A Stronger Denmark” Vs

“A stronger Denmark” vs. “to welcome people seeking refuge” An analysis of Danish and Swedish newspapers’ and policy documents’ framing of “the refugee crisis” and border controls

Diantha Jayananthan & Mette Kryger Pedersen

Malmö University Date of examination: June 13, 2018 Media and Communication Studies: Culture, Collaborative Media, and the Creative Industries Faculty of Culture and Society, School of Arts and Communication Two-Year Master Thesis (15 Credits)

Supervisor: Tina Askanius Examiner: Bo Reimer

Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to understand how Danish and Swedish news media and governments framed “the refugee crisis” in the context of the Swedish implementation of border controls in 2015 and the removal of external border controls in 2017. We operationalize framing theory (Entman 1993) to understand the differences and similarities in the framing of “the refugee crisis” in Denmark and Sweden. While the main focus is media representations, policy documents are included in the study to deepen the analysis and understand the similarities and differences across migration policies. Through a quantitative content analysis of 259 newspaper articles from eight Danish and Swedish newspapers, a framing analysis of ten policy documents and a qualitative framing analysis of the overall frames in the news articles and policy documents, we identified a dialectic relation of power between media and political discourse in both countries. We found that issues defined and represented in policy documents tend to reflect the challenges that news media define and the other way around. Even though Danish and Swedish newspapers and policy documents highlight similar problems, our data indicates clear differences in migration policies, in the two countries, in terms of the framing of asylum seekers, refugees and political events in 2015.

Keywords: asylum seekers, refugees, border control, bordering, migration policies, refugee crisis, framing, news media, policy documents.

Table of content

Lists of figures 1

1. Introduction 2 1.1 “Refugee chaos” vs. “refugee crisis” 3 1.2 The purpose and research questions 4

2. Literature review 5 2.1 Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in media coverage 6 2.2. The refugee crisis as a term 6 2.3 The refugee crisis and media coverage 7 2.4 The relation between politics and media 9 2.5 Situating the study within migration and media research 10

3. Theoretical framework 10 3.1 Selection and salience 11 3.2 Who creates the frames? 12 3.3 Development, critique and limitations of framing theory 13

4. Methodology and empirical data 15 4.1 Research design 15 4.2 Data and sampling process 16 4.2.1 Newspaper articles from eight news outlets 16 4.2.2 Collecting newspaper articles 17 4.2.3 Collecting policy documents 19 4.3 Analytical framework 20 4.3.1 Analysing newspaper articles 20 4.3.2 Analysing policy documents 21 4.3.3 Qualitative framing analysis 22 4.4 Internal validity and ethical considerations 22

5. Understanding Danish and Swedish migration policies 24 5.1 Swedish policies: From an exceptionalist model to a civic turn 24 5.2 Danish policies: Civic selection and striving for Danish cohesion 25

6. Analysis 26 Part 1 27 6.1 Content analysis of news articles 27 6.1.1 Front-page stories 28

6.1.2 Who has a voice? 29 6.1.3 Description of people 31 6.1.4 Themes 33 6.2 Political strategies and national perspectives: a framing analysis of Danish and Swedish policy documents 37 6.2.1 The communicator 38 6.2.2 The receiver 41 6.2.3 The texts 42 6.2.4 The culture 45 6.2.5 Summary of the policy document analysis 47 Part 2 49 6.3 Qualitative framing analysis 49 6.3.1 Defining the problem 49 6.3.2 Defined causes 53 6.3.3 Moral judgement 56 6.3.4 Solutions 60 6.3.5 Summary of the qualitative framing analysis 64

7. Concluding discussion 65 7.1 Negotiation of power in media and politics 65 7.2 The exertion of power in news media and politics 68 7.3 Limitations of our study and the need for further research 70

References 72 Literature 72 Empirical data 79

Appendix 1: Coding table for newspaper articles 86

Lists of figures Figure 1: The four comparative elements of the study 16

Figure 2: Distribution of articles in newspapers in the first and second periods. 27

Figure 3: The first and second sources given a voice in the first period. 30

Figure 4: The first and second sources given a voice in the second period. 31

Figure 5: Overview of the number of Danish and Swedish news articles that include 32 specific labels in the text to describe people coming to Denmark and Sweden in the first period. Figure 6: Overview of the number of Danish and Swedish articles that include 33 specific labels in the text to describe people coming to Denmark and Sweden in the second period. Figure 7: Themes that are included in the articles and how many times they appear 34 in the sample in the first period. Figure 8: Themes that are included in the articles and how many times they appear 37 in the sample in the second period.

1. Introduction In 2015, increasing numbers of asylum seekers reached the Northern region of Europe and crossed the borders of Denmark and Sweden. The arrival of thousands of people received a lot of attention in both Danish and Swedish news media, and the high influx was part of a period covered as chaotic and overwhelming (Kildegaard & Domino 2015, p. 4; Klarskov & Thobo- Carlsen 2015, p. 1; Mellin 2015, p. 20). Asylum seekers in Denmark and Sweden have caused administrative challenges, strains on governmental agencies, and not least contributed to political debates about national security, cultural differences and integration (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; Government Offices of Sweden 2016; The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d.).

In both Denmark and Sweden, the large numbers of asylum seekers were treated as a burden creating a state of emergency. Thus, both the Danish and Swedish governments reacted with policy regulation aiming to limit the number of new entries (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016; Ministry of Justice 2017). In November 2015, the Swedish Government decided to implement temporary border controls1 (Ministry of Justice 2017). This decision became a turning point for both Swedish asylum and migration policies and Danish politics as the Swedish government’s decision was assumed to increase the number of asylum seekers in Denmark. 18 months later, in May 2017, the Swedish government decided to remove the external2 border controls while strengthening the internal3 border controls (Lönegård & Rogberg 2017, p, 7). The border controls are the central aspect of our research as we analyse how Danish and Swedish news media have framed the refugee crisis in the context of these specific points in time. More specifically, we examine a delineated part of “the refugee crisis”4 by examining representations of the Swedish government’s border controls in Danish and Swedish news media and policy

1 In this study, we use the term border controls to refer to the Swedish border controls and ID checks, as they are used to control borders. Some news media and governments perceive them as two different methods, which illustrates a way of framing border regulations. 2 External border controls refer to border controls and ID checks outside of Sweden on all public transportation entering Sweden. 3 Internal border controls refer to border controls on Swedish territory. 4 “The refugee crisis” is in quotation marks here to emphasize that we find that this is a problematic term (see 2.2. The refugee crisis as a term). In the rest of the study, we write the refugee crisis/the crisis without quotation marks.

2 documents. Our study provides insight into a specific sample of news media in a specific region and looks back at news coverage in two specific weeks, from November 12-19, 2015 – when the Swedish government implemented temporary border controls – and from May 1-8, 2017 – when the external border control was removed. We look at the framing of this delineation because frames in news texts and policy documents represent imprints of power that register the identity of actors or interests that compete to dominate the text (Entman 1993, p. 55).

News media have an important role with respect to how different aspects of the European crisis are framed, portrayed and discussed in public. Moreover, local and national news media have an influence on public opinion (Entman 1993, p. 57; Berry et. al. 2015 p. 5; Stjernborg et. al. 2015, p. 22; Hellström & Hervik 2018). Thus, it is important to examine how the media portrayed the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees and framed the crisis to understand how this group of people is represented in media coverage and politics because representations of people and events affect the way people relate to the discussion of this crisis.

1.1 “Refugee chaos” vs. “refugee crisis” A source of inspiration for our study is the TV debate programme, Debatten om flygtninge: Danmark møder Sverige [The debate about refugees: Denmark meets Sweden] (2015) broadcasted on both the Danish channel, DR2, and the Swedish channel, SVT1, on September 17, 2015. In this programme Danish and Swedish actors discussed the refugee crisis and ways to handle the increasing number of asylum seekers. This debate programme clearly demonstrated fundamental differences in the political cultures of Sweden and Denmark specifically in relation to migration and asylum questions and political responsibilities for introducing newcomers. For instance, it is discussed how the overall situation has widely been referred to as “refugee chaos” in Denmark, while the term “refugee crisis” has been the most common term in Sweden (ibid.). Throughout the debate, actors from the two countries have indicated clear cultural differences in the perception of accepting asylum seekers, how these people are described, and how the situation in both countries and Europe in general should be handled. This difference is especially clear between Danish and Swedish politicians. Swedish politicians emphasize the importance of protecting the right to asylum, protecting people in need and in flight, and strengthening the cooperation between EU member states. Danish politicians mainly focus on the situation in Denmark, Danish cohesion and stress that newcomers must contribute to the Danish society in terms of 3 labour and active citizenship (ibid.). This TV debate programme sparked our interest in the migration policies of the two neighbouring countries.

Moreover, we both worked as research interns at Malmö University in autumn 2017 on projects about refugees who have arrived in Europe since 2015. The internship experience broadened our knowledge about asylum and migrant policies in Denmark and Sweden as well as Danish and Swedish newspaper coverage of the refugee crisis. The experience that we acquired during our internships motivated us to continue working on this topic and gain a deeper understanding of how Swedish and Danish news media and policy documents framed the refugee crisis in the context of border control and migration policies.

1.2 The purpose and research questions The purpose of this thesis is to understand how Danish and Swedish news media frame the refugee crisis through the prism of border controls. While the main focus is media representations, policy documents are included in the study to deepen the analysis and understand migration policies in Denmark and Sweden, respectively.

Our study focuses on one border region, two national contexts and two specific time periods. We aim to understand similarities and differences in the framing of the refugee crisis in Denmark and Sweden. Moreover, we aim to understand the dialectic relationship between media and policy discourse on these subject matters and in relation to each other. Therefore, we analyse how Danish and Swedish news media represent the Swedish government’s implementation of border controls – and subsequent removal– of external border controls, and we analyse Danish and Swedish policy documents about asylum and migration. Overall, we examine media’s representation and framing of these issues and discuss the possible consequences of this framing to understand the relation between media and politics.

We present our analysis in two parts, approaching the study through the following research questions guided by Entman’s (1993) framing theory. The first two research questions concern how the refugee crisis has been framed in news media and policy documents. We answer this part through a content analysis of a sample of Danish and Swedish newspaper articles, and a framing analysis of Danish and Swedish policies concerning asylum and migration policies. 4

Part 1

1. How did news media in Denmark and Sweden frame the refugee crisis in November 2015 when the Swedish government implemented border controls and in May 2017 when the external border controls were removed?

2. How do the Danish and Swedish governments frame migration and asylum in policy documents?

Part 2

The second part of our analysis focuses on key themes and patterns identified in the first part of our analysis. The aim is to understand the differences and similarities in the two countries over the two different time periods. Moreover, we aim to understand the differences and similarities of the news media’s and the government’s framing of the refugee crisis in the context of border controls. We approach this part of our analysis with the next question:

3. How can we understand the differences and similarities in framing of the refugee crisis in the context of border controls and Danish and Swedish migration policies across two time periods and between the media's and government's framing?

2. Literature review In this chapter, we present how scholars have previously studied asylum and migration issues and the refugee crisis in media studies. First, we discuss how researchers have engaged with media representations of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants and their findings. We continue with a discussion about the term the refugee crisis and how scholars approach this term critically. Moreover, we look at how others have studied the refugee crisis and how scholars have looked at the relationship between politics and media. Lastly, we place our study and contribution within the media and migration research field.

2.1 Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in media coverage The representation of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in media has been studied from many different perspectives. Several framing analyses of media coverage of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants at different points in time and in different national contexts have shown that asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants are often framed as either a threat or a victim (Van Gorp 2005; McKay et. al. 2011; Ihlen & Thorbjørnsrud 2014; Horsti 2013; Lawlor 2015). However, some scholars argue that these two frames are not competing, as they often support the same ideological position and may be combined in a frame of reason/rationalization (Horsti 2013, p. 79; Triandafyllidou 2018, p. 198). Based on an automated content analysis of Canadian print media coverage over a 10-year period, Lawlor and Tolley (2017) found that there are distinct differences between the framing of immigrants and refugees. They found that immigrants are frequently positively associated with economic considerations, while refugees are more frequently negatively associated with validity considerations (Lawlor & Tolley 2017, p. 985). Further, they argue that findings from studies of media coverage in one country can be applied to other contexts because “the media’s structural and institutional features are consistent across many Western liberal democracies” (Soroka, 2014 cited in Lawlor & Tolley 2017, p. 968). However, recent findings from two cross-European studies on the media’s coverage of the refugee crisis in 2015 showed that there are significant differences in the coverage of asylum seekers and immigrants across Europe (Berry et. al. 2015, p. 10; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017, p. 3). Further, Berry et. al. (2015) state that “one size does not fit all” for media work on refugees (Berry et. al. 2015, abstract).

2.2. The refugee crisis as a term Triandafyllidou (2018) uses the terms “refugee crisis” and “refugee emergency” interchangeably to refer to the high influx of asylum seekers and irregular migration that Europe experienced during 2014-2016 (Triandafyllidou 2018, p. 200). She argues that the crisis was a multiple crisis: “a crisis in terms of unprecedented volume and pace of refugee and migrant flows; in terms of the receiving countries’ asylum reception policies; and with regard to EU politics and policies” (ibid., p. 200). Georgiou and Zaborowski (2017) argued that the European press had a key role in framing refugees’ and migrants’ arrival in Europe in 2015. Further, Musarò and Parmiggiani

(2017) studied the media’s role in shaping perception and policies in Italy concerning the migrant crisis. They argue that the “depoliticized politics, based on compassionate care and technocratic control, contributes to the construction of the image of the Mediterranean as a ‘migration crisis space’, in which the role of culpability is totally misperceived in what has become a routine production of grave harm” (Musarò & Parmiggiani 2017, p. 254).

Krzyżanowski et. al. (2018) discuss the discourse of the refugee crisis and argue that this term is inaccurate. The use of crisis is “stigmatizing” for the migrants and adds “unnecessarily alarmistic connotation to the discourse”, as well as the term has a specific political function (Krzyżanowski et. al. 2018, p. 3). They argue that the refugee crisis has been developed by the media and political discourse “to legitimize the alleged urgency, including various measures, that were or were supposed to be taken in recent months and years” (ibid. p. 3).

