Saving refugees or policing the seas? How the national press of five EU member states framed news coverage of the migration crisis

Migration from the Middle East and Africa to Europe increasingly hit the headlines in 2014-5 as the unprecedented scale of deaths at sea was gradually recognised as a newsworthy and important story. This article presents findings from research commissioned by UNHCR to measure how the issue of migration was framed in the news media across the EU. We compare the national press coverage of five member states: UK, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Italy, focusing upon the main themes of news coverage, reasons for and responses to migration outlined. We find striking variations in framing between national contexts, but also a significant disconnection, overall, between causal interpretation and treatment recommendation framing. We conclude that the resulting fragmented frames of European migration news in themselves signify ‘crisis’ - an unsettled discourse reflecting shifting anxieties between humanitarian concern to save refugees, and a securitising fortress mentality to better police European and national borders