Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OPPORTUNITIES (Crises as Opportunities: towards a Level Telling Field on Migration and a New Narrative of Successful Integration)
Période du rapport: 2022-03-01 au 2023-08-31
The OPPORTUNITIES project combines cutting-edge quantitative media analysis and survey analysis with narrative theory and qualitative work in order to further our understanding of the discourse surrounding migration to Europe. Moving beyond academic research, however, OPPORTUNITIES also has a strong programmatic agenda, working toward a fair narrative on migration. Key to this endeavor are what we call Level Telling Fields (LTF), i.e. playbooks and mechanisms for an open, constructive, and productive debate – the cornerstone of a democratic and pluralist society. We theorize LTF premises, principles, and processes, and use them to establish common ground for a fair dialogue among migrants and stakeholders. In order to initiate a new debate on migration and integration, European and African NGOs bring together migrants and stakeholders through cross-talks, a method of collaborative storytelling and storysharing designed for the project. In addition, a touring stage production by KVS Theater Brussels will transform the search for a new narrative on migration into an artistic quest, combining elements of opera and popular culture.
Quantitative research
Our research using statistical models suggests that anti-migrant attitudes, which were clearly on the rise across Europe after the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015/16, were back to pre-crisis averages by 2018: We have found no evidence for a long-term decline in support for migrants and positive attitudes toward migration. Statistical analyses also found no clear correlation between the number of immigrants received by a country or its economic difficulties on the one hand, and anti-migrant sentiment on the other. This is good news from a European perspective, given that our regression analyses on the basis of the European Social Survey (2002-2018) have found a strong correlation between pro-migration and pro-European attitudes.
However, survey analyses were able to establish clear differences between member states which allow us to distinguish three country profiles. In Hungary and the Czech Republic, over 70% of citizens hold negative views on migration, in Central European countries like Austria and Slovenia or in Baltic countries (Estonia, Lithuania) we found a slightly more welcoming atmosphere (ca. 50% of the population is selective or welcoming). Western European and Scandinavian countries are most positive about migration (a very stable minority of 40% is unequivocally positive about migration).
Our media research helps us discuss more specific issues, too. The content people consume through media holds significant importance. Moreover, a comparative analysis of Twitter accounts by political parties in four European member states (Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy) confirms that the debate between the political left and the political right increasingly centers on the pros and cons of immigration. What is more, a recent social network analysis of the migration-related German-speaking Twittersphere revealed, among other things, that the anti-migration cluster tends to have a denser structure than the other user networks, and that – somewhat worryingly – only in the far-right user cluster, significant transnational cooperation can be observed (otherwise, the communication structure appears to align with national bounderies, i.e. Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).
Narrative theory and analysis
Whereas quantitative media analysis uses large data-sets giving access to major trends in attitudes toward migration, narrative analysis provides a more nuanced picture of media ecologies and narrative ecologies, or narrative dynamics. Our case studies of migration discourses in Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy complement the quantitative analyses, zooming in on specific aspects like the development of Germany’s ‘welcome culture’ as a counter-narrative to anti-refugee movements since 2015/16, the discursive shift from narratives of crisis to a narrative of solidarity in the Austrian public, or the ongoing process of interfering with independent and critical journalism through the government strategy of “rebalancing” the media in Hungary. This analysis also involved regular comparisons with the profoundly different framing of migration in the EU in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. We introduce new concepts such as centrifugal and centripetal narrative dynamics, crisis narration, and the notion of migration as a multiscalar phenomenon that ranges from migrants’ personal experience to the global factors (such as poverty and climate change) shaping migration on a planetary scale. The example of the treatment of migration in Italian media shows that media narratives are often unable to bring together those scales, privileging the scale of regional or national debates at the expense of migrants’ experience or global phenomena.
Even well-meaning actors like journalists or NGOs working with refugees and migrants across Europe tend to resort to “vicarious storytelling”, i.e. the practice of speaking on behalf of others. Undocumented migrants, in particular, are silenced and rely on others to speak out for them. Vicarious storytelling, in the form of anonymous pseudo-testimonies intended to create empathy, is also commonly used for fundraising. While such practices can’t be avoided completely, the OPPORTUNITIES project raises awareness for the fact that a new narrative on migration requires a fair dialogue which involves migrants, citizens, and stakeholders on an equal footing.
Our research using statistical models suggests that anti-migrant attitudes, which were clearly on the rise across Europe after the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015/16, were back to pre-crisis averages by 2018: We have found no evidence for a long-term decline in support for migrants and positive attitudes toward migration. Statistical analyses also found no clear correlation between the number of immigrants received by a country or its economic difficulties on the one hand, and anti-migrant sentiment on the other. This is good news from a European perspective, given that our regression analyses on the basis of the European Social Survey (2002-2018) have found a strong correlation between pro-migration and pro-European attitudes.
However, survey analyses were able to establish clear differences between member states which allow us to distinguish three country profiles. In Hungary and the Czech Republic, over 70% of citizens hold negative views on migration, in Central European countries like Austria and Slovenia or in Baltic countries (Estonia, Lithuania) we found a slightly more welcoming atmosphere (ca. 50% of the population is selective or welcoming). Western European and Scandinavian countries are most positive about migration (a very stable minority of 40% is unequivocally positive about migration).