2.3 The refugee crisis and media coverage The refugee crisis as it was dubbed by the media and politicians in 2015 has recently been studied from many different perspectives. A growing body of literature focuses on the media’s coverage of the refugee crisis and takes a variety of approaches to study the events in 2015. Several scholars look at the refugee crisis from a national perspective focusing on how this crisis has influenced the media and political discourse in one country (Dahlgren 2016; Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou 2016; Greussing & Boomgaarden 2017; Musarò & Parmiggiani 2017; Rheindorf & Wodak 2018; Krzyżanowski 2018). Further, many studies take a cross-national perspective studying discourse across multiple countries in Europe, the Middle East and Canada to gain a more holistic perspective of the media’s influence on framing the crisis (Berry et. al. 2015; Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017; Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017; Abid et. al. 2017; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017; Mortensen et. al. 2017; Triandafyllidou 2018).

While most of these studies base their findings on the analysis of texts such as print and online news articles, social media and speeches, a handful of scholars focus on visual data such as newspaper headline images (Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017), instant news icons (Mortensen 2016) and migrant selfies (Chouliaraki 2017). The many images that appeared in news media during this period contributed to the framing and discourse about the situation. Some images like the image of the three-year old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a beach in Turkey changed media and 7 political discourse around Europe because the image came to symbolize the tragedy of the Syrian people and all the people fleeing war and seeking refuge in Europe (Mortensen et. al. 2017; Triandafyllidou 2018). Chouliaraki and Stolic (2017) conducted a conceptually-driven semiotic analysis of newspaper headline images of news in five European countries at three key moments from June-December in 2015. They found that “regimes of visibility,” how refugees are situated in news images, are “key spaces of moralization that produce and regulate the public disposition by which we collectively take responsibility for the plight of distant others” (Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017, p. 11). Based on their empirical data, Chouliaraki and Stolic constructed a five-part typology, which situates refugees in different perspectives, concluding that all these “regimes of visibilities” fail to address refugees and migrants as human beings (Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017, p. 12).

The media have long been criticized for not considering the views of ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and refugees important enough to interview, quote or mention their names (Wal et al. 2002 in Horsti 2008, p. 47). Similarly, Chouliaraki and Zaborowski (2017) found that politicians speak in the news and refugees do not. They argue that this hierarchy of voices leads to a triple misrecognition of refugees as political, social and historical actors, which has serious implications on both refugees and on Europe’s national public (ibid. p. 616). In addition, several studies address the lack of migrant and refugee voices in the news coverage (Horsti 2008; Alhayek 2014; Berry et. al. 2015; Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017; Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017). Based on a content analysis of news coverage from eight European countries, the Council of Europe’s report on media coverage of the refugee crisis found that refugees and migrants were given limited opportunity to speak of their experiences and suffering, and female refugees and migrants were hardly ever heard across Europe (Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017, p. 3).

Further, Georgiou and Zaborowski’s (2017) and Berry et. al.’s (2015) content analyses of newspapers in eight and five countries, respectively, give an overview of trends in the media coverage of people arriving in Europe in 2015 as well as an insight into the press culture that was agenda-setting during this period (See Berry et. al. 2015; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017). The reports identified large variations in the way that the press reports on asylum and immigration in different countries. There is a strong contrast between East and West, receiving

8 and non-receiving countries, as well within the national press systems (Berry et. al. 2015; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017). Both reports stress the media’s role in providing information about the new arrivals and framing these events as well as influencing public and elite political attitudes towards asylum and migration (Berry et. al. 2015; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017). As such, Mortensen et. al.’s (2017) analysis of the editorial mediation and response to the Alan Kurdi photographs in Danish, Canadian and UK newspapers revealed editorial self-reflexivity.

2.4 The relation between politics and media A number of recent studies have examined how media influence different political issues across national contexts with different results. Hayes et al. (2007) studied how Canadian news coverage of health stories reflected the issues embedded in the health policy documents. They found that the “overall prominence of topics in newspapers is not consistent with the relative importance assigned to health influences” in the policy documents (p. 1842). Fawzi (2018) studied energy policies in Germany as a case to examine media’s impact on all stages of the political process. She found that media coverage has a strong influence on the political processes with only the implementation stage being less influenced. In another study, van der Pas et. al. (2017) apply the concept “political parallelism” to examine the connection between newspapers and political parties in the Netherlands. They conclude that political actors and newspapers influence each other in terms of the topics each of these institutions address (van der Pas et. al. 2017, p. 505). Simultaneously, both institutions benefit from this reciprocal connection as politicians gain attention and space in media to reach the public and journalists’ reports are “legitimized by the adoption of parliamentarians” (van der Pas et. al. 2017, p. 506). Furthermore, Ciaglia (2013) conducted a comparative analysis of the bond between media and politics and how this varies in the national contexts of United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. He found that the link between politics and media constantly is present, but the degree and implications of this link varies (pp. 552-553). In another study, Pallas et al. (2015) argue that the mediatization of government agencies can be understood as a pull rather than a push factor. The political agencies want to interact with media rather than they are forced to adapt to media (p. 1050). Their findings support “a general picture of government agencies putting great value on the media and investing scarce resources in media-related rules and activities” (p. 1060).

2.5 Situating the study within migration and media research Our study can be placed in the research field of media coverage on migration because it contributes to the field of research by providing insight into a specific sample of news media coverage on the implementation of Swedish temporary border controls in 2015 and the removal of external border controls in 2017 as a consequence of the refugee crisis in a specific region. Moreover, our study includes an analysis of policy documents regarding migration and asylum in two neighbouring countries on which there has not been done much research.

As shown in this literature review, the media’s coverage of the refugee crisis in 2015 has already been studied by a number of scholars from multiple perspectives. However, few have made studies with a border perspective in relation to policy documents and media coverage. The purpose of our thesis is to understand the similarities and differences with respect to how Danish and Swedish news media and governments framed the refugee crisis during the Swedish government’s implementation of border controls and the removal of the external border controls. Our study examines two national contexts and two specific time periods. We argue that it is important to examine how media and governments in both countries frame these situations to understand the differences and similarities of the framing. By including asylum and migrant policy documents, we discuss how news media and governments compete and negotiate over frames concerning the refugee crisis. We are aware that people get news from multiple sources today, in different languages, and that neither readers nor news outlets live inside information bubbles. Nonetheless, news media influence public opinion (Entman 1993, p. 57; Berry et. al. 2015 p. 5; Stjernborg et. al. 2015, p. 22; Hellström & Hervik 2018).

3. Theoretical framework In this chapter, we discuss the theoretical framework of our thesis. We apply framing theory to uncover our research questions and mediatization to understand the relationship between media and politics. First, we discuss Entman’s (1993) definition of framing. Then, we discuss the power and creators of framing. Lastly, we discuss the development, critique and limitations of framing perspectives.

3.1 Selection and salience Framing theory is a perspective applied in many academic traditions. Framing is often used to analyse political communication and journalistic news coverage (Hjarvard 2015, p. 104). We use framing theory to understand how journalists and politicians frame the refugee crisis in the context of border controls. We operationalize Entman’s (1993) salience-based definition of framing to structure the analyses.

For Entman, framing is “to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation of the item selected” (Entman 1993, p. 52). Van Gorp (2005) defines a frame as a “persistent meta-communicative message that specifies the relationship between elements connected in a particular news story and thereby gives the news coherence and meaning” (Van Gorp 2005, p. 503). According to Entman, framing is about selection and salience, which provides a method to describe the power of a communicating text (Entman 1993, p. 51). Entman explains that to select and make an aspect of reality more salient in a communicating text is to make a piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to the audience, which increases the chance that the receiver will perceive, discern meaning, process or store the information and meaning in their memory (ibid. p. 53).

Furthermore, Entman (1993) argues that frames have four functions or reasoning devices: to define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgements and suggest remedies. The four framing functions can appear in one sentence in a text, but all are not necessarily present in one particular text. These framing functions are used to select and highlight specific aspects of reality, and the highlighted elements are used to construct an argument of problems and their causation, evaluation and or solution (ibid. p. 53). Garvin and Eyles (2001) argue that framing is useful when studying policy problems because Entman’s framing functions link the defined problem to the proposed solutions (ibid., p. 1176). Moreover, Hjarvard (2015) argues that this definition of framing has made it easier for scholars to operationalize the framing concept in text analyses because it makes it possible to look for and identify certain aspects, which together create a frame (Hjarvard 2015, p. 105).

Entman (1993) proposes that frames exist in all aspects of the communication process: the communicator, the text, the receiver and the culture. Similar to Hall’s (1973 in Hjarvard 2015, p. 111) encoding and decoding communication model with a communicator, a text and a receiver, Entman (1993) argues that culture as a whole is important to understand how opinions are created (Entman 1993, p. 53). The existing frames within a culture or group influence how frames in texts are understood (Hjarvard 2015, p. 105). Garvin and Eyles (2001) argue that these four locations can help identify how participants in the policymaking process guide policy solutions (p. 1177). In a qualitative frame analysis of asylum seekers in Finnish news, Horsti (2013, p. 83) argues that framing of asylum seekers takes place in the cultural context of a text, a perspective which we apply in our study.

3.2 Who creates the frames? The use of framing is important in political power. Matthews and Brown (2011) exposed how tabloid newspapers can perform as a “claims maker, producing coverage that establishes, legitimates and demonstrates the UK immigration system as in crisis” (Matthews & Brown 2011, p. 813). Their study challenged the existing explanations of elite influences as their study revealed how tabloid news rather than government viewpoints frame the character and contours of campaign representations, which leads to the question: who determines the frame of the crisis, the media or the government? (ibid.). According to Murphy and Maynard (2000 in McKay et al. 2011), the way an issue is framed in the media and public discourse has much to do with who the framing is created by (ibid, p. 612). Further, Scheufele (1999) questioned whether journalists’ frames of an issue are mostly “a function of how elites, interest groups, or other sources frame an issue? Or, do journalists themselves interpret issues based on frames conveyed to them by other news sources?” (ibid, p. 117).

Politics are influenced by mediatization. Mediatization is a concept that unfolds the social and political processes influenced by the logic of the media (Schulz 2004; Strömbäck 2008; Hjarvard 2013). According to Ciaglia (2013), there has been a shift in modern democracies, in which politicians have acknowledged the importance and impact of media on their political success. Simultaneously, politicians have become more dependent on media, as media are perceived as a significant source of information (Ciaglia 2013, p. 543). For instance, politicians “adjust their behavior and the presentation of their messages in order to accommodate the news values and 12 formats of journalism” (Schudson 1989, p. 143). According to Strömbäck (2008), politics are about “collective and authoritative decision making” (p. 233). In these processes of decision making, politicians and political parties are the primary actors that define societal problems, solutions and decide how these are addressed to the public (Patterson 1993 in Strömbäck 2008, p. 233). Thus, it is important for politicians to have a voice in the media because media can be used strategically “to gain power and legitimacy in policy processes” (Tresch 2009, in Korthagen 2015, p. 618).

The way an issue is framed influences the discourse about an issue during a period. Foucault defined discourse as “a group of statements which provide a language for talking about – a way of representing the knowledge about – a particular topic at a particular historical moment” (Hall, 1992, p. 291 in Hall 2013 [1997], p. 186). Furthermore, Foucault argued that “what we think we ‘know’ in a particular period” about a specific topic influences how we regulate, control and punish that issue (Hall 2013 [1997], p. 189). This has an influence on the “regime of truth” (Hall 2013 [1997], p. 189), which further can be related to the concept of “news wave”, where a frame of a news story from one news outlet is picked up by other journalists and news media (Fishman 1980 in Scheufele 1999, p. 117).

These reflections about who creates the frames are important for our analytical framework because framing influences what is defined and judged as the problem, causes and solutions. We operationalize these considerations by examining who is given a voice in the news articles, and who are the senders of the policy documents to identify how these actors define asylum and migration.

3.3 Development, critique and limitations of framing theory Framing theory has often been used to show how news texts not merely report on reality, but include important choices, which provides meaning to events and mirror the actor’s interests (Hjarvard 2015, p. 105). The representation and framing of reality is never neutral but is guided by choices that all have consequences for how we understand reality (Hjarvard 2015, p. 105; Price, Tewksbury, & Powers 1995, p. 4 in Scheufele 1999, p. 107). Thirty years ago, Schudson (1989) argued that “journalists make the news” (p. 263). He explained by referring to Murdock 13

(1973 in Schudson 1989) that “news ‘coincides with’ and ‘reinforces’ the definition of the political situation evolved by the political elite” (p. 268). To a certain extent this still holds true, although much has changed in 30 years.

Five years ago, Kammer (2013) argued that journalism was undergoing a process of mediatization, in which society becomes increasingly dependent on media and its logic (Hjarvard 2008, p. 113 in Kammer 2013, p. 144). Despite the increasing dependency on the logic of media, Hjarvard (2015) argues that framing is still useful for systematically analysing texts to understand their possible connection to the construction of opinion (Hjarvard 2015, p. 112). A framing analysis can be both inductive and deductive by either identifying specific frames within the texts or looking for existing defined frames in the texts such as topic, specific frames or generic frames (ibid. p. 111).

Framing theory is often criticized for being too vague theoretically and empirically because it can be used to explain basically everything, especially within the sociological tradition of framing (Scheufele 1999, Hjarvard 2015; Cacciatore et al. 2016, p. 15). Cacciatore et al. (2016) criticize emphasis-based framing studies for arguing that any observed effect “may be the result of difference in the persuasive power or quality of a given message, rather than differences in the way the same information is presented” (Cacciatore et al. 2016. p. 13). Therefore, they argue for a narrower definition of framing to better distinguish between the effects of framing and the effects of agenda-setting. They propose moving away from the emphasis-based framing operalizations towards equivalence-based definitions “that are more directly tied to alterations in the presentation of information rather than the persuasive value of that information” (Cacciatore et al. 2016, p. 15). Hjarvard (2015) acknowledges the relevance of this critique and the problem of framing being too broad and vaguely theorized. However, he argues that Cacciatore et al.’s (2016) narrow definition of framing can only be conceptualized and operationalized through experimental conditions and not in the real world (Hjarvard 2015, p. 109).

It is important to emphasize that the way we use framing cannot be used to study how opinions are created or affected. We draw on mediatization theory to understand the relation between politics and media. Therefore, our study can contribute with a discussion about how news media

14 and governments in Denmark and Sweden frame the refugee crisis in the context of borders, migration and asylum and what consequences these frames may have when migration and asylum issues are positioned in a certain way. However, our study cannot discuss how specific ways of framing this topic influence public opinions.

4. Methodology and empirical data In this chapter, we describe the methodology applied in our study. We describe how we selected, collected and analytically approached our empirical data to help answer our research questions. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations of the data and discuss ethical considerations encountered in this study.

