“Friends in solidarity will do the utmost for the Ukrainian refugees” : A critical discourse analysis of newspaper articles regarding the Ukrainian refugee 2022

Media has a big influence on today's society, as it is one of the main sources of information for the general public. The political scene in Sweden has become more mediazied and politicians use the media platforms to communicate with the citizens. Media has the power to produce, reproduce and challenge discourses. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the construction of the refugee-discourse, with focus on refugees from Ukraine, in a selection of Swedish newspapers during the first two months of the war in Ukraine. The study aims to explain how the discourse is constructed, what affects this can have on the organizational level of social work and how this affects the social worker in regards to thoughts and actions in their profession. The study utilizes critical discourse analysis since this method connects the text to the social practice it exists in, while also looking at the production and consumption of the texts. To analyze the results, theories regarding social psychology and social constructivism were used. The analysis lead to the finding of three main discourses: (1) the diligent refugee, and what possibilities and risks they face when arriving and integrating in Sweden; (2) the refugees as vulnerable mothers and children that risk living in poverty or being exploited on the labor market; and (3) who is responsible for the social integration and care of the ukrainian refugee. The conclusion is that organizational reforms can lead to a disruption in the execution of social work, and that the individual social worker’s professional ethics can be tainted in regards to thoughts about and actions towards the Ukrainian refugee