Newspaper narratives of migration during national elections in Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands

Abstract

Treball de fi de màster Estudis Internacionals sobre Mitjans, Poder i Diversitat

Supervisor: Carles Roca Cuberes

This study examines how migration is portrayed in national newspapers in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain during each country's most recent election. Drawing on Policy Narrative Framing and broader framing theories, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of 300 articles, 100 per country, selected through stratified purposive sampling from two national outlets in each country, representing both left- and right-leaning perspectives. Our findings show that, regardless of editorial stance, mainstream media attribute limited agency to migrants, portraying them predominantly as either victims or depersonalised threats. At the same time, political and institutional actors drive the narrative. This marginalization of migrant voices reduces complex human experiences to policy abstractions and narrows public debate to questions of control or charity, rather than representing migrants as individuals with agency and the capacity to influence the political debate. We also observe that right-leaning outlets primarily emphasize securitization and cultural identity frames, whereas left-leaning outlets tend to foreground humanitarian and policy critique frames.