Issues concerning immigration and asylum have attracted considerable news media coverage in countries of the Global North such as the United Kingdom during recent decades. The UK national press famous for its longevity, mass appeal and partisanship has been uniquely placed to report on and provide commentary about issues of social change such as these, especially as they have become more prominent in UK party politics. This thesis therefore analyses the press coverage of immigration issues in seven national newspapers during the final week of general election campaigns between 1918 and 2010 in order to provide a historical context to these recent developments. Using content analysis and critical discourse analysis methods, the study assesses several aspects of the representational pattern of immigration coverage and offers a perspective which emphasises continuities and contrasts across time and across the press. Over two empirical chapters, the content analysis provides a thorough profile of the coverage in terms of its volume, the news presence and access of social actors, the balance of supportive and critical voices in coverage, the lexicon used to describe immigrants and immigration processes and the themes of debate. The findings suggest that immigration has become a low-threshold political issue within recent campaigns, for which there is a core element of detailed discussion but an unprecedented expansion in superficial reference to such issues. The prominence, politicisation and problematisation of immigration have combined to frequently provide critical voices with a prominent platform. Meanwhile, supportive voices and those of immigrants were mostly marginalised. There was relatively little variation in the thematic dimension of coverage over time and to some extent across the press. A third empirical chapter offers a critical discourse analysis of the headlines in three main areas of coverage: precarious routes comprising forced and irregular migration, numbers and immigrants as voters and candidates. These aspects of the debate are examined in terms of our and their rights and responsibilities to reveal how the press has constructed the ethics and politics of immigration qualitatively.

Not long ago, Venezuela was considered the wealthiest in Latin America. Today, Human Rights Watch estimates that 2.3 million Venezuelan refugees are scattered through the Americas. Imagine having to leave your home with just a few possessions. The world is currently witnessing a wave of mass migration, with nearly 65 million people being displaced because of war or persecution, and an even higher number migrating from poverty. This thesis uses design to visually articulate the personal narratives surrounding the struggles of flight and the significance of emotion to the debate on migrant identity, acculturation, and the perception of being the other, focusing on the current displacement crisis in Venezuela. The visual message making process of graphic design is used as a catalyst for social good with the intent to create a conversation and generate an experience and that promotes advocacy. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Academics have for decades written on the need to interrogate the labels upon which the field of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies has been founded. At the centre of these discussions has been theorising around the 'integrity' and 'content' of the refugee label itself, with foundational texts expounding the need to take nothing about the meaning and purpose of this label for granted. This is evidently important in popular accounts, where the term's misuse fuels anti-immigrant sentiments and societal mistrust, as well as for the futures of these populations, as multiple interpretations of their status affect attempts to negotiate durable solutions to their plight. Without denying the importance of these theoretical accounts, or the incredibly rich literature that has emerged on account of them, this thesis suggests that much of the theorising on labelling to date has lacked a clear theoretical framework around which to structure otherwise critical observations vis-à-vis the performative and malleable characteristics of language. It therefore introduces semiotic theories and methodologies as an approach for making sense of these manifold interpretations and their relationships to each other, and to explore what impacts this has on negotiations over refugees' futures. Associated theories are used to explain the controversial negotiations that surrounded the invocation of the Cessation Clause for Eritrean refugees in Sudan in 2002, and the ongoing attempts to apply Cessation to Rwandan refugees in Uganda. Both processes were mired by controversy, and yet almost no literature exists detailing when, why and how they unfolded as they did. Disaggregating the refugee 'label' through the semiotic frameworks provided by Saussure and Barthes helps explain the conceptual and spatial dissonance that plagued attempts to conclude these protracted refugee situations. Through doing so, this thesis seeks to make three main contributions. First, it provides these extended accounts of how decisions to apply Cessation are arrived at, thereby filling an empirical gap in literature on this process. Second, it presents a heuristic framework rooted in linguistic theories to explain how certain words and objects - including the refugee label - can see their meanings transformed and bourgeon over time, the mechanisms through which this distortion occurs and is accommodated within discussions over the treatment of refugees, and the implications that the application of this theoretical framework has for how we understand particular incidents of decision-making within the refugee regime. Third, these theoretical approaches are shown to result in key challenges to how the role, content and function of the word refugee have been conceptualised to date.

The current forced displacement crisis, with over 65 million people in 2017, and more than a third being refugees, means it is higher than since the Second World War. Therefore, integration of external forced migrants (refugees) in host countries is a high priority policy objective of the international community. Yet, the existing refugee regime largely fails in successful integration, including in cases of resettling in perceived ethnic homelands. This thesis comparatively analyses the integration process of Syrian- Armenian forced migrants in the perceived ethnic homeland, Armenia and unrecognised territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a regional diaspora centre, Lebanon. The work aims to understand socio-cultural and economic factor impact on the process, and whether some can be regarded as fundamental for the successful outcomes, the role of state and non-state actors in the process, and influence of the psychological state of mind of forced migrants on it. The selection of case studies is ideal for several reasons. First, institutionally, a host-community (the Republic of Armenia and the Lebanese-Armenian diaspora) is interested in newcomers remaining in the country. Second, NGOs play a central role, thus, due to their decades of experience, allowing to facilitate advanced methods of integration. Third, Armenians integrate into their ethnic kin community, thus arguably improving integration chances. Finally, Armenians have been historically skillful in new societal integration, which bodes well for future successful integration. The analysis applies the theoretical framework of migration, diaspora and social identity to empirical findings from fieldwork, state and NGO reports and media information. The key argument of the thesis is that although all factors of integration are closely interrelated, economic integration should be perceived as a defining factor in the overall success. Additionally, I argue that, where problematic economic integration is experienced, cultural differences against the host-society and sense of nostalgia become reinforced, thus slowing integration. Finally, whilst I conclude that economic integration generally improves over time, it is likely that where host-society culture is significantly different, newcomers generally remain a distinctive community, even if within an ethnic homeland.