4.1 Research design We employ a mix of methods to understand how Danish and Swedish news media framed the refugee crisis through implementation of border controls and removal of external border controls by conducting a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative framing analysis (Blaikie 2009, p. 218). The empirical data consists of two separate data collections: newspaper articles and policy documents. The newspaper articles stem from four Swedish newspapers and four Danish newspapers from two specific weeks. The first period is a week in November 2015, when the Swedish temporary, border controls were implemented, and the second week is in May 2017, when external border controls were removed. The policy documents include Swedish and Danish policy documents that concern asylum and migration policies from 2015-2017.

Figure 1: The four comparative elements of the study

We focus on these periods and newspapers to understand how the implementation and removal of border controls were framed in news media during this time in Denmark and Sweden. Moreover, we include policy documents concerning migration and asylum policies from the two neighbouring countries to understand how the refugee crisis was framed by the Danish and Swedish governments. Altogether, the two datasets help us understand the similarities and differences in the framing of the refugee crisis in news coverage and policy discourse within two specific national contexts and two specific time periods. We use these four elements to examine a delineated area of the refugee crisis (See figure 1).

4.2 Data and sampling process The data consists of articles from newspapers in Denmark and Sweden and policy documents from both governments. In the following section, we elaborate on the data and the sampling process.

4.2.1 Newspaper articles from eight news outlets The newspaper articles were collected from four Danish newspapers: Berlingske, Ekstra Bladet, Information and Politiken, and four Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Sydsvenskan. The newspapers are all national, daily papers positioned differently in

16 terms of readership, type of journalism and political stance. We selected these newspapers to gain and insight into how differently traditional, national news outlets framed the refugee crisis and border controls in Denmark and Sweden.

The Danish Newspapers Ekstra Bladet is a tabloid, whose readers are mainly workers and people outside the labour market, including retired people, whose income is in the lower quartile (Ekstra Bladet n.d.). In 2017, Ekstra Bladet had 103,000 readers (Kantar Gallup 2018). Politiken’s readers are primarily highly educated workers (Tabloid n.d.) and in 2017, the newspaper had 263,000 readers (Kantar Gallup 2018), which makes it the second largest daily newspaper in Denmark (Tabloid n.d.). Both Politiken and Ekstra Bladet are described as independent, radical-social-liberal newspapers (JP/Politikens hus n.d.). In 2017, Berlingske had 160,000 readers (Kantar Gallup 2018), and it has a liberal-conservative orientation (Euro|topics: Berlingske n.d.). Information provides critical journalism and is independent of political parties as well as economic interests (Den store danske: Information n.d.). The political orientation of Information is left-wing (Euro|topics: Information n.d.), and in 2017, the newspaper had 90,000 readers (Kantar Gallup 2018).

The Swedish Newspapers Dagens Nyheter is the leading newspaper in Sweden, and it has a liberal orientation. In 2017, it was read by 625,000 people (Kantar SIFO 2018). Svenska Dagbladet is positioned as independent and conservative (Schibsted Media Group n.d.). In 2017, the newspaper had 376,000 readers (Kantar SIFO 2018) and most of these have a higher education (Tabloid n.d.). More than half of Sydsvenskan’s readers also have a higher education, are full-time employees and live in the area of Skåne (Tabloid n.d.). In 2017, Sydsvenskan had 186,000 readers (Kantar SIFO 2018). Sydsvenskan is politically positioned as independent liberal (Euro|topics: Sydsvenskan n.d.). In 2017, Aftonbladet was read by 538,000 readers (Kantar SIFO 2018). This newspaper is a tabloid with a Social Democratic identity (Aftonbladet info n.d.).

4.2.2 Collecting newspaper articles We collected the newspaper articles through the Swedish media database, Retriever (retriever.se) and the Danish media database, Infomedia (infomedia.dk). The search for the first period was limited to articles published from November 12, 2015 to November 19, 2015. The second period 17 was limited to articles published from May 1, 2017 to May 8, 2017. The first day of the period indicates either the day of the implementation of border controls or the removal of external border controls. The specific search string for both periods included border, asylum and refugee. We applied broad search tags to include all articles that touch upon borders, asylum or refugees. The specific search strings were:

Danish database: grænse* AND asyl* OR flygtning* Swedish database: gräns* AND asyl* OR flykting*

The initial search on Infomedia matched 319 articles for the first period and 101 articles for the second period. Having excluded false positives, we reduced the number of articles to 93 in the first period and 35 articles in the second period. False positives in the Danish search included articles without the word, grænse [border], but e.g. the Danish word begrænse [limiting] in a context not relevant for our topic. Moreover, some articles only included the word grænse and not flygtning [refugee] or asyl [asylum] and were not relevant for our topic. These articles concerned e.g. borders outside Europe and were not related to asylum or refugees. Other false positives did include the word, grænse, but as boundaries in contexts of other topics than refugees and asylum. Some articles did not include any of the words, grænse, asyl or flygtning, which could have been caused by an error. We conducted the search several times, nonetheless, the same articles appeared each time. Lastly, we excluded letters from readers because we specifically engage with how journalists and the newspapers represent issues concerning the refugee crisis and borders, and not the opinions of the public.

The first search on Retriever matched 135 articles for the first period and 20 articles for the second period. Having excluded false positives, we reduced the articles in the first period to 111 and the second period remained the same with 20 articles. The false positives in the Swedish search regarded articles that included the word gräns [border] but in relation to other topics than asylum or refugees. E.g. articles about IS and their territories in Iraq and Syria. Additionally, a few articles did not include the word, gräns. Some articles that employed the word, gräns, as boundaries/limit in phrases such as “there must be a limit” in relation to the topic, were included in the data sample. The use of the word, gräns, as boundaries and limits can be relevant to understand the mental state of boundaries and limitations in relation to issues concerning

18 refugees and asylum. While sorting for false positives, we noticed that some articles in Svenska Dagbladet appeared twice, however, with edited headlines and/or images and in some cases a long and a short version of the same article. These articles were edited on the same date, one version published in the morning edition and the second in the evening edition. We decided to include both versions in the data collection and mark the occurrence of the similar/edited articles in the coding table because the headline in the evening version was different compared to the morning version.

The total number of newspaper articles in the sample is 259 articles: 128 Danish articles and 131 Swedish articles.

4.2.3 Collecting policy documents The policy documents were retrieved from websites of the Swedish and Danish governments, ministries and services. We selected five Swedish policy documents and five Danish policy documents according to the following criteria:

● The policy documents must be published by governments, governmental departments or ministries in Denmark or Sweden. ● The policy documents must be published between 2015-2017. ● The policy documents must concern asylum and migration rules or regulations hereof.

The selected documents provide information about policy proposals and changes regarding asylum, migration, and border controls. They exemplify how the Swedish and Danish governments address issues as well as political solutions. The gathered sample includes press releases, governmental reports and publications. We were mainly able to find documents published in Danish from the Danish government except from the document, English information about changes to regulations applied in the area of asylum (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015). However, we found several Swedish governmental publications in English. Thus, we chose four Swedish documents published in English and one report published in Swedish.

4.3 Analytical framework We operationalize Entman’s (1993) salience-based definition of framing and contextualize his understanding of framing to structure our two-fold analysis. In the first part of the analysis, we first conduct a content analysis of the sampled newspaper articles, which provides an overview of recurring themes and terms to help examine the salience of the selected aspects of reality. Moreover, we conduct a framing analysis of the collected Danish and Swedish policy documents, in which we examine what Entman (1993) proposes as the four key locations of a communication process: the communicator, the text, the receiver and the culture. Through these four locations, we examine how frames are “communicated, reflected, reinforced or challenged” in relation to issues about migration and asylum in Denmark and Sweden (Garvin & Eyles 2001, p. 1177). In the second part of the analysis, we combine the key findings from the first part of the analysis to understand the differences and similarities of the framing of the refugee crisis in the context of border regulations in Denmark and Sweden at two different points in time. This part of the analysis is structured in accordance with Entman’s (1993) four framing functions: the defined problems, the defined causes, moral judgement and suggested solutions.

4.3.1 Analysing newspaper articles To uncover the first research question, we coded all the news articles with the coding table described below (see Appendix 1) and conducted a quantitative content analysis in which we looked for main patterns and characteristics in the articles.

Coding newspaper articles We created a coding table (see Appendix 1) that coded for a number of parameters within the news articles, which were selected with the intention of answering our research questions in the best possible way. We employed an inductive approach to identify specific frames within the texts by identifying a number of different parameters that together create a frame (Hjarvard 2015, p. 111). In the coding table, we coded for sources (first actor, second actor), inclusion of citizen and migrant/refugee voices, labels in both Danish and Swedish, themes in coverage, moral and value judgements and metaphors. We coded for the first and second actors to gain insight into the individuals who are given a voice in the articles. In addition, we marked when voices of citizens and newcomers were represented or cited to locate when and if the voices of

20 these actors were included. To get an overview of how newcomers and their positions are represented, we coded the different labels utilized in the newspapers. To determine dominant and recurring topics in the news articles, we included a category covering themes apparent in each text. To determine the moral value/judgement of the articles, we judged whether the articles had a generally positive, negative or neutral tone. Whether an article was coded as being either negative, positive or neutral depended on the use of language, use of sources and whether it expressed explicit opinions towards or against the situation. Overall, we strove to uncover as many qualitative characteristics within the news sample as possible and to limit subjective assessments in our content analysis through these coding categories and variables. (See related coding categories, variables and descriptions in Appendix 1).

Content analysis Based on the coding table, we conducted a univariate descriptive content analysis of the collected news articles (Blaikie 2009, p. 209). We focused on the single variables that are coded for in the newspaper articles to report the distribution and to produce a summary of characteristics within the sample (ibid., p. 209). According to Entman (1993), a content analysis should identify and describe frames to determine textual meaning and to “avoid treating all negative or positive terms or utterances as equally salient and influential” (Entman 1993, p. 57). The descriptive content analysis provides an overview of recurring themes and terms in the news sample, which helps us understand the salience of different elements in the texts (ibid. p. 57).

4.3.2 Analysing policy documents To answer the second research question, we conducted a framing analysis of the policy documents, structured according to Entman’s four proposed locations: communicator, text, receiver and culture (Entman 1993, p. 53). According to Entman (1993), these four locations can be used to identify, evaluate and recommend action on issues within the Swedish and Danish policy documents (ibid., p. 53). This analytical approach is employed to understand the similarities and differences in the way the Danish and Swedish governments frame and strategically communicate asylum and migration policies. Policy documents are a form of strategic communication, which can be described as purposeful communication activities that aim to advance a mission and achieve strategic goals (Hallahan et. al. 2007, p. 27). We engaged with

21 these texts to understand the explicit intentions and methods that the Danish and Swedish governments utilize to rationalize and legitimize their politics to the broader public.

We identified each framing location within each document to understand how the Danish and the Swedish governments communicate questions and concerns regarding asylum and migration. Moreover, we looked for the addressed problems and solutions. Entman (1993) explains that the way problems and solutions are framed plays an important role in the extension of political power (Entman 1993, p. 55). We provide an overview of the four framing locations in the Danish and Swedish policy documents that include recurring themes, characteristics and tendencies in each country. These findings are used in combination with the findings of the content analysis as a starting point for the qualitative framing analysis.

4.3.3 Qualitative framing analysis The second part of our analysis is a holistic qualitative framing analysis based on the key findings in the first part, which aims to answer the third research question. Moreover, we aim to understand the differences and similarities in the framing of the refugee crisis by focusing on the Swedish implementation of border controls in November 2015, the removal of the external border controls in 2017, and Danish and Swedish migration policies. The framing analysis is structured according to Entman’s (1993) four framing functions: problems, causes, moral judgements and remedies. The concept of framing helps us uncover the details of how the different texts exert power (Entman 1993, p. 56).

4.4 Internal validity and ethical considerations In all research projects, there are ethical considerations. As we mix quantitative and qualitative methods to approach our research questions, there are certain criteria for assuring quality in our research. Internal validity and objectivity were important considerations in the process of coding news articles and in the quantitative content analysis. To ensure internal validity and reliability when coding news articles, we picked a sample from the collected news articles and we both coded the same sample. Afterwards, we compared our selections in the coding scheme. The most challenging category was “moral value/judgement”, which assesses the general tone of the article. It was without doubt difficult to code. Although, we discussed and agreed on guidelines for each category, we experienced that the coding was highly subjective depending on our 22 personal views, predefined knowledge and culture. E.g. if an article represents newcomers as people who should be well received and welcomed, we marked the article as positive. If an article represents the arrival of newcomers as e.g. a threat towards society, creating a societal collapse or mainly places emphasis on limiting the entries of newcomers, we marked the article as negative. Moreover, we marked articles negative, if the included sources mainly expressed negative opinions about the arrival of people. If journalists and other sources represented the situation without expressing any particular positive or negative perspective, we marked the article as neutral. We are aware that this evaluation is influenced by our own political position and our individual perspectives on the topic. Hence, we are not able to provide a completely objective assessment as there is no such thing.

When doing qualitative research, it is important to establish trustworthiness by ensuring the credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability to ensure the quality of the research (Collins 2010, p. 168). Important reflections throughout this research project are how we select quotes and examples from the data to illustrate how the refugee crisis was framed in Danish and Swedish news media and policy documents. Our specific selection of quotes and examples influences how we as researchers frame media’s and governments’ framing of the situation. Our aim has been to select examples that illustrate different perspectives to provide a nuanced and balanced view on the news coverage and the policy documents for the chosen periods. Furthermore, the initial overview of general tendencies found in the content analysis guided our selection of main topics that we analyse in the qualitative analysis.

As researchers, we are aware of our responsibility in terms of how we engage with this specific moment in time and vulnerable groups of people. We have a responsibility of not reproducing existing frames and discourse when analysing how news media or governments frame the crisis or asylum seekers and refugees. In this study, we aim to understand how media and governments represent this period and these specific people. Therefore, we present how these institutions frame the topic. According to Barker (2008), when engaging in discourse research, there is an issue of trustworthiness in terms of how researchers read, interpret and represent texts. Thus, it is important that methods employed are explained to strengthen the reliability and validity of study results (Barker 2008, pp. 162-163). By thoroughly describing our methodological procedure, we explain our choices and the claims that we have established.

5. Understanding Danish and Swedish migration policies To understand how Danish and Swedish news media and governments represent the refugee crisis, it is relevant to look at the development of Danish and Swedish asylum and migration policies. In the following section, we briefly describe the migration policies in the two countries.