Our media research helps us discuss more specific issues, too. The content people consume through media holds significant importance. Moreover, a comparative analysis of Twitter accounts by political parties in four European member states (Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy) confirms that the debate between the political left and the political right increasingly centers on the pros and cons of immigration. What is more, a recent social network analysis of the migration-related German-speaking Twittersphere revealed, among other things, that the anti-migration cluster tends to have a denser structure than the other user networks, and that – somewhat worryingly – only in the far-right user cluster, significant transnational cooperation can be observed (otherwise, the communication structure appears to align with national bounderies, i.e. Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).
Narrative theory and analysis
Whereas quantitative media analysis uses large data-sets giving access to major trends in attitudes toward migration, narrative analysis provides a more nuanced picture of media ecologies and narrative ecologies, or narrative dynamics. Our case studies of migration discourses in Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy complement the quantitative analyses, zooming in on specific aspects like the development of Germany’s ‘welcome culture’ as a counter-narrative to anti-refugee movements since 2015/16, the discursive shift from narratives of crisis to a narrative of solidarity in the Austrian public, or the ongoing process of interfering with independent and critical journalism through the government strategy of “rebalancing” the media in Hungary. This analysis also involved regular comparisons with the profoundly different framing of migration in the EU in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. We introduce new concepts such as centrifugal and centripetal narrative dynamics, crisis narration, and the notion of migration as a multiscalar phenomenon that ranges from migrants’ personal experience to the global factors (such as poverty and climate change) shaping migration on a planetary scale. The example of the treatment of migration in Italian media shows that media narratives are often unable to bring together those scales, privileging the scale of regional or national debates at the expense of migrants’ experience or global phenomena.
Even well-meaning actors like journalists or NGOs working with refugees and migrants across Europe tend to resort to “vicarious storytelling”, i.e. the practice of speaking on behalf of others. Undocumented migrants, in particular, are silenced and rely on others to speak out for them. Vicarious storytelling, in the form of anonymous pseudo-testimonies intended to create empathy, is also commonly used for fundraising. While such practices can’t be avoided completely, the OPPORTUNITIES project raises awareness for the fact that a new narrative on migration requires a fair dialogue which involves migrants, citizens, and stakeholders on an equal footing.
A Fair Dialogue: Cross-Talks and Afro-European Perspectives
The LTF approach requires all participants in a debate to adopt a shared set of premises, to agree on principles and rules, and to define processes and procedures for conducting debates and documenting results. LTF premises include: (1) a commitment to a democratic worldview grounded in human rights and the human development paradigm; (2) adhering to commonly accepted standards for evaluating claims, opinions, and arguments; and (3) sincerity, i.e. a serious commitment to debate as a democratic means of opinion-building and decision-making. LTF principles include vertical multiperspectivity, an ethics of listening, and perspective taking.
OPPORTUNITIES is putting these principles to practice, by sourcing narratives of aspiration from migrants and “re-enacting” their narrativized experience in public events. This follows a narrative methodology (“Cross-talk”) developed, tested, and modified by participating NGOs: Stories are generated, using a wide range of creative approaches, and then read out in public by stakeholders (representatives of institutions which can have an impact on migrants). This process has yielded more than two hundred experiential stories of migration in English and French which provide data for further research on individual aspirations which may form a new collective narrative.
The Cross-Talks have also revealed differences between European and African notions of migration: European migration discourses are polarized around a confrontational or even antagonistic juxtaposition of newcomers and citizens, whereas migration in Senegal, for instance, is characterized by a super-diversity of motivations, processes, and practices. In Europe, the voice of diasporic communities is rarely heard in migration debates, which is why OPPORTUNITIES also focuses on the situation of Afro-Europeans, putting anti-racism on the LTF agenda.
The LTF approach requires all participants in a debate to adopt a shared set of premises, to agree on principles and rules, and to define processes and procedures for conducting debates and documenting results. LTF premises include: (1) a commitment to a democratic worldview grounded in human rights and the human development paradigm; (2) adhering to commonly accepted standards for evaluating claims, opinions, and arguments; and (3) sincerity, i.e. a serious commitment to debate as a democratic means of opinion-building and decision-making. LTF principles include vertical multiperspectivity, an ethics of listening, and perspective taking.
OPPORTUNITIES is putting these principles to practice, by sourcing narratives of aspiration from migrants and “re-enacting” their narrativized experience in public events. This follows a narrative methodology (“Cross-talk”) developed, tested, and modified by participating NGOs: Stories are generated, using a wide range of creative approaches, and then read out in public by stakeholders (representatives of institutions which can have an impact on migrants). This process has yielded more than two hundred experiential stories of migration in English and French which provide data for further research on individual aspirations which may form a new collective narrative.
The Cross-Talks have also revealed differences between European and African notions of migration: European migration discourses are polarized around a confrontational or even antagonistic juxtaposition of newcomers and citizens, whereas migration in Senegal, for instance, is characterized by a super-diversity of motivations, processes, and practices. In Europe, the voice of diasporic communities is rarely heard in migration debates, which is why OPPORTUNITIES also focuses on the situation of Afro-Europeans, putting anti-racism on the LTF agenda.