Sunday, March 16, 2014
Blue Room (Omni Shoreham)
The debate over granting asylum is neither as controversial or conspicuous as it was during the mid- to late-1990s, but the subject remains closely linked with the public’s perception of immigration and migrants generally. This paper traces the coverage of asylum in the newspapers of five European countries: the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. The paper examines whether the linkage of asylum to the mention of immigration altogether occurs with equal frequency throughout Western Europe, and it also observes whether there have been changes in such frequency over time. Furthermore, news coverage across the five countries is also compared with regard to whether the overall mention of asylum and asylum seekers has remained constant over the last decade, or whether there has been a decline in tandem with the reduced political salience of the issue.