This work deals with the question whether the way one understands his strangeness can influence possibility of integrating migrants into the majority. The work presents some theories of personal and ethnical identity in the tradition of social constructivism. In these theories the identity is usually constructed in the opposition to strange or other, but can strange or other be the basis for the construction of one's identity? This problem is approached from the stand point of the basic sociological theories of stranger (Simmel, Schütz, Park, Siu, Bauman). Based on these theories this work argues that stranger can be an identity. The following analysis of in-depth interviews shows if and how is identity of stranger manifested in everyday life of migrants.

This work focuses on analysis of radical Islamist (jihadist) terrorism in Europe with specific focus on refugees. The basic aim of this work is to determine, whether refugees are more prone to radicalization, criminal activity or terrorism. Special attention will be given to refugees that came to Europe since 2015 and the special aim is to determine, whether they can be considered as trojan horse of terrorism, criminals or they pose no threat in topic of either terrorism or criminality. This work is divided into three main chapters and numerous subchapters. In the first part of the work, the phenomenon of terrorism is closely analysed. This chapter concentrates on difficulties of achieving a common definition of terrorism, provides various definitions and their critique, looks on definitional elements and roots of terrorism, discusses theories of terrorism and presents various types of terrorism. Second chapter lists out the occurrence of jihadist terrorism in Europe since 2015 and reviews it. A special view is offered by listing out successful jihadist attacks committed by refugees since 2015. Third chapter focuses on the analysis of three things - radicalization among refugees, criminal activity among refugees and the possibility of the occurrence of migratory terrorism. The main research...

This thesis seeks to account for diversity in the migratory decisions of Afghan migrants who have recently arrived in Turkey. It proposes that social theories on risk provide a framework that rectifies a theoretical gap in the migration literature with respect to intra-group heterogeneity in the decision-making processes of migrants. The thesis adopts Rosa’s (1998: 28) definition of risk as: ‘a situation or event where something of human value (including humans themselves) has been put at stake and where the outcome is uncertain.' I argue that variation in what migrants view as being ‘at stake’ and in how they evaluate the associated uncertainties— in other words, how migrants perceive risk— accounts for the diversity in the migration decisions of similarly situated migrants. Risk is therefore an analytical tool for understanding decision-making in its subjective and socio-cultural context. The thesis offers a typology as an analytical device for categorising the ways in which informants managed the risks associated with migration decisions. I identify three modes of managing risk, defined as resigned, restless and resilient, on the basis of migrants’ engagements with their social environment, their efforts at advocating for themselves and others, and their ability to gather and disseminate information. The thesis also explores subsidiary themes concerning migrants’ legal consciousness with regard to irregular immigration status, and the process of embodying the physical and emotional consequences of migration. Most of the ethnographic fieldwork for this project was conducted in the cities of Istanbul, Van, Kayseri and Sivas from February 2011 until December 2012.

The nexus between migration and climate change is a topic that has received growing attention in both policymaking and mainstream media. While it has long been acknowledged that gender shapes the migratory process and the impacts of climate change are gendered, most discussions concerning migration and climate change have failed to incorporate a gender perspective into their analysis. At the same time, the international community, through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other initiatives, has committed itself to eradicating gender inequality. This has resulted in more institutions incorporating gender into their analyses of migration and climate change. While these commitments to developing a more nuanced understanding of migration in the context of climate change have been welcomed, it has been questioned how these institutions incorporate gender in their analyses and how this in turn impacts climate change adaptation efforts and migration policy. The aim of this study is to investigate how the relationship between gender, migration, and climate change is articulated in discourses at the level of international institutions, analyzing these discourses through a decolonial perspective. Using critical discourse analysis, the empirical material analyzed includes reports from international institutions that discuss migration and climate change. The findings suggest that the selected institutions tend to treat gender as a variable and focus on measurable, material impacts. While there is a possible discursive shift towards a more intersectional understanding of gender and social inequality, women are often perceived as an inherently vulnerable group. This feeds into a wider ‘feminization of vulnerability’ discourse that is present in climate change studies. An additional finding is migration is optimistically framed as a means of empowerment for women. This empowering discourse tends to promote individual agency over structural changes when it comes to climate change, aligning itself with neoliberal discourses and potentially obscuring larger questions pertaining to climate and mobility justice.