Framing the Arrival of Migrants by Populist and Liberal
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Framing the arrival of migrants by populist and liberal political parties in the Netherlands and Flanders: The aftermath of the sexual assault on women in Cologne 2015 Name: Julian Mensies Student ID: 11082321 Supervisors: Dr. J. Doomernik & Dr. A. van Heelsum Date: 22 June 2018 Program: Master thesis Political Science – International Relations Research project: Global Migration: The Politics of International Migration and Asylum Abstract This research paper shows how political parties organizations, in particular populist and liberal political parties, use framing to set the political agenda and gain policy entrepreneurship. The case of how populist and liberal political parties framed the arrival of migrants in the Netherlands and Flanders was chosen, after males with a foreign origin sexually assaulted women in Cologne on New Year’s Evening 2015. This research focussed on the victim-intruder frame and whether the large Moroccan community was named and blamed in the aftermath of Cologne. A content analysis was conducted to analyse the statements of populist and liberal politicians on Twitter and in Dutch and Flemish newspaper articles. To get a deeper understanding of how populist and liberal political parties frame, which frame they use and who the target of the framing is, a combination of discursive policy analysis and critical framing analysis has been executed. In line with the expectations, this study found that the intruder frame was mostly used by the populist political parties and the victim frame was often used by the liberal political parties. As expected, the populist political parties could be identified as the policy entrepreneurs because the field of immigration is one of the main political fields in which they operate. This study found that the populist had by far made more statements about Cologne than the liberal political parties. No substantial evidence was found to know whether populist and liberal political parties named and blamed the large Moroccan communities living in the Netherlands and Flanders more frequently. 2 Preface In front of you lies the master’s thesis ‘Framing the arrival of migrants by populist and liberal political parties in the Netherlands and Flanders: The aftermath of the sexual assault on women in Cologne 2015.’ In February 2018, at the start of the research project ‘Global Migration: The Politics of International Migration and Asylum’ it was a challenge to find a research project that was compatible with my interests. During the research project I realised that I was very interested in the concept of framing, which I became aware of during my employment as junior employee public affairs at an enterprises association in the Netherlands. Although the issues addressed during employment were very different than for the field of migration, I became very interested in this subject. In particular, I found it very interesting that there are so many ways to send a message to an audience and that you will always have to keep your goals in mind during the writing process. This is something I will always take with me in the future. In June 2018 I submitted my master’s thesis. I would like to thank my supervisor Jeroen Doomernik from the University of Amsterdam for guiding me during the process of writing this thesis. He gave me new suggestions and insight for how to set up my research proposal and how to finish my master’s thesis. In addition, I would thank my friends and family for motivating me to continue with writing my thesis and for their support. Finally, I would like to thank one of my dear co-students and friends for giving me peer-feedback on my thesis. I hope you enjoy reading the final product of my study. Julian Mensies Utrecht, June 22, 2018. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................6 1.1 Background ...............................................................................................................................6 1.2 Introduction to study ................................................................................................................6 1.3 Research questions ...................................................................................................................9 1.4 Scientific and societal relevance ................................................................................................9 1.5 Thesis outline .......................................................................................................................... 10 2. Theoretical framework: Public policy making, agenda setting and framing ............................. 12 2.1 Public policy making and agenda setting.................................................................................. 12 2.2 Conceptualization of framing................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Frames .................................................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Framing of populists and liberals ............................................................................................. 16 2.5 Effects of frames on minority groups ....................................................................................... 19 2.6 Framing in newspapers ........................................................................................................... 20 2.7 Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................. 21 3. Methodological approach......................................................................................................... 22 3.1 Sample. ................................................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Period of study ........................................................................................................................ 24 3.3 Procedure ............................................................................................................................... 24 3.4 Operationalization................................................................................................................... 25 3.5 Methodological weakness ....................................................................................................... 26 4. Case description: ...................................................................................................................... 28 4.1 Cologne 2015: The assault on women ..................................................................................... 28 4.2 A brief summary of characteristics: Belgium and the Netherlands ........................................... 29 5. Results ...................................................................................................................................... 31 5.1 Pre-Cologne ............................................................................................................................ 31 5.2 Post-Cologne ........................................................................................................................... 32 5.2.1 Frames used by liberal and populist political parties ......................................................... 33 5.2.2 Nationality and mentioned migrant .................................................................................. 35 5.2.3 Framing on specific topics ................................................................................................. 36 5.2.4 Twitter statistics ............................................................................................................... 37 5.3 In-depth findings ..................................................................................................................... 38 5.3.1 PVV .................................................................................................................................. 38 5.3.2 Vlaams Belang .................................................................................................................. 39 4 5.3.3 Open VLD ......................................................................................................................... 40 6 Conclusion & Discussion ................................................................................................................ 41 6.1 Research questions ................................................................................................................. 41 6.2 Reflection on methods ............................................................................................................ 42 6.3 Generalising outcomes ............................................................................................................ 43 6.4 Theoretical implications and future research ........................................................................... 43 References ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Appendices....................................................................................................................................... 55 A: Codebook: Guidelines for coding Tweets and articles in newspapers ........................................ 55 B: Guidelines for analysing large articles on