we have shown here, most of our participants constructed their stories using strong emotional terms, and that the use of emotion language was present even in stories that could be described as more anti-refugee. This is also in direct contrast to media, and particularly, political discourse on this topic which has tended to focus mostly on issues of border security (Parker et al. , 2022).…”

“…In 2021, 28,341 people crossed the English Channel in small boats from France to claim asylum in the UK (BBC, 2022), more than three times the number of the previous 12 months (Timberlake, 2021). It has been suggested that the initial increase in people crossing the Channel in this way was a result of people seeking to enter the United Kingdom before the departure from the European Union in January 2020, following the referendum in 2016 (Parker et al. , 2022).…”

“…, 2021). Whilst the media have referred to this as the “English Channel migrant crisis” (Parker et al. , 2022), echoing earlier constructions of migration crises in the Mediterranean Sea, less is known about how the British public perceive this “crisis” or those who migrate via this route.…”

“…These are that integration is positive and necessary, but challenging; host communities are presented as welcoming, but there are limits to their capacity; refugees are responsible for integration, but host communities need to provide support; good refugees integrate, bad ones don't; and refugees are vulnerable and are skilled. In the context of the current paper, Parker et al. (2022) analysed UK media reports about “English Channel migrant crossings”.…”