5.1 Swedish policies: From an exceptionalist model to a civic turn Several scholars have identified a shift in Swedish political rhetoric and policies about asylum, immigration and integration (see Shierup & Ålund 2011; Borevi 2014; Shierup et. al. 2014; Dahlgren 2016, p. 386; Bech et. al 2017). Most recent changes emerged in 2015, when the Swedish government implemented temporary border controls for all public transportation arriving in Sweden and temporarily aligned Swedish asylum policies with the minimum levels of EU laws. The purpose of these policy regulation was to lower the influx, thereby easing the burden on reception services and organizing the reception of newcomers by registering asylum seekers (Fratzke 2017, p. 1). These changes have been a turning point in Swedish politics and a step towards anti-immigration policies that Sweden have long been avoiding (Dahlgren 2016, pp. 385-386).

Some scholars have identified and reproduced a discourse about Sweden’s previous immigration policies as being fair and generous. Overall, they describe the Swedish welfare system as an exceptional model compared to other European immigration policies (Shierup & Ålund 2011; Shierup et. al. 2014; Borevi 2014; Dahlgren 2016, p. 386). The Swedish model of exceptionalism emphasizes the protection and equality of all Swedish citizens and new immigrants arriving in Sweden. Hence, everyone has access to fundamental rights – a persistent objective in the Swedish welfare society. Moreover, equal rights may be essential to enable newcomers to feel and consider themselves as equal and legitimate citizens (Borevi 2014, p. 717).

However, by looking at recent Swedish integration policies, scholars have found that the model of exceptionalism is challenged by a civic turn (Shierup & Ålund 2011; Borevi 2014; Bech et. al. 2017). The focus in the new policies has moved from the access to rights to an approach that

24 makes rights a reward that people will receive after fulfilling certain goals and obligations. Consequently, newcomers must earn their rights (Borevi 2014, p. 717). The notion of civic integration is a political tendency, which is also seen in Danish policies (Bech et. al. 2017). Shierup and Ålund (2011) argue that recent Swedish policies follow the trends of other EU member states, which breaks with Sweden’s former tradition of migration and citizenship policies (p. 47). Through an examination of the development of Swedish migration and integration policies since the 1970s, Shierup and Ålund (2011) explain how Swedish exceptionalism is being dissolved by the impact of the neoliberal ideology. According to Dahlgren (2016), the most recent shifts in Swedish asylum and migration policies have disturbed Swedish self-perception. This shift in policies demonstrates that the handling of new arrivals and the economic situation in Sweden is prioritized over moral values (Dahlgren 2016, p. 386). Bech et. al. (2017) argue that Swedish migration policies still reflect humanitarian principles and a fundamental belief that newcomers are able and willing to contribute to Swedish society. Although Swedish asylum, migration and integration policies are becoming stricter and increasingly influenced by the pressure of neoliberalism and policies in other EU member states (p. 20).

5.2 Danish policies: Civic selection and striving for Danish cohesion Danish policies are claimed to emphasize welfare over humanitarianism. Bech et. al. (2017, pp. 9-10) argue that Danish policies explicitly argue for and justify the goal of reducing the numbers of asylum seekers, making Denmark less attractive to newcomers and ultimately protecting the Danish welfare regime. In general, a radical contrast has been identified between the policies and the political debate about immigration in Denmark and Sweden (see Borevi 2014; Hellström & Hervik 2014; Bech et. al. 2017). The two countries represent two different approaches to immigration, the inclusion of newcomers, active citizenship and two different ideas of national identity (Borevi 2014, p. 712). According to Bech et. al. (2017), the civic integration in Denmark goes hand in hand with civic selection. In practice this means that only those people who fit the Danish egalitarian way of life and those who seem to have potential to be able to contribute to Danish society should be allowed in (Bech et. al. 2017, p. 20).

This is a tendency that Horsti (2008) identifies throughout Europe where different attempts at selective immigration regulation have been made to distinguish between the people who are expected to integrate into the host country and the people who are assumed not to integrate. She explains that in Denmark selective immigration includes measurements of newcomers’ ability to integrate, which for instance is done by testing people's knowledge about the Danish language and culture. She claims that such tools and developments reflect “the worries and fears that are present in contemporary European societies” (Horsti 2008, p. 43). Critical studies of Danish immigration policies have several times described the Danish approach as promoting assimilation and being anti-multicultural (Jensen 2010, p. 187; Holtug 2013 pp. 207-208; Laegaard 2013; Borevi 2014, p. 712). According to Borevi (2014), newcomers to be included in the Danish welfare system are required to adjust to Danish values and traditions. By contrast, the Swedish welfare model attempts to include more cultural diversity (Borevi 2014, p. 712). Overall, some scholars argue that Denmark is among the European countries that have implemented most civic integration policies and adopted some of the most strict, complex and demanding migration policies (Borevi 2014, p. 716; Bech et. al. 2017, p. 6).

6. Analysis In this chapter, we conduct a two-part analysis. In the first part, we make a quantitative content analysis of the news articles (6.1). Subsequently, we conduct a framing analysis of the policy documents (6.2), in which we identify the four framing locations: communicator, text, receiver and culture (Entman 1993). In the second part of the analysis, we merge the key findings from the first part into a qualitative analysis (6.3). This part of the analysis is structured according to the four framing functions: defined problems, defined causes, moral judgement and suggested solutions (Entman 1993). Lastly, we summarize the findings of the analyses (6.4).

Part 1

6.1 Content analysis of news articles The total sample includes 259 articles5. In the first period in 2015, there was a total of 204 articles, 111 (54%) from the Swedish newspapers and 93 (46%) articles from the Danish newspapers. In the second period, we collected a total of 55 articles, 35 (64%) Danish articles and 20 (36%) Swedish articles. There were significantly more articles concerning asylum and migration in the first period in November 2015 compared to the second period in May 2017. Although migration and asylum policies continued to be high on the news agenda in 2017, the frequency of the words borders, and refugees or asylum seekers appeared significantly fewer times in the search in May 2017. Figure 2 below shows the distribution among the eight different newspapers in the first and second periods. The most common type of articles in both periods in the Danish and Swedish newspaper articles are traditional news articles or reportages, which represent 59% of the Danish articles and 70% of the Swedish articles in the first period, and 60% of the Swedish sample and 49% of the Danish sample in the second period.

Figure 2: Distribution of articles in newspapers in the first and second periods.

5 All quotes from the articles are translated from Danish and Swedish to English by us. 27

6.1.1 Front-page stories In the sample of Swedish articles in the first period, the implementation of border controls reached the front-page six times, of which two times on the day of the implementation in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter. Both headlines stated that Sweden implemented temporary border controls and that it could lead to more asylum seekers (Aftonbladet 2015, p. 1; Olsson 2015a, p.1). Aftonbladet featured a photo of the Öresund bridge (Aftonbladet 2015, p. 1), while Dagens Nyheter showed a photo of Malmö Central Station with an incoming train, police and passengers (Olsson 2015a, p. 1). Furthermore, the story hit the front-page three times on November 13, 2015, in Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Sydsvenskan. The front-page of Sydsvenskan stated that “Strong reinforcement is on its way” (Sydsvenskan 2015, p. 1), while Svenska Dagbladet’s front-page story stated, “Quiet start for controls” (Svenska Dagbladet 1 2015, p. 1). Two days after the implementation of temporary border controls, Svenska Dagbladet ran another front-page story about the consequences of the temporary border control for the affected refugees and asylum seekers under the headline “Hostages of the border control” (Svenska Dagbladet 2 2015, p. 1).

In the Danish news articles, the Swedish implementation of border controls reached the front- page four times of which three times in Politiken and once in Berlingske. Three of the front-page stories in the Danish sample concerned the Swedish implementation of temporary border controls. For example, Politiken ran a front-page story on the day of the implementation with the following headline “Pressure for Danish border control” (Klarskov & Thobo-Carlsen 2015, p. 1). In this story, multiple Danish politicians stated that the Danish government should also implement border controls. For instance, the spokesperson from the Conservative People’s Party claimed that “When Sweden closes for ten days, it leaves a big flow of migrants in Denmark. Denmark is in no way geared for this. It is a little strange being taken over by our sister country, which we normally perceive as a bit feeble. This calls for an extraordinary reaction” (Klarskov & Thobo-Carlsen 2015, p. 1). Only the leader of the party the Alternative was critical towards Danish border controls, claiming that “It is understandable that Sweden does what it does. But at the same time, it is a sad result of the lacking European leadership that countries are trying to solve this crisis on their own instead of solving this together” (Klarskov & Thobo-Carlsen 2015, p. 1). Another front-page story in Politiken on November 14, 2015 under the headline “Swedish reprimand to Denmark” described the relationship between Denmark 28 and Sweden in this period (Bæksgaard et. al. 2015, p. 1). The Swedish Minister of Justice accused Denmark of being passive and not acting responsibly, “I don’t think that one can have the starting point that this is not ‘my problem’. Therefore, Denmark should also take responsibility like everyone else. I am not one bit embarrassed of the way, Sweden is handling the situation. We have taken far greater responsibility than anyone else” (Bæksgaard et. al. 2015, p. 1). Another front-page story in Berlingske on November 13, 2015 showed a picture of a police officer conducting border control in a train, checking the ID of a family with foreign ethnicity while two white women were watching (Berlingske 2015, p. 1). The last front-page story featured a photo of a handful of policemen about to enter an Öresund train to conduct border control (Thiemann & Lauritzen 2015, p. 1). An article on the same front-page describes how the European leaders were struggling to find a common solution to the refugee crisis (Thiemann & Lauritzen 2015, p. 1).

In May 2015, the Swedish government's removal of external border controls only reached the front-page one time in Dagens Nyheter on May 3, 2017. While articles from the first period in November 2015 focused on border controls as a solution to the refugee crisis, there was a shift of focus in the narratives in May 2017. In the second period, focus is directed more towards the affected commuters, which one headline clearly confirms: “Relief to bridge commuters” (Dagens Nyheter 2017, p. 1).

6.1.2 Who has a voice? In the first period in both the Swedish (36%) and Danish (32%) news samples, journalists and other media were the most common sources to be cited first. Foreign politicians (15%), the Danish prime minister (10%), Danish national politicians (9%) and academics (8%) were the next sources in the Danish sample cited first. In the Swedish news sample, the next sources cited first were government officials (13%) such as spokespersons from the Swedish Migration Agency, Swedish ministers (10%), Swedish national politicians (8%), migrants, refugees or asylum seekers (8%), and police (8%). Just 63% of the Swedish articles and 62% of the Danish articles have cited more than one source in the first period. In the Swedish sample, government officials and police were the most common second sources to be cited, each represented 17% of the times as the second source. Next were migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (13%), individual citizens (10%), national politicians (9%), foreign politicians (9%) and journalists or 29 other media (9%). In the Danish sample, journalists and other media (21%), foreign politicians (17%) and national politicians (16%) were the second sources cited most. In the first period, migrants, refugees or asylum seekers had a voice in 18% of the Swedish articles, whereas this group was only referenced and quoted in 8% of the Danish articles. Furthermore, Swedish and Danish citizens were only referenced and quoted in 14% of the Swedish articles and just 6% of the Danish articles in the first period.

Figure 3: The first and second sources given a voice in the first period. (N=204)

In the second period, citizens were quoted in 30% of the Swedish articles and in 23% of the Danish articles. Many stories in the second period cover the commuters’ relief, experiences and expectations for the removal of the external border controls. For example, in Dagens Nyheter on May 3, one commuter says, “this is like Christmas Eve, no better than Christmas. Honestly, I have considered to change jobs several times” (Nilsson & Johansson 2017). In the second period, migrants, refugees or asylum seekers were not represented in the Swedish newspaper articles, and they were only referenced and quoted once in the Danish sample. In the Swedish sample, national politicians (20%) and journalists and other media (20%) were the most common sources to be quoted first in the second period, and government officials and ministers were quoted first in 10% of the articles. 75% of the Swedish articles and 76% of the Danish articles included more than one source in the second period. The most common second sources quoted

30 in the Swedish news articles were Swedish ministers (20%), national politicians (20%) and journalists and other media (20%). In Denmark, journalists and other media (26%), national politicians (16%), foreign politicians (11%), citizens (11%), the EU Commission (11%), and businesses (11%) were the most frequent second sources to be cited in the second period.

Figure 4: The first and second sources given a voice in the second period. (N=55)

6.1.3 Description of people In the first period, the most frequently used term to describe the people arriving in Sweden and Denmark is flygtning/flykting [refugee]. This label appears in 86% of the Danish articles and 73% of the Swedish articles. Besides refugee, människor [people] (64%) and asylsökande [asylum seekers] (63%) are the most frequently used labels in the Swedish sample in the first period. In the Danish newspapers, besides refugee, these terms are used significantly less frequent. What is noticeable is that the Swedish news and actors in the newspapers hardly use other terms to describe newcomers. On the contrary, the Danish sample includes the term migrant [migrant] more frequently, and it often appears together with the label, refugee, such as “refugees and migrants”. The term migrant is used in 36 of the 93 Danish articles compared to just 4 of the 111 Swedish articles in the first period. Furthermore, labels such as nyankomne [newly arrived], illegal [illegal] indvandrere [immigrants], and udlændinge [foreigners] are used to describe newcomers in the Danish sample, however, among these labels only nyanlanda [newly arrived] is included in the Swedish sample in the first period. Dahlgren (2016) notes that the word immigrant or invandrare in Swedish by definition covers people from approximately 180 countries, however, in many contexts the

31 word signifies people coming from the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia and Latin America (Dahlgren 2016, p. 388). The word indvandrer [immigrant] in Danish is also used about people coming from these regions. Further, Dahlgren (2016) argues that the use of the word immigrant implies social problems and cultural differences, just as it would be inappropriate to describe people from other Scandinavian countries, West Europe or North America, who come to Sweden as immigrants (ibid. p. 388). Flyktingström/flygtningestrøm [refugee flow] is another term frequently used in both the Danish and Swedish newspapers to describe the many people seeking refuge in Europe.

Figure 5: Overview of the number of Danish and Swedish news articles that include specific labels in the text to describe people coming to Denmark and Sweden in the first period. (N=204)

In the second period, the labels used to describe people arriving in Denmark are almost the same as in the first period. The most frequently used term is refugee, which is used in 74% of the Danish articles. Furthermore, terms such as asylum seeker (43%), migrant (34%) and people (34%) are also frequently used in the sample. However, a term such as indvandrer [immigrant] is used much more frequently in the second period (23%) compared to the first period (7%) in the Danish sample.

