Cover not available
Article published In:
Media, Migration and Human Rights: Discourse and Resistance in the Context of the Erosion of Liberal Norms
Edited by Ekaterina Balabanova and Ruxandra Trandafoiu
[Journal of Language and Politics 19:3] 2020
► pp. 413–435

Norm destruction, norm resilience

The media and refugee protection in the UK and Hungary during Europe’s ‘Migrant Crisis’

ORCID logo | University of Liverpool
| University of Liverpool

Principles of refugee protection in Europe are said to have come under great pressure with the populist and nationalist backlash to the ‘migrant crisis’, often traced to illiberal regimes in post-communist countries. This paper tests these claims by comparatively analysing media coverage in the UK and Hungary, establishing the extent to which specific norms were challenged or upheld in April and September 2015. It develops a new methodology connecting ethical justifications for migration controls with the ‘normative terrain’ of refugee protection. The findings complicate existing assumptions about differences between conservative and progressive-leaning publications, and also the divide and direction of travel between Old/New and East/West in the European context. The article challenges the narrative of the ‘illiberal wind’ and advances understanding of the relationship between political culture and media systems in Europe, and the toxic nature of media coverage in relation to the survival of the normative regime around refugees.

Keywords: refugees, norms, media, UK, Hungary
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: What/which ‘crisis’?
  • 2.Mapping the normative terrain
  • 3.Hungary and UK: At the forefront of Europe’s backlash
  • 4.Methodology
    • Datasets
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1April 2015 – UK
    • 5.2April 2015 – Hungary
    • 5.3September 2015 – UK
    • 5.4September 2015 – Hungary
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19055.bal
References
Altman, Andrew, and Christopher Heath Wellman
2009 A Liberal Theory of International Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Amnesty International
2017 “Amnesty International Annual Report 2015/16”. Amnesty International, available at: [URL]
Armbruster, Heidi
2018 “It Was the Photograph of the Little Boy”: Reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(15): 2680–2699. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Balabanova, Ekaterina, and Alex Balch
2010 “Sending and Receiving: The Ethical framing of Intra-EU Migration in the European Press”. European Journal of Communication 25(4): 82–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Balch, Alex
2016 Immigration and the State: Fear, Greed and Hospitality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Balch, Alex, and Ekaterina Balabanova
2016 “Ethics, Politics and Migration: Public Debates on the Free Movement of Romanians and Bulgarians in the UK, 2006–2013”. Politics 36(1): 19–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bader, Veit
2005 “The Ethics of Immigration”. Constellations 12(3): 331–361. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bajomi-Lázár, Peter
2015 “Variations in Media Freedom: Why Do Some Governments in Central and Eastern Europe Respect Media Freedom More than Other Ones?”. Central European Journal of Communication 141: 4–20.Google Scholar
Bauböck, Rainer
2018 “Refugee Protection and Burden-Sharing in the European Union”. Journal of Common Market Studies 56(1): 141–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berry, Mike, Garcia-Blanco, Inaki, and Kerry Moore
2015 Press Coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU: A Content Analysis of Five European Countries. Report prepared for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees ([URL] – accessed 2 April 2019).
Beauchamp, Zack
2018 “It Happened There: How Democracy Died in Hungary”, VOX ([URL] – accessed 12 April 2019).
Betts, Alexander
2015 “The Normative Terrain of the Global Refugee Regime”. Ethics and International Affairs 29(4): 363–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Betts, Alexander, and Paul Collier
2017 Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System. Allen Lane, Penguin Random House: London.Google Scholar
Blinder, Scott, and William L. Allen
2016 “Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012”. International Migration Review 50(1): 3–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bocskor, Akos
2018 “Anti-Immigration Discourses in Hungary during the “Crisis” Year: The Orbán Government’s “National Consultation” Campaign of 2015”. Sociology 52(3): 551–568. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers
2017 “Between Nationalism and Civilizationism: The European Populist Moment in Comparative Perspective”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 40(8): 1191–1226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, Sara, Bethan Grillo, and Terry Threadgold
2003 “What’s the Story”: Results from Research into Media Coverage of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK. [URL].
Carens, Joseph H.
1987 “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders”. The Review of Politics 49(2): 251–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chouliaraki, Lilie, Myria Georgiou, and Rafal Zaborowski, (with Wouter Oomen
) 2017 The European “Migration Crisis” and the Media: A Cross-European Press Content Analysis. Project report. London: Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Duffy, Aoife
