Figures of Crisis: The Delineation of (Un)Deserving Refugees in the German Media
Open accessAbstract
This article examines how borders are discursively reproduced in representations of the ‘refugee crisis’ in the German media. Based on an extensive content and discourse analysis of German press representations in 2015 and 2016, we argue that the discourse of crisis obscures the reasons for migration and instead shifts the focus to the advantages and disadvantages that refugees are assumed to bring to their host country. More specifically, we contend that press discourses construct a figure of the (un)deserving refugee around three key themes: economic productivity; state security; and gender relations. In doing so, we illustrate how the framing of some lives as more deserving of protection than others directly mirrors and extends the humanitarian securitization of borders into public discourse.
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The image of migration as a threat to Europe's economic and social order remains an essential part of journalistic representations of border crossing.
“Furthermore, the image of migration as a threat to Europe's economic and social order remains an essential part of journalistic representations of border crossing (Drüeke et al., 2021; Holzberg et al., 2018; Ibrahim and Howarth, 2016; Lünenborg and Maier, 2017).”
From Border countervisuality: smartphone videos of border crossing and migration (2023) · cites this paper as Holzberg et al., 2018
The Economy and Gender relations sections show German newspapers portraying refugees as financial burdens and as threats to the fabric of German society. The study examines German press coverage from 2015–2016, however; it does not establish that this framing remains essential across European journalism more broadly. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Border countervisuality: smartphone videos of border crossing and migration
Bayramoğlu, Y. (2023) · Media, Culture & Society · doi:10.1177/01634437221136013 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Motivations for migration are rarely mentioned in such journalistic representations; instead, the subject of deliberation is the impact of migration on European economics and security (Holzberg et al., 2018: 539).”
Background
- Authors
- Holzberg, B., Kolbe, K., & Zaborowski, R.
- Affiliations
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kolbe, Kristina
- Venue
- Sociology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-06
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 534-550
- ISSN
- 0038-0385 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8684
- OpenAlex
- W2793608011
- Cited by
- 145
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 28.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- eprints.lse.ac.uk
- Locations
- Sociology (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- London School of Economics and Political Science
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration and Exile Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Discourse and Social Analysis
- Keywords
- refugee crisis, deservingness, border discourse, German-language press, economic productivity, state security, gender relations, migration, 2015 refugee crisis
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