Figure 6: Overview of the number of Danish and Swedish articles that include specific labels in the text to describe people coming to Denmark and Sweden in the second period. (N=55)

There is a significant shift in the second period in the labels used to describe people coming to Sweden. In both periods, people and asylum seekers are the most frequently used terms. However, refugee is used in just 15% of the articles in the second period compared to the first period, where this term was used in 75% of the Swedish articles. The term refugee flow is used in 20% of the articles, which is just a small decrease from the first period, where it was used in 24% of the articles to describe the phenomenon of the many people fleeing to Europe. Furthermore, terms such as migrant, nyanlände [newly arrived], papirløs [paperless], and utländinge [foreigners] are used to describe people who arrive in Sweden in the second period.

6.1.4 Themes In the first period, the most common theme coded in both the Danish (75%) and Swedish (79%) samples are “borders”, which is not surprising as border was a keyword in the search strings to collect the data. Whenever an article included the topic of borders such as the implementation of border controls, reports from borders or discussions about border politics in the EU, we coded for this theme. The next most common theme in both samples is “political response”, which we have coded for when politicians are included as sources in articles and discuss

33 proposed solutions and actions in relation to the crisis. In 49 of the Danish articles, both “borders” and “political response” are present as themes. Danish politicians tend to focus on Danish borders, protection, security and nationalism (Kildegaard & Domino 2015, p. 4; Larsen 2015a, p. 6; Larsen 2015b, p. 8). This is apparent in the number of times that the theme of “economy”, “fear of terror” and “immigration levels” (Boreberg 2015, p. 5; Nørgaard 2015, pp. 8-9) are coded for. The theme “economy” is coded for in articles about e.g. the welfare state, economic resources, capacity and overall economic challenges of receiving asylum seekers. Moreover, this theme includes articles that associate the reception of newcomers with threats against the host country. The theme “fear of terror” has been marked when either journalists or sources establish and contribute to discourse about fear of terror. This includes articles in which asylum seekers and refugees are connected to this fear and terror. We have coded for the theme “immigration levels” when articles have included statistics and in general referred to the entry levels of newcomers.

Figure 7: Themes that are included in the articles and how many times they appear in the sample in the first period. (N=204)

In the Swedish sample, other common themes in the first period were “political responses”, “immigration levels”, “crisis”, “humanitarianism”, “Danish/Swedish relations”, “moral responsibility” and “fear of terror” (Lönnaeus & El-Alawi 2015, p. 10). The theme “crisis”

34 includes articles that express a sense of crisis and societal collapse because of the situation. The theme “humanitarianism” includes articles that refer to the work of NGOs or other forms of organized aid and volunteers that help newcomers. The “Danish/Swedish relations” theme refers to articles about the political relations between Denmark and Sweden and articles that comment on the situation and political solutions in the other country. When either journalists or included sources refer to morality, ethics or justice in terms of handling the crisis and accepting newcomers, we coded the theme “moral responsibility”.

Most of the Swedish articles concern the temporary border controls and different aspects such as the Swedish Migration Agency running out of accommodation capacity (Treijs 2015a, p. 12; Mellgren 2015, p. 16), the effects of border controls (Nordh & Kudo 2015, 15; Nyman 2015, p. 9), reports from borders and talking to people affected by the new laws (Fröberg & Hoelstad 2015, pp. 8-9). The Swedish Migration Agency has requested the Swedish government to implement temporary border controls after evaluating that these are necessary to maintain order and control of the registration of asylum seekers (Eriksson et. al. 2015 p. 8; Olsson 2015b, pp. 8-9). Additionally, the Swedish news media express a shared interest with Swedish politicians in common solutions within the EU. The lack of cooperation in the EU is used as an argument for why Sweden needs to implement temporary border control (Kärrman et. al. 2015, pp. 8-9; Mellin 2015, p. 20). These views are argued for and brought forward by politicians in opinions, editorials, political comments and analyses. Furthermore, in 57 articles in the first period, the number of newly arrived people in Sweden and Denmark is used as an argument for border controls and to emphasize the crisis.

In the Danish sample, there seems to be a tendency to neglect the European cooperation among EU member states and instead focus on how Danish politicians want to keep asylum seekers away. Therefore, restrictive policies, including border controls, are proposed as political solutions (Engell 2015, p. 17; Larsen 2015a, p. 6; Larsen 2015b, p. 8). However, proposals of new laws concern practicalities rather than humanitarian ideals. Moreover, newcomers are often framed to be a burden on the Danish society (Larsen 2015a, p. 6), and only a few articles express a sense of positivity about welcoming and helping people (Dahlin 2015a, p. 6; Dahlin 2015b, pp. 4-5; Nielsen 2015, p. 4).

In both the Danish and Swedish sample, a lot of attention is placed on the terror attack in Paris in November 2015, which changes and directs the focus in both news and politics. Several newspapers ran stories about the terror attacks (Geist 2015, p. 6; Hansson 2015a, p. 18; Rydén 2015, p. 10; Seidelin 2015, p. 2). Some articles in Ekstra Bladet established ideas that there might be terrorists among the refugees arriving in the EU and consequently treated refugees as suspects (Mathiessen 2015, p. 6; Nørgaard 2015, pp. 8-9; Larsen & Miles 2015, p. 10). In general, Swedish news media relate critically to such ideas and question. For instance, articles in Aftonbladet question whether EU leaders use the events in Paris as an excuse to make stricter rules and close borders (Hansson 2015a, p. 18; Pettersson 2015, p. 2). The Danish sample includes articles that use the Paris attacks and the fear of terror to “grow” hostility towards Muslims to argue for the implementation of Danish border controls (Nørgaard 2015, pp. 8-9).

In the second period, “borders” and “political responses” are the two most frequently appearing themes in the Danish and Swedish samples. The Swedish government decides to remove external border controls and strengthen the internal border control in Sweden (Lönegård & Rogberg 2017, p. 7). Themes such as “economy” (25%), “Danish and Swedish relations” (20%), “fear of terror” (20%) and “citizens’ experiences” (15%) are frequent in the second period in the Swedish sample. The theme “citizens’ experiences” includes articles about how citizens have experienced various situations and how it has affected them. The Danish sample covers the Swedish removal of external border controls, and many of the stories comment on Danish migration policies and political solutions (Thobo-Carlsen 2017, p. 11).

Figure 8: Themes that are included in the articles and how many times they appear in the sample in the second period. (N=55)

On the International Worker’s Day, May 1, 2017, a Danish Social Democrat proposed that Denmark should be inspired by the Australian asylum-model to solve the migration issues in Denmark (Østergaards 2017a, pp. 4-5). This comment was widely discussed in Danish newspapers, where themes such as “immigration levels”, “humanitarianism” or lack thereof, “economy” and welfare, and “moral responsibility” are included in the discussion (Boel 2017, p. 6; Dahlin 2017, p. 6; Kestler 2017, p. 4; Østergaards 2017b, pp. 4-5).

6.2 Political strategies and national perspectives: a framing analysis of Danish and Swedish policy documents In this section, we conduct a framing analysis of Danish and Swedish asylum and migration policy documents. The structure of the analysis is the four locations of a frame: communicator, receiver, text and culture (Entman 1993).

6.2.1 The communicator The Danish policy documents are published by the Danish government and include both proposed and adopted policies on asylum, migration and integration (Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d.; Ministry of Finance n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015). The Swedish policy documents are published by the Swedish government and agencies such as the Swedish Migration Agency and State Public Reports6. These documents include press releases and reports about the Swedish asylum procedure, regulations of asylum and migration rules and the reception of newcomers during the autumn of 2015 onwards (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Government Offices of Sweden 2016; Ministry of Justice 2017; Parusel 2016; State Public Reports 2017). Overall, the Danish and Swedish governments and government agencies are the main communicators.

Encouraging solidarity within the EU The most dominant frames established in the Swedish sample concern the Swedish government, its responsibilities and handling of encountered challenges during the refugee crisis. The Swedish government expresses its view on sustainable cooperation on international levels and frames Sweden as a country that has consistently prioritized the protection of the right to asylum. By contrast, other EU member states are represented as unable to handle the large number of asylum seekers and lacking commitment to find a common solution within the EU and distribute newcomers more evenly between the member states, which is argued to increase the pressure on Swedish society (Parusel 2016, pp. 11-12; Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2). The Swedish government’s view on the importance of solid EU cooperation is seen from the following quote:

“Enhanced and constructive cooperation both in the EU and globally is a cornerstone of a long-term, sustainable migration policy. More countries must be encouraged to take responsibility for better sustainable solutions to managing the migration and refugee situation.” (Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2).

6 The document Att ta emot människor på flykt. Sverige hösten 2015. Betänkande av Utredningen om migrationsmottagandet 2015 (State Public Reports 2017) is primarily written in Swedish and includes a summary in English. From this document, we analyzed the chapters Sammanfattning/Summary, 7 Särskilda händelser and 10 Slutord. 38

This statement illustrates how the Swedish government frames its own actions as responsible while giving other member states a reprimand about productive collaboration and proper management of the shared issue in the EU. EU member states are encouraged to actively protect the right to asylum and strive for an even distribution of asylum seekers in the different countries. This appeal is also stated with the purpose of maintaining and strengthening the solidarity in the EU (Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2).

Stricter requirements for newcomers to be part of Danish society The Danish government frames its perspective on the refugee crisis and newcomers’ potential impact on Danish society, cohesion and values (Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d.; Ministry of Finance n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015). The main emphasis is placed on how the Danish government will gain control of the increased flow of refugees and migrants and maintain this control in similar situations in the future. Proposed law regulations concern the issue of keeping the influx of newcomers on manageable levels, restricting the conditions for asylum and the access to Denmark, maintaining safety and cohesion in Denmark and new requirements for integration (Ministry of Finance n.d.; The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016).

Denmark is framed as an attractive country for asylum seekers and migrants who can benefit from financial support. Therefore, the Danish government will make Denmark less attractive (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 17). For instance, the qualification criteria for financial support are tightened to encourage newcomers to support themselves after their arrival (The Government of Denmark n.d; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016). Overall, becoming and being Danish is expressed as a unique position subject to certain requirements:

“It is something completely special to be able to call oneself a Danish citizen and therefore one has to be able to speak Danish, support oneself financially and stay out of crime.” (Ministry of Finance n.d.).7

As this quote emphasizes, Denmark is described as a country for those who have the ability and willingness to integrate. Newcomers are required to learn about and adjust to Danish culture, social norms, respect Danish values and contribute to the the Danish society and labour market (The Government of Denmark n.d; Ministry of Finance n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016). The Danish government identifies the need for “higher demands for refugees’ and migrants’ ability and willingness to integrate into the Danish society” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 12) and further states that “Denmark will be open for those who can and want to, but the doors will be closed for those who do not want to.” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 12).

Meeting international requirements and improving the reception of newcomers The Swedish government emphasizes the importance of international commitments on human rights, the rights of children and due process (State Public Reports 2017, pp. 25-26). Thus, the Swedish asylum procedures must be observed (State Public Reports 2017, p. 33). The report, Att ta emot människor på flykt. Sverige hösten 2015. Betänkande av Utredningen om migrationsmottagandet 2015. [To welcome people seeking refuge. Sweden autumn 2015. Report of Study on the Migration Reception 2015] (State Public Reports 2017), is an overall assessment of how the Swedish state and authorities handled challenges in autumn 2015. It is emphasized that no governmental agencies were prepared for the large numbers of asylum seekers (State Public Reports 2017, p. 28). Various areas and skills are critically evaluated as inefficient for the Swedish state to entirely fulfill international requirements. Nonetheless, the unforeseeable situation is evaluated as an opportunity for learning and improvement in case of similar future situations (State Public Reports 2017 pp. 33-35).

7 The quotes from the Danish policy documents are translated from Danish to English by us, except for quotes from the source, English information about changes to regulations applied in the area of asylum (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015). 40

6.2.2 The receiver The policy document sample from the two neighbouring countries indicates that the Swedish government informs more about policy changes, including asylum and migration accessible to the international public, by translating it into English. Most of the Swedish policy documents in our sample are published in English, except for one. By contrast, the Danish government has published few policy documents in English, or at least it was difficult to find translated versions of the Danish policy documents. During the data collection, we searched for English versions of Danish policy publications and found only one relevant source. Consequently, the Danish policy documents included in the sample mainly address the Danish public.

Some of the Swedish policy documents explicitly describe the intended receiver. E.g. EMN Policy Report 2015 - Sweden (Parusel 2016) addresses authorities within and outside of the EU and some parts of the report are described as specifically relevant for national audiences, policymakers and researchers (Parusel 2016, p. 9). In the press release, Sweden’s Migration and Asylum Policy (2017), the Swedish government addresses fellow EU member states, urging them to take responsibility in relation to the global refugee challenges (Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2).

Creating a discourse about “us” Danes In some of the Danish policy documents, the receiver is included in a discourse, as the Danish government writes “us” and “we” Danes (The Government of Denmark 2016; The Government of Denmark n.d). In the documents, Et stærkere Danmark – styr på flygtningestrømmen [A stronger Denmark – controlling the flow of refugees] (The Government of Denmark 2016) and Udlændinge og integration [Foreigners and integration] (The Government of Denmark n.d.), the word “we” is repeatedly used to establish a group of “we” that consists of the Danish government and another “we” that refers to the Danish society and citizens. By referring to “we” and “us”, the Danish government shows an interest in establishing a relation with the Danish citizens by implying that “we”, the Danes, are a unity. The following quote illustrates this well:

“We Danes are open people who wants to help those in need. It is a tradition that we should be proud of. At the same time, we must be realists. The world’s problems with wars, conflicts and poverty are not solved simply by welcoming all foreigners.” (The Government of Denmark n.d). 41

In this paragraph, the word “we” is used to characterize how “we Danes” are as a people and to give the Danish reader a feeling of national identity and pride. At the same time, the openness and helpfulness associated with “We Danes” contrast the fact that “we” cannot help all foreigners in need.

The discourse about “we”/“us” reflects a bond based on nationality and the general characteristics of Danes. Moreover, it addresses issues in which “we Danes” implicitly are assumed to agree with the perceptions and goals formulated by the government. Creating a discourse about “us” allows for the government to form a narrative centered around Danes and Denmark. When addressing the Danish people and showing reflection and concern about Danish society, the government simultaneously includes Danish core values.

6.2.3 The texts Each of the Swedish policy documents employs a formal tone and language to outline asylum and migration issues, the reception of asylum seekers and regulations of policies. Most of the Swedish documents strictly relate to the development of asylum and migration policies and provide neutral descriptions of e.g. changes in the Swedish asylum procedure (Government Offices of Sweden 2016; Parusel 2016; State Public Reports 2017). In general, the Swedish documents provide concise descriptions and formulations (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Government Offices of Sweden 2016; Parusel 2016; Ministry of Justice 2017; State Public Reports 2017). Some documents utilize examples and statistics as the basis for assessments, descriptions of events or arguments for policy regulation (Parusel 2016; State Public Reports 2017). This adds an element of credibility and validity to the Swedish policy documents.

