Challenging the Boundaries: Mediations of Activism in Refugee Migration

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

On 3 September 2015, during the peak of what was to be coined a “refugee crisis” in Europe, The Guardian published a piece giving advice on “what can you do to help? From donating to a charity to volunteering – here is a guide to some of the practical ways that individuals can contribute”. While suggesting that the British government and other British media outlets were promoting fear over compassion, it positioned the task of refugee resettlement as an expectation on British society by means of charitable contributions, volunteering, and protest.

The role of individuals becoming active - and even activists - in a situation where neoliberal state politics fail to provide sufficient support urges us to reconsider notions and definitions of activism and civic engagement. Similarly, it raises questions about the role of media in framing discourses on the resettlement of those fleeing conflict - discourses which presuppose certain expectations for governments, citizens, and even refugees themselves. As the initial example shows, media play a crucial role in negotiating and framing discourses around the tasks of individuals as members of civil societies, when they become engaged or ultimately activists.

This panel explores the boundaries of activism, volunteering, and civic engagement that arise in media coverage of refugee resettlement. The five papers will examine the dynamics of media, civic action and refugee migration in new ways on a theoretical, empirical and methodological level. The question of how media interact with and affect civic action in settings of forced migration on micro- and macro-levels connects the papers. Case studies will be presented from Northern and Central Europe as well as from the Middle East to approach notions of hospitality and activist civic actions both historically and contemporary. How are media actors and platforms within the relationship between refugees, citizen-volunteers, and the state?

Panelists will address how media play a role in framing the actions of voluntary assistance to refugees - when is it activism, public service or human kindness? The papers present studies of media coverage, historically and contemporary, of journalists, refugees, communities and activists. Using a broad range of perspectives around the same question, this panel will hence provide a conceptual and methodological toolbox for exploring notions of activism in media-saturated societies in an age of migration.

Sub Unit

• Activism, Communication & Social Justice

Individual Presentations

• Refugee Volunteering and Activism Over History - Philipp Seuferling, Södertörn University

• Good Neighbours: Media Coverage of Activism in the Context of Refugee Resettlement - Paul Sherfey, Södertörn University, Sweden

• Reporting-on-Difference: News Coverage of the (Long) Summer of Migration in Denmark and Sweden - Tina Askanius; Tobias Linné, Lund U

• Bridging Difference: Materializing Belonging and Exile on the Öresund Bridge - Erin Cory, Malmö U

• Active Interpretations Beyond Europe: Sense-Making Processes by Iraqi Refugees in Jordan of the Mediated “Refugee Crisis” - Mirjam A. Twigt, Leicester U

Respondent

• Anne Kaun, Sodertorn U