2008 “Expulsion to Face Torture? Non-Refoulement in International Law”. International Journal of Refugee Law 20(3): 373–390. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ethical Journalism Network
2015 Moving Stories: International Review of How Media Cover Migration. London: Ethical Journalism Network.Google Scholar
Entman, Robert
1993 “Framing: Toward a Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm”. Journal of Communication 43(4): 51–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gavin, Neil
2018 “Media Definitely Do Matter: Brexit, Immigration, Climate Change and Beyond”. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 20(4): 827–845. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgiou, Myria and Rafal Zaborowski
2017 Media Coverage of the “Refugee Crisis”: A Cross-European Perspective. Council of Europe report DG1 (2017)031.Google Scholar
Goodman, Simon, Ala Sirriyeh, and Simon McMahon
2017 “The Evolving (Re)Categorisations of Refugees Throughout the “Refugee/Migrant Crisis”. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 27(2): 105–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grigonis, Simas
2016 “EU in the Face of Migrant Crisis: Reasons for Ineffective Human Rights Protection”. International Comparative Jurisprudence 2(2): 93–98.Google Scholar
Greussing, Esther and Hajo G. Boomgaarden
2017 “Shifting the Refugee Narrative? An Automated Frame Analysis of Europe’s 2015 Refugee Crisis”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43(11): 1749–1774. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gunther, Albert C., Daniel Bolt, Dina L. G. Borzekowski, Janice L. Liebhart, and James P. Dillard
2006 “Presumed Influence on Peer Norms: How Mass Media Indirectly Affect Adolescent Smoking”. Journal of Communication 56(1): 52–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Higgins, Peter
2008 “Open Borders and the Right to Immigration: Response to Richard Nunan’s Comments”. Human Rights Review: 543–544. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
IOM
2015 Over 3,770 Migrants Have Died Trying to Cross the Mediterranean to Europe in 2015 31 December ([URL] – accessed 21 March 2019).
2017 Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals Top 363,348 in 2016; Deaths at Sea: 5,079 6 January. ([URL] – accessed 21 March 2019).
Karyotis, Georgios
2012 “Securitization of Migration in Greece: Process, Motives, and Implications”. International Political Sociology 6(4): 390–408. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kneebone, Susan
2016 “Comparative Regional Protection Frameworks for Refugees: Norms and Norm Entrepreneurs”. The International Journal of Human Rights 20(2): 153-172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michal, Anna Triandafyllidou, and Ruth Wodak
2018 “The Mediatization and the Politicization of the “Refugee Crisis” in Europe”. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 16(1–2): 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lams, Lutgard
2018 “Discursive Constructions of the Summer 2015 Refugee Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of French, Dutch, Belgian Francophone and British Centre-of-Right Press Narratives”. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies 7(1): 103–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lavenex, Sandra
2018 “Failing Forward” Towards Which Europe? Organized Hypocrisy in the Common European Asylum System”. Journal of Common Market Studies 56(5): 1195–1212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nougayrède, Natalie
2016 Refugees Aren’t the Problem. Europe’s Identity Crisis Is. The Guardian 31 October.Google Scholar
Philo, Greg, Emma Briant, and Pauline Donald
2013 Bad News for Refugees. Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Poon, Jenny
2016 “EU-Turkey Deal: Violation of, or Consistency with, International Law?”. European Papers 1(3): 1195–1203.Google Scholar
Robinson, Duncan
2015 “Why Hungary Wanted Out of EU’s Refugee Scheme”. September 22 2015, The Financial Times [URL]
Rydliński, Bartosz
2017 “Illiberal Winds from the East”. New Eastern Europe 2/171 available at [URL]
Singer, Jane
2007 “Contested Autonomy: Professional and Popular Claims on Journalistic Norms”. Journalism Studies 8(1): 79–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singer, Sarah
2017 ““Undesirable and Unreturnable” in the United Kingdom”. Refugee Survey Quarterly 36(1): 9–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spindler, William
2015 “2015: The Year of Europe’s Refugee Crisis” UNHCR: Geneva [URL]
Thielemann, Eiko
2018 “Why Refugee Burden-Sharing Initiatives Fail: Public Goods, Free-Riding and Symbolic Solidarity in the EU”. Journal of Common Market Studies 56(1): 63–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Voynov, Georgi, Hana Franková, Anikó Bakonyi, Marta Górczyńska, and Miha Nabergoj
2017 “Pushed Back at the Door: Denial of Access to Asylum in Eastern EU Member States”. Hungarian Helsinki Committee.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael
1983 Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Webber, Frances
2013 “UK: The Way to Pariah Status in Europe”. Race & Class 55(2): 99–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Benczes, Réka & Bence Ságvári
2021. Migrants are not welcome. Journal of Language and Politics DOI logo
Parker, Samuel, Sophie Bennett, Chyna Mae Cobden & Deborah Earnshaw
2021. ‘It’s time we invested in stronger borders’: media representations of refugees crossing the English Channel by boat. Critical Discourse Studies ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.