The Swedish policy documents include examples of different aspects that affected the reception of newcomers in Sweden. These examples contribute to a nuanced understanding of the challenges encountered in Sweden, the work of government agencies and the arrival of newcomers. For instance, some documents consider the conditions of newcomers arriving in Sweden, the efforts of the civil society and NGOs (Parusel 2016, p. 12; State Public Reports 2017, p. 31). It is furthermore emphasized that the overall perception and understanding of the

42 autumn of 2015 in Sweden is multifaceted as the encountered challenges evolved with different speed and intensity in different parts of the country (State Public Reports 2017, p. 27).

Although most of the Swedish policy documents tend to use neutral and subtle descriptions, the press release, Internal border controls in Sweden (Government Offices of Sweden 2015) expresses an urgency about the need for political changes in Sweden regarding the reception of asylum seekers. The high influx is expressed to be a burden that has overwhelmed and put the Swedish reception system under a strain. E.g. it is stated that the “public order and domestic security are under threat”, that “More refugees are now trying to reach Sweden than ever before” and that the large numbers of new arrivals have caused “acute challenges to vital functions in society” (Government Offices of Sweden 2015). With such descriptions, the Swedish government argues for the necessity of implementing temporary internal border controls and external border controls to “uphold law and order” (Government Offices of Sweden 2015). By explaining that the national security and societal structures are challenged, the government frames the situation in Sweden as a state of emergency that must be tackled by tightening existing policies. Moreover, a sense of togetherness is established about Swedish society by using the phrase “our security” to convey how safety in Sweden has been threatened (State Public Reports 2017, p. 29).

Framing influx of newcomers as an intrusion In the Danish policy documents, a dramatic tone, phrases and metaphors are commonly used. Metaphors include e.g. “Parallel societies”, “migration flow” (The Government of Denmark n.d.), “flow of refugees” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 3) and “emergency break” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 6). The emotionally charged wording and metaphorical expressions are utilized as tools to build a tension and create vivid descriptions of moments in Europe and specifically in Denmark. The following quote exemplifies how the Danish government writes about the refugee crisis in a sensational narrative:

“Last autumn, a hole was knocked through Europe. People flowed over the outer borders and continued northwards. Europe was paralyzed. There was a a need for a national answer. We took responsibility. We carried out notable tightening in respect of asylum. In January, we implemented border controls.” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 3).

Here, the use of short sentences and metaphors contribute to a strong and powerful depiction of the state of Europe in autumn 2015, how the high influx of newcomers created a situation of pressure and how the Danish government handled this situation (The Government of Denmark 2016, pp. 3-4). This portrayal of the crisis is reproduced in varying forms throughout the sample of Danish policy documents, and it is used to justify political solutions. In general, the high numbers of newly arrived people are communicated to be a burden and threat to Danish society, Danish cohesion, and security. This apprehension is expressed with statements such as:

“We should not take in so many refugees that it threatens the cohesion of our country. The number of refugees has an impact on the ability to ensure successful integration. And it has an impact on our ability to ensure that society remains good and secure.” (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015).

Moreover, in recent years people seeking asylum in Denmark are described as “…a precipitous development” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 3), “When it was worst last autumn, 1,200 arrived per week.” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 3) and “It is a situation that we do not want to experience again” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 6). Overall, the proposed migration and asylum policies are based on the Danish government’s representation of the crisis.

Labels referring to newcomers In the Danish policy documents, newcomers are often referred to according to their political status such as refugee or asylum seeker, which are terms used in all the Danish documents. Migrants and foreigners are also used commonly (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016; The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Finance n.d.). The words person and human are used a few times (The Government of Denmark 2016; Ministry of Finance n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d) and so are the terms refugee flow (The Government of Denmark 2016) and migration flow (The Government of Denmark n.d.). Occasionally, the choice of words to describe newcomers in the Danish policy documents shows a lack of acknowledgement of these people, their conditions and experiences. In general, there is a tendency to narrow the focus to challenges in Denmark. Consequently, the focal point is removed from the people in need and the right to asylum, to safety and cohesion in Denmark.

In the Swedish policy documents, newcomers are mainly referred to as refugees or asylum seekers according to their political status, which in general is carefully considered (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Government Offices of Sweden 2016; Parusel 2016; Ministry of Justice 2017; State Public Reports 2017). This consideration is expressed in sentences like “Asylum seekers who are deemed refugees…” (Government Offices of Sweden 2015). Moreover, the word person is frequently used in descriptions such as “The number of persons that were granted residence permits …” (Parusel 2016, p. 21.). The word people are also frequently used in descriptions such as “people are forced to flee” (Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2) or “people seeking protection” (Parusel 2016, p. 4). The words person and people in the Swedish policy documents emphasize the perception of newcomers as human beings since references to these people are not limited to their political status.

6.2.4 The culture The Danish government takes on an authoritative role as an institution that is representative of the Danish citizens. With its position, the government initially has great credibility and power when sending messages to the public. Nonetheless, the use of an emotionally charged language and tone that in some documents create vivid, metaphoric descriptions of the arrival of newcomers comes across as intense considering that these documents are official governmental publications that are expected to be rather formal.

Efficient solutions to protect Danish society As regards the Danish policy sample, it is explained that the Danish government is acting with the best intentions on behalf of Danish society and newcomers. Political initiatives are presented as optimal solutions to the identified and defined problems (The Government of Denmark 2016; Ministry of Finance n.d.). Sometimes these solutions are communicated by bringing forward Danish asylum and migration policies as “consequent and realistic” (Ministry of Finance n.d.). Overall, a sense of satisfaction and pride is expressed by the Danish government over its accomplishments of strict immigration policies which are highlighted as effective to reach the goal of lowering the number of newcomers. For instance, it is emphasized that Denmark accepted a low number of asylum seekers in 2015 while neighbouring countries received higher numbers. The contrast between the reception of asylum seekers in Denmark and other countries is presented as a positive achievement (Ministry of Finance n.d.). This demonstrates a tendency 45 in the Danish sample to focus on the Danish society and disregard solidarity and support of other European countries.

Responsible actions The Danish government clearly expresses an intention of acting responsibly to solve the crisis. Nonetheless, it is repeatedly stated that the reception of too many asylum seekers will jeopardize safety and order in Denmark (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016; Ministry of Finance n.d.; The Government of Denmark n.d.). For instance, the Danish government communicates the following:

“We assume our responsibility in this situation. But we should not take in so many refugees that it threatens the cohesion of our country.” (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015, p. 1).

Here, the responsible action is stated as accepting asylum seekers. Nevertheless, this awareness collides with the Danish government’s apprehension and unwillingness to accept large numbers of newcomers and the proposed restrictions on access to Denmark.

Overall, the use of an emotionally charged language/tone and the persistent emphasis on Danish cohesion, security, values, safety and wealth indicates that the Danish government prioritizes to address the protection of Denmark as a nation over helping people seeking refuge or cooperating with other EU member states on the challenges relating to asylum seekers.

By contrast, the Swedish government addresses its own role in the global refugee challenges by representing the Swedish state as a responsible and important actor in Europe in terms of encouraging and voicing the need for sustainable migration policies that ensure the right to asylum and protect vulnerable groups (Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 1). It is in fact stated that Sweden took more responsibility than any other country (State Public Reports 2017, p. 302). Overall, such statements establish a sense of pride in asserting that the Swedish government acted with responsibility and willingness to go further than other EU member states to help people in need. At the same time, other EU member states are criticized for neither taking enough responsibility nor acting with solidarity towards fellow member states (Parusel 2016;

Ministry of Justice 2017). Despite this tendency to identify a lack of readiness to cooperate and unsustainable solutions within other countries, the Swedish government also follows other EU member states and takes similar steps, e.g. implementing border controls and regulating policies to decrease the number of asylum seekers. It is described that these steps were met with different perceptions. For instance, some criticized the implementation of border controls, while others claimed that these solutions were not efficient enough to reduce the number of newcomers (Parusel 2016, p. 13).

6.2.5 Summary of the policy document analysis In the framework of Entman’s (1993) four framing locations, the communicators of the Danish and Swedish policies are the Danish and Swedish governments and government agencies. The governments as communicators frame the refugee crisis and issues related to asylum and migration for the public with credibility and power.

The Danish government addresses the Danish public and individuals as the receiver. This is mainly expressed through the government’s construction of a narrative that is centered around Danes and Denmark, which communicates a feeling of unity and bond based on national identity. The Danes are repeatedly included in this narrative with a repeated discourse about “we Danes”. In the Swedish documents, the receivers are national and international audiences, as most of these documents are published in English, which makes them accessible to a larger audience. Additionally, some of the Swedish documents are highlighted as being relevant for authorities within and outside of the EU.

The Danish government’s framing of the crisis tends to include an emotional language. Metaphors are commonly used throughout the policy documents to strengthen arguments and descriptions, which contributes to an emotionally charged depiction of the situation. By contrast, the Swedish policy documents are mostly formal in tone and language and relate strictly to the development of asylum and migration policies through neutral descriptions.

The choice of framing in the Danish policy documents displays a policymaking culture that concentrates on Denmark’s wealth, security and cohesion. The Danish government predominantly shows consideration and empathy for matters that take place within the borders 47 of Denmark. Thus, the Danish policy documents indicate that the security and cohesion of Danish society take priority over accepting people seeking refuge or cooperating with other EU member states to find a common solution to the crisis. Overall, the Danish government has chosen to narrow the political focus to strategies and goals that benefit Denmark.

The Swedish policy documents demonstrate a culture that emphasizes the important role of the Swedish state as a strong advocate for making considerable efforts to protect the right to asylum. Moreover, the Swedish government represents itself as one of the few EU member states that takes a great deal of responsibility for receiving newcomers in Europe (Parusel 2016; Ministry of Justice 2017; State Public Reports 2017). Simultaneously, the Swedish policy documents also identify areas that need to be improved to fulfill international requirements and to be prepared in case of similar situations of pressure in the future (State Public Reports 2017).

Overall, the main problems brought forward in the sample of Swedish documents concern the high influx of asylum seekers in Sweden, a lack of responsibility and unsustainable solutions in other EU member states during a time of challenges and pressure in Europe, which increased the tension and burden placed on Swedish society. The primary problems identified by the Danish government also concern the high number of newcomers, which allegedly jeopardizes the safety in Denmark and influences Danish cohesion and values.

Solutions proposed and implemented by the Swedish government involve several restrictive policy changes that aim to reduce the number of new arrivals and register refugees entering Sweden. Moreover, the need for better collaboration in the EU is emphasized as a necessity to protect the right to asylum together and share the challenges of receiving large numbers of newcomers (Ministry of Justice 2017). The Danish government’s solutions take the form of changes to Danish asylum and migration policies with the aim of maintaining control of new entries and preventing a high influx of newcomers. Moreover, higher demands for integration are intended to encourage newcomers to support themselves financially and qualify themselves to access the benefits of the Danish welfare state.

Part 2

6.3 Qualitative framing analysis In this part, we unfold the key findings from the two first analyses to understand the differences and similarities in the framing of the refugee crisis in the context of border regulations, migrations policies in Sweden and Denmark, and the two time periods in 2015 and 2017, respectively. The four framing functions: problems, causes, moral judgement and solutions form the main structure of this analysis. Moreover, we aim to understand how the analysed news articles and policy documents exert power through the frames created by operationalizing relevant theories and concepts.

6.3.1 Defining the problem Frames define problems by determining the actions of agents, considering costs, benefits and common cultural values (Entman 1993, p. 52). The collected newspaper articles and policy documents point towards several problems during the refugee crisis and different definitions of these problems. In the following section, we identify patterns of recurring themes that frame the problems.

Framing the arrival of asylum seekers Themes in the news sample that contribute to the definition of problems include safety issues, fear of terror, economic security/challenges and protecting the welfare system. Altogether, these themes establish a feeling of chaos and burden placed upon the Danish and Swedish societies. The crisis is commonly connected with the arrival of newcomers, while some news articles link the overall problem to political solutions applied in the EU. The policy documents display issues about safety and control, when representing problems regarding asylum and migration. The main problem addressed in the Danish policy documents is that the amount of asylum seekers in Denmark puts pressure on the Danish state and threatens the cohesion of Danish society. The number of newcomers is claimed to influence Danish prosperity, values and the success of integration (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016; Ministry of Finance n.d.; The Government of Denmark n.d.). This concern is used as a key argument for implementing strict asylum and migration policies (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; Ministry of Finance n.d.). Similarly, the primary problem addressed in the 49

Swedish policy documents concerns the increasing number of newcomers, which is claimed to challenge the Swedish state and authorities engaged with asylum, immigration and integration (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Government Offices of Sweden 2016; Parusel 2016, p. 4; State Public Reports 2017). The high influx of new people arriving in Sweden burdens the Swedish asylum system (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Parusel 2016) and threaten national security (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; State Public Reports 2017, p. 29).

The Danish and Swedish policy documents illustrate different political approaches to asylum and migration policies in terms of defining and addressing problems. This is particularly evident in the titles of the policy documents from each country. Danish policy documents express a focus on Danish coherence and efficiency with titles such as Consequent immigration policies - that work! (Ministry of Finance n.d.) and A stronger Denmark – controlling the flow of refugees (The Government of Denmark 2016), which are in strong contrast to titles used by the Swedish government, e.g. To welcome people seeking refuge. Sweden 2015. Report of Study on the Migration Reception 2015 (State Public Reports 2017), or more subtle titles as Proposal to Temporarily Restrict the Possibility of Being Granted a Residence Permit in Sweden (Government Offices of Sweden 2016). These titles clearly indicate how the two governments profile themselves, the political focus of policies, strategies and goals.

Overall, the main problem brought forward in the data concerns the high influx of asylum seekers. This group of people is represented with a frame that refers to their arrival as a societal threat. A tendency that can be linked to studies by Van Gorp (2005) and Horsti (2013; 2008), which showed that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants typically are represented as either victims or threats/intruders in European contexts (Van Gorp 2005, p. 489; Horsti 2008, p. 51; Horsti 2013, p. 79). Some news articles approach political solutions to the crisis critically by questioning policy regulation and the lack of humanity. E.g. in the Danish article, “What happened to the goal of helping refugees?”, it is claimed that Danish politicians solely focus on avoiding the reception of more refugees instead of providing protection for people in need (Dahlin 2015a, p. 6). In another article in Information, Amnesty International states that the proposed changes in Danish asylum and migration policies break with the rules of law that Danish society rests upon (Nielsen 2015, p. 4). In Svenska Dagbladet, it is claimed that “Sweden is not full” and that Swedish municipalities still have capacity to accept more asylum seekers

(Treijs 2015b, p. 8). These examples include a frame that refers to newcomers as victims, which according to Van Gorp (2005, p. 489) can be defined as innocent people in need of help, forced into a situation that is beyond their own actions or responsibility.

Connecting asylum seekers to terrorism During the first period in November 2015, some news articles displayed a shift in the portrayal of asylum seekers following the terror attack in Paris. According to Chouliaraki (2017), European news media turned the compassion previously showed towards newcomers into suspicion after the Paris attacks, which also legitimized exclusionary asylum and migration policies and the implementation of border controls throughout Europe (Chouliaraki 2017, p. 84). In the Danish news sample, especially Ekstra Bladet linked fear with the arrival of refugees and asylum seekers. This was displayed in e.g. headlines as “The bomb man came with the flow of refugees” (Mathiessen 2015, p. 6) or an article that expressed suspicion that newcomers include “terrorists disguised as refugees” (Larsen & Miles 2015, p. 10). Here, a politician from the Danish People’s Party stated that “people whom we do not know – and we do not know their intentions – can freely flow into Europe and Denmark. This is deeply alarming” (Larsen & Miles 2015, p. 10). Such headlines and articles contribute to a frame that builds up worry and anxiety that there might be terrorists among asylum seekers entering the EU. Further, this frame can be related to the threat/intruder frame, which Van Gorp (2005) describes as referring to newcomers as people who constitute a threat to the culture, society or services in the country of arrival. Moreover, discourse about protecting the interests of the native people and basing arguments on xenophobia or distrust towards newcomers can be placed within the intruder frame (Van Gorp 2005, p. 491). Frames of threat tend to represent newcomers as criminals or strangers creating disorder and abusing the asylum system (Horsti 2013, p. 79).

Rheindorf and Wodak (2018, p. 21) argue that the fear of terrorism constructs regimes of securitization, in which public debates question the validity of asylum seekers, asking who are genuine asylum seekers, and who are pretending. Some of the collected news articles critically work against this suspicion and doubt, by highlighting how an increasing number of EU member states make use of the Paris attacks as an excuse to adopt stricter asylum and migration rules and implement border controls. In the sample of Swedish news articles, this is expressed in headlines such as “The terror is utilized as a bat against refugees” (Pettersson 2015, p. 2), or “More

51 countries will utilize the threat of terror as an excuse to say no to more refugees” (Hansson 2015a, p. 18). In Danish news articles, the critique is expressed in e.g. the article, “Borders are an expensive and awful approach against terror”, where it is argued that several EU member states were already planning on implementing border controls before the Paris attacks, but were able to justify these plans after the attacks (Thiemann 2015b, p. 6).

Issues about integration and the responsibility of newcomers Issues of threat do not only concern the arrival of asylum seekers and migrants, but also the process of integrating those who have already arrived. Especially the Danish government shows concern for how newly arrived people and their foreign cultures might influence Danish society and that newcomers will not integrate into Danish society. The Danish government identifies integration problems such as “parallel societies” described as exposed areas in which newcomers live isolated “and follow their own norms and rules” (The Government of Denmark n.d.), religious preachers who contribute to radicalization and counteracts Danish democracy (The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d), and newcomers who do not contribute to the Danish labour market (The Government of Denmark n.d.; The Government of Denmark 2016).

This frame of threat regarding integration is reproduced in some Danish news articles. E.g. in Berlingske, a journalist reproduces a frame of fear and threat by claiming that the high influx of asylum seekers in Denmark will make it difficult to secure proper integration (Larsen 2015a, p. 6). Other Danish news articles claim that successful integration is a common responsibility of Danish citizens (Bjerregaard 2017, p. 5), and that Danish integration policies should not treat newcomers as clients but help them become part of Danish society (Kestler 2017, p. 4). However, the Danish government mainly places the responsibility of “good integration” on newcomers (The Government of Denmark n.d; The Government of Denmark 2016). Horsti (2008) argues that there has been a shift in European societies from multicultural policies to increased focus on social cohesion, which “stresses that migrants are responsible for integrating into the host country” (Horsti 2008, p. 44). These policies are based on fear that newcomers do not integrate well and instead practice other cultural habits and values (Horsti 2008, p. 43). This type of argument is expressed explicitly in Danish asylum and migration policies, which highlights the strict requirements and considerable responsibilities placed on newcomers. For

52 instance, the Danish government states that “Foreigners have to be met with firm requirements and expectations that they respect Danish democracy, culture and social model” (The Government of Denmark n.d.). To integrate well, it is clearly communicated that newcomers have to prove their determination to become part of Danish society and qualify in order to access the benefits of the Danish welfare state.

The defined problems in both policy documents and by politicians in the news indicate an increasing dependency on media as a strategy for political actors to communicate their messages.

6.3.2 Defined causes Entman (1993) explains that frames diagnose causes as they identify factors that create a problem (p. 52). In the following section, we examine different components that help define such causes and how these are revealed.

Marginal voices in the news Although the high number of people arriving in Sweden is allegedly a problem, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants only had a voice in 13% of the Danish and Swedish articles in the first period and in just 3% of the articles in the second period. Even citizens in both countries have a limited voice in the news articles. Overall, there are more examples of citizens speaking in the Swedish sample in both periods compared to the Danish sample. This includes volunteers, people who have opened their home to welcome asylum seekers and commuters’ reactions to the removal of external border controls (Ahlstrand & Ubbe 2015; Nilsson & Johansson 2017). Including people’s voice in news provides another perspective to a topic rather than strictly the political conflict. However, there are only few articles in the samples that include interviews with newly arrived people in Sweden and Denmark who share their stories and experiences. As if their stories do not matter. As mentioned in the literature review, several media studies have found a lack of refugee and migrant voices in the news (Horsti 2008; Alhayek 2014; Berry et. al. 2015; Georgiou & Zaborowski 2017; Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017; Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017). The lack of refugee and migrant voices in the news is an issue because it is considered a fundamental human right to speak about one’s own issues and concerns, and institutions like journalism should include “the voices of the voiceless” (Philips 2003, p. 264 & Fraser 2010 in Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017, p. 618). When migrants are given a voice in news, they gain 53 some framing power to define problems and solutions that challenge dominant news frames (Horsti 2016, p.18).

Refugees and migrants – same, same, but different Media production and journalism involve significant responsibility in terms of providing fair journalism (UNHCR 2016, p. 1). This includes using the accurate terminology when covering issues of migration and describing the displacement and status of people. Georgiou and Zaborowski (2017) assert that during the refugee crisis, the words migrant and refugee have been used interchangeably by media and politicians. Similarly, we found that the Danish news sample in both periods use the word refugee and migrant interchangeably and these two terms often appear together. The convergence of these two words in media is considered to influence accuracy and thereby the quality of press coverage (Georgiou and Zaborowski 2017, p. 4). By contrast, the term migrant is hardly used in the Swedish sample in both periods. According to Berry et. al. (2015), the local context is essential for how news is reported, as "particular national journalistic conventions determine the appropriate labels or angles that are taken on stories" (Berry et. al. 2015, p. 12). In the Danish and Swedish policy documents, the terms refugee and asylum seeker are used often to refer to the political status of the new people arriving. In addition, labels such as migrants and foreigners are commonly used in the Danish policy documents (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016; The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Finance n.d.). The words person, human and people are only used a few times in the Danish policy documents. In the Swedish sample, these terms are frequently included in policy documents, which emphasizes that the policies concern human beings and that these people are not just limited to their political status.

It can be argued to be problematic, when institutions of power use terms incorrectly because it creates incorrect descriptions of minority groups of people and their situation. Further, it represents a form of “symbolic power” (Bourdieu 1991, p. 23 cited in Horsti 2008) and manifestation of elite power in news coverage, when labels are reproduced and used interchangeably without questions (Horsti 2008, p. 48). According to Kyriakides (2017), the specific choice of wording when covering issues about asylum and refugees is not only relevant to produce reliable media representations, but also to challenge dominant representations. He presents his research within a framework of contested interventionism, which problematizes the

“mediatized political constructions of race and immigration.” (Kyriakides 2017, p. 936). As an example, he uses Al Jazeera’s decision to use the word refugee over migrant when covering the crisis to illustrate how media can intervene with and challenge Western media’s representations of newcomers. According to Kyriakides, employing the word refugee over migrant is a method of recognizing forced migration and the validity and victim status of migrants (Kyriakides 2017, p. 937).

Whose voices are heard? The main problems identified in the collected news articles concern the stress and challenges associated with accepting high numbers of asylum seekers. To define these challenges, the most frequently occurring themes in both the Danish and Swedish samples are economy, crisis/societal collapse, immigration levels and societal/national threat. These thematic constellations are formed by both journalists, politicians and social actors that are included as sources. Thus, the news sample indicates how newspaper outlets frame problems through the inclusion of sources and the prioritization of these. According to Van Gorp (2005), journalists reproduce statements made by e.g. interviewees, when they make use of an interview for a news article. This does not mean that journalists share the same views as interviewees, however, employing and editing statements to create readable news stories allows journalists to angle events, interviews and statements (Van Gorp 2005, p. 494). Thus, news media reflect how social actors such as politicians define problems, while journalists decide how these are represented. According to Strömbäck (2008), in the process of mediatization, media become increasingly independent from politics (p. 241). Moreover, journalists apply certain techniques of storytelling and have preferences about deciding what and how politics are covered in news, which political actors adapt to (Strömbäck 2008, p. 238). This process of framing problems through news stories can be understood to be what Entman (1993) claims is a competition and “play of power” over news frames between politicians and journalists (p. 55). Our news sample consists of a large quantity of articles that are centered around statements and opinions of both national and international politicians, including their identification and definition of issues as well as their political solutions. Nonetheless, placing focus on political actors can, as Chouliaraki (2017) emphasizes, marginalize the presence of newcomers as news media focus on stories about “our leaders, our policies, [and] our controversies” (Chouliaraki 2017, p. 89).

Another study found that the distribution of voices in European news follows a strict hierarchy, which relies on journalistic strategies of bordering, the renegotiation “of the boundaries of ‘our’ own communities of belonging” (Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017, p. 615), yet reflects and reproduces broader hierarchies of the European political sphere (ibid. p. 629). Simply put, politicians speak in the news, refugees do not. Our findings also indicate this trend as government officials, ministers, national politicians, prime ministers and foreign politicians are quoted first in 37% of the Swedish articles and in 41% of the Danish articles in the first period. Similarly, Horsti (2016) found that textual and visual modalities in the news “reproduced a Eurocentric representation of migration that pushed migrants’ voices, perspectives and unique backgrounds to the margins” and that elite and organized sources from a regional, national and EU level were quoted in the news (Horsti 2016, p. 17).

6.3.3 Moral judgement Frames make moral judgement by evaluating the factors that create the problem as well as their effects (Entman 1993 p. 52). In this section, we assess the tone in our samples and discuss how this representation can develop a state of mental bordering.

The tone of the issue To assess the moral value and judgement of the articles, we looked for the overall tone, whether it was negative, positive or neutral. In the first period, 59% of the Danish articles had a generally negative tone, while just 26% of the articles in the Swedish sample had a negative tone. Some articles that were coded negatively in the first period included articles that connected the terror attack in Paris with the refugee crisis. Other themes that often had a negative tone involved the discussion and argumentation for the implementation of border controls and the political situation in Europe. In general, these used a dramatic language and metaphors, e.g illustrated with headlines such as “Welcome on board to our time’s Titanic” (Davidsen-Nielsen 2015, p. 6), “Løkke’s message: Stay away from Denmark” (Engell 2015, p. 17), “The holes at the border open for terrorists” (Lönnaeus & El-Alawi 2015, p. 10), and “Learn to fight against refugees” (Hansson 2015b, pp. 18-19). Furthermore, 70% of the articles in the Swedish sample in the first period were coded neutrally, while just 38% of the Danish articles were coded neutrally, but only 3-4% of the Danish and Swedish articles in the first period had a generally positive tone about the situation. 56

There was a similar picture in Sweden in the second period, where 70% of the articles were also coded neutrally, 20% negatively and 10% positively. However, in Denmark the general tone in the news sample was neutral (57%) in the second period, while 31% of the articles had a negative tone and 11% of the articles were positive. In the second period, the themes in the Danish sample mostly concerned the removal of Swedish external border controls and reactions as well as a general discussion about migration and integration policies in Denmark. Similarly, in Sweden, the removal of external border controls and further strengthening of internal borders were discussed. Negative Swedish articles in the second period include articles that focus on an estimated increase in the number of asylum seekers in Sweden and the tightening of internal border controls, e.g. an article from Svenska Dagbladet argued that new camera technologies should strengthen the border controls and catch traffickers and wanted people (Rogberg 2017, p. 7).

The use of metaphors A common term and metaphor used to describe the many people coming to Europe in both Danish and Swedish news as well as in Danish policy documents is refugee flow. Also, words and phrases such as limit the influx, direct the flow of refugees, refugee influx, flooded by refugees, mass migration, flow of people, refugee invasion, and flow of migrants are used in the Danish news sample to describe the arrival. In the Swedish news sample, words and phrases such as asylum flows, flow of refugees and asylum seekers, and flow of transit refugees are used to describe the arrival of people. The repeated use of the word flow in both Denmark and Sweden creates a mental image that can be argued to help the reader conceptualize the abstract and extreme situation that was unfolding in Europe in 2015 and moreover, to describe and understand the arrival of many people in Europe as a phenomenon. Similarly, Abid et al. (2017) conceptualized Lakoff and Johnson’s (2003) conceptual metaphor theory, which describes conceptual metaphors as “devices that are ‘pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and actions’ because even ‘our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson 2003, p. 3 in Abid et al. 2017, p. 123). They found that water metaphors are often used to describe Syrian refugees by both host and non-host countries, depicting Syrian refugees as an “unwelcome disaster” and detaching any “human aspects” from Syrian refugees (Abid et. al. 2017, p. 138). Further, Abid et al. (2017) argue that

57 using words and phrases like the examples we have given above to describe a phenomenon is fundamental in everyday metaphors because such words involve “the detailed knowledge or conceptual representation that people have about a phenomenon” (Abid et al. 2017, p. 123). The continuous use of refugee flow in different variations relates to the concept “affirmative action”, which happens when a term is widely accepted in society and using another term in its place could cause the communicator to lose the receiver’s understanding of the addressed topic. This can further contribute to the communicator losing credibility (Entman 1993, p. 55).

Mental state of bordering Despite both positive and critical perceptions of borders, the coverage of border controls displays not only views on the physical borders and border controls, but also indicates mental ideas of borders and boundaries. Chouliaraki (2017) uses the concept “symbolic bordering” to describe how journalists construct news stories by assessing and selecting which “faces, bodies, and voices are ‘appropriate’ and ‘newsworthy’” (Chouliaraki 2017, p. 92). She claims that mental bordering operates as a sovereign power that determines who is human, who is included and who has a voice to speak in media. When for instance, asylum seekers are silenced in Western media, they are restricted. Chouliaraki argues that even though spaces “may allow for forms of empathic, humanitarian witnessing yet” they also tend to “thrive in voyeuristic and ironic encounters of migrant others, which are ultimately unable to move beyond the fears, doubts, and concerns of ourselves” (Chouliaraki 2017, p. 92).

Considering Chouliaraki’s (2017) claim that journalists practice an act of bordering by constructing and reproducing existing frames and discourse about asylum seekers, moreover by restricting the voice of some social actors, one can argue that Western societies are the centre of such frames. In our data, the Danish and Swedish nations are the focal point of how the refugee crisis and solutions to this crisis are represented. The Swedish and Danish news articles as well as governments reflect a sense of urgency about reducing the number of asylum seekers. The suggested solutions concern “us” and “our safety”. Consequently, arguments concern “us” and are legitimized because “we” otherwise might risk unforeseeable situations and more chaos (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 20). Moreover, the “nature of security threats can be invoked to justify the use of extraordinary measures to handle them” (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 22). Governments have the capability and power to legitimize and rationalize borders and restrictive

58 policies through their authoritative positions (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 20). According to Vollmer (2017), the practices of the authority also affect the public. He explains how securitization and militarization are followed by a process in which borders, and their function are becoming widely accepted and perceived as significant (Vollmer 2017, p. 4). He employs the concept “moralization of bordering” to call attention to how EU member states, which are regarded as authorities with high morals, exclude a selection of people with policy frames that are morally legitimized (ibid., p. 4). Vollmer argues that this legitimization is supported by “a narrative of deservingness, that is, by following the principle of ‘some people do not deserve to be equally or treated in the way we (the ‘host’ society) use to treat human beings’” (ibid., p. 4). Within this perception, policies of excluding borders draw up not only physical borders, but mental boundaries between “us” and “them”/“the other” and make an assessment of who should have access to fundamental rights and who should not.

With border controls, newcomers are obliged to prove and earn their access to a country. Without, their entry will be considered illegal. In a news article, the Commission President of the African Union claims that the core issue of the crisis is that “some European countries have a fortress approach. But no parts of the world can be a fort.” He further explains that “We should be open towards legal migration” (Thiemann 2015a, p. 11). According to Horsti (2008), discourse about the threat of immigration supports the concept of “Fortress Europe” and how European policies exclude new migrants (Horsti 2008, p. 43). She explains that the dominant idea of the European identity builds on the concepts of universalism and tolerance. This identity and sense of European unity, however, do not exist without the idea of “the other”/“them”, where immigration is perceived as a threat (Horsti 2008). There is a clear tendency in our collection of Danish policy documents that the Danish government draws a line between the Danish people and newcomers by repeatedly including discourse about “us Danes” (The Government of Denmark 2016; The Government of Denmark n.d). Creating a discourse about “us” allows for the Danish government to construct a narrative centered around Danes and Denmark, which reflects the inclusion and consideration of Danish core values and the feeling of nationality. Moreover, this can be read as a strategy to legitimize the government's asylum policies and gain support and understanding from the Danish public. The distinction between the Danes/“us” and migrants and asylum seekers/“them” is emphasized and linked to the idea of “them” being a potential threat against Danish cohesion. This is for example expressed with

59 statements such as “We have to maintain our cohesion and values” (The Government of Denmark 2016, p. 9), or “we should not take in so many refugees that it threatens the cohesion of our country” (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015, p. 1). The arrival of asylum seekers is automatically linked to threat and burden, as the Danish government makes it clear that it is not willing to subject the Danish nation to uncertainty or risk through its strict policy frames. Moreover, the cohesion and values of “our country” are assumed to be incompatible with the values that newcomers may hold. This can be related to Horsti’s (2008) claim that the European identity requires “borders between those who belong to Europe and carry ‘European values’ and those who do not” (Horsti 2008, p. 43). Thus, to uphold a strong coherent idea of a Danish identity, the government forms an idea about newcomers as being too different to fit into Danish norms and values. In addition, the Danish government draws a line between “us” and “them” through policies that aim to reduce the number of new arrivals (Ministry of Finance n.d.; The Government of Denmark n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016), and therefore borders are necessary.

The discourse about “us” and “them” in the policy documents as discussed above are also present in the news articles as discussed in 6.3.1 of the defined problems. Themes in the news articles about the number of people arriving, the threat on the welfare system, the fear of terror and the intrusion of “the other” brought forward by politicians contribute to a “symbolic bordering”, which indicates a relationship between politics and media.

6.3.4 Solutions Frames suggest solutions and remedies to solve identified problems, justify these treatments and predict potential effects (Entman 1993, p. 52). The Danish and Swedish news media and policy documents point towards different solutions to treat the encountered challenges both in national, political contexts of Denmark and Sweden and within the EU in general. In the following section, we identify the solutions in our data that are essential to handling the crisis, and how these solutions are framed.

Swedish border controls In response to the large numbers of asylum seekers, the increased challenges and pressure on Swedish society, the Swedish government decided to implement temporary, restrictive policies to reduce and keep control of new entries (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Ministry of Justice 2017). Policy regulation include border controls, changes in Swedish asylum rules to the minimum levels under EU law and an improved introduction given to newly arrived people to the Swedish society (Ministry of Justice 2017). The Swedish government’s implementation of temporary border controls in November 2015 fuelled discussions in both Danish and Swedish newspapers about the reasons for the implementation, the function, effects and political signal of border controls (Delin 2015, p. 9; Olsson 2015b, pp. 8-9; Wiraeus 2015 p. 26). The news article sample expresses different perspectives on the border controls, from a necessity to the question whether restrictive border policies are a suitable solution to solving the challenges in Europe.

Answer to the missing EU solidarity In general, the Swedish news articles determine a lack of solidarity among the EU member states during the crisis, which makes it hard to find common remedies for the challenges in the EU. The Swedish government also identifies a need for better cooperation between EU member states in order to protect the right to asylum. In addition, a more equal distribution of asylum seekers is considered necessary, so that each Member State can help lift the burden of the high number of new arrivals (Ministry of Justice 2017). Nonetheless, just six months after the Swedish Prime Minister stated that there is “no upper limit for how many refugees Sweden can take” (Winther 2015, p. 10), and despite the critique of solutions proposed and applied in other EU member states, the Swedish government decided to implement border controls. This caused a debate in the Swedish news media about the rationalization for border controls constructed by politicians. In the political analysis, “Now Sweden is following an increasingly tight Europe” (Lönnaeus 2015, p. 6), it is argued that the Swedish government must shift its asylum and migration politics towards the same path as other European countries and that temporary border controls are necessary because other EU member states lack the willingness to solve the challenges experienced in the autumn 2015 (Lönnaeus 2015, p. 6.). This argument both rationalizes and legitimizes the implementation of border controls as a type of last solution. Other articles critically argue that Swedish politics are becoming more unforeseeable as

61 politicians propose stricter, unsustainable asylum policies and more commonly employ a charged rhetoric (Barth-Kron 2015, p. 2). In Dagens Nyheter, it is stated that Swedish politicians propose solutions that previously would have been unthinkable and unacceptable. For instance, the Swedish State is claimed to join the “race” with other EU member states to lower the number of new asylum seekers (Stenberg 2015, p. 10).

Restricting access to Denmark After the arrival of many asylum seekers in Denmark during autumn 2015, the Danish government decided to reduce the number of new entries through policy regulation. This strategy was presented as necessary in order to prevent asylum seekers from suddenly crossing the Danish borders (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016). The tightening of asylum and migration rules can be considered as a form of safeguard against the potential threats that could occur or were seen in other countries. The Danish Prime Minister stated that “Denmark should not undergo the same uncontrollable pressure that has brought Germany to its knees and made the Swedish government desperately appeal for international help”, in which he refers to the large intake of asylum seekers in Germany and Sweden (Larsen 2015b, p. 8). In 2015, the Danish government proposed 34 asylum bills to make Denmark a less attractive location for asylum seekers by restricting entry into Denmark. Suggestions for tightening the law included e.g. restricting access to asylum, residence permit, family reunification and deportation (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015). Adopted bills include the “Opportunity to detain asylum seekers in order to clarify identity etc.”, “Reintroduction of ‘the integration potential criteria’ when selecting quota refugees” and “Postponing the right to family reunification for people with temporary protection” (Ministry of Immigration and Integration n.d). Instead, the Danish government states that it will allocate an increased amount of resources to support local areas near conflict zones to help more people in need with housing, food, health to prevent people from traveling all the way to Europe and Denmark (The Government of Denmark n.d.; The Government of Denmark 2016).

The Danish policy documents demonstrate that the Danish government centres solutions to the refugee crisis around the protection of Denmark and Danish cohesion. Discourses about threat, “our safety”, order, Danish values and the uncertainty of how the large numbers of new people in Denmark will affect these aspects are repeatedly used to argue the need for stricter asylum

62 policies. The focus on risk and threat can be claimed to increase levels of fear – fear of “the other” and social, economic challenges (Vollmer 2017, p. 4). By utilizing risk and security issues as tools to legitimize restrictive policy regulation, the Danish government implicitly links the reception of asylum seekers with unpredictability, danger and difficulty. Thus, policy changes signal a concern for and interest in the Danish nation, which becomes the main strategy for the rationalization and legitimation of political solutions.

Rationalizing and legitimizing borders The Swedish newspaper articles from November 12-19, 2015, frequently include the voices of political figures that argue for and rationalize the implementation of border controls as necessary in order to gain control over the challenges encountered when large numbers of people arrive to Sweden – a tendency, we also identified in the Swedish policy documents (Government Offices of Sweden 2015; Ministry of Justice 2017). The action of bordering is followed by the practice of normalizing the view of migration as a threat and “risk to the liberal world” (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 21). Here, securitization becomes a tool to protect countries from issues that are considered a threat to the state or society (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 22). For instance, when the Danish and Swedish governments state that the high influx of asylum seekers poses a threat to the order and safety in the two countries and propose border controls and restrictive policies, securitization becomes a solution to maintain order and prevent the threat or risk. Arguments that build on control and order are essential elements for what Triandafyllidou (2018) calls the rationalization frame, which allows European political leaders and media to argue for political actions as “true to the European values of humanitarianism, solidarity, and asylum, meanwhile, taming the influx of newcomers that are feared to drain resources and destabilize social cohesion” (Triandafyllidou 2018, pp. 213-214). Similarly, Dahlgren (2016) studied how people’s responses and moral witnessing changed as the presence of refugees shifted from being viewed from a distance to close proximity, as well as how discourse about refugees switched focus to administrative and logistical frames of how to deal with the situation (Dahlgren 2016, pp. 391-392).

Several news articles exemplify this type of rationalization. For instance, the Swedish Minister of Interior explains that both the Swedish Migration Agency and the Swedish police have requested border controls to maintain order and safety in Sweden (Eriksson et. al. 2015 p. 8). In

Dagens Nyheter, the Minister of Finance claims that border controls will improve the Swedish reception system by adding more control and order to the process (Kärrman et. al. 2015, pp. 8- 9). In another article, the Head of Communication for the Migration Agency argues that several unaccompanied minors arriving in Sweden disappear without being registered, which he describes as unfair (Olsson 2015b, pp. 8-9). In these articles, border controls are reasoned as a means to create safer and better controlled reception of unaccompanied minors as they will have to register when they cross the Swedish borders. This type of argument can be related to what Rheindorf and Wodak (2018) describe as legitimation strategies that moralize borders (p. 20). Rheindorf and Wodak use the terms “rationalization legitimation” and “moral legitimation” to explain how e.g. experts or data can function as sources of information and knowledge to justify borders as being in the interest of the public or nation (Rheindorf & Wodak 2018, p. 21). They state that any form of appeal to national security and order legitimizes borders and foster what they call “the construction of a “Fortress” in paradoxical defence of liberal values” (ibid., p. 21). Thus, it can be argued that the various defined solutions that are argued as necessary in our sample contribute to and establish the idea that disorder has emerged as a consequence of the growing influx of people and that this disturbance needs to be controlled with e.g. border controls.

These examples of how political solutions are addressed, illustrate that there is a close link between media and politics. Often the two institutions apply similar ways of discussing proposed solutions and highlight the same issues. Some scholars describe this link between media and politics as mediatization of politics (Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999; Strömbäck 2008 in Ciaglia 2013, p. 543). According to Korthagen (2015), it is a political strategy for politicians to have a presence in the news to acquire more power and validity (Tresch 2009 in Korthagen 2015, p. 618). Our analysis shows that this strategy is commonly applied by politicians to both rationalize and legitimize border controls and new migration policies.

6.3.5 Summary of the qualitative framing analysis The main problems addressed in the samples of news articles and policy documents concern the arrival of many asylum seekers. Danish and Swedish journalists and politicians often represent asylum seekers and refugees within a threat/intruder frame in which people are associated with unpredictability, danger and difficulty. Although Danish and Swedish newspapers and policy 64 documents highlight similar problems, our data indicates clear differences in terms of defining these problems. While Danish politicians explicitly express that the number of asylum seekers has to be reduced, Swedish politicians tend to use more subtle ways of addressing this goal, while also showing consideration for the situation of newcomers.

The newspaper sample illustrates that both journalists and politicians define problems and diagnose causes, while newcomers less frequently have a voice in the news articles. When journalists emphasize political voices, they arguably reflect and reproduce European political hierarchies (Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017, p. 629). Moreover, moral judgments of frames indicate that when Danish and Swedish newspapers describe newcomers and their political status using inaccurate terminologies or even metaphors, it impacts the validity and fairness of journalism. Overall, with their authoritative positions, both news media and politicians have the capability and power to form mental borders and establish ideas about “Fortress Europe” and create distance between “us” and “them”.

In both Denmark and Sweden, restrictive policy changes are proposed and adopted as solutions to reduce the number of asylum seekers. The governments justify border controls and strict policies as being in the interest of the nation and emphasize the importance of policy changes to maintain order and safety. Concern about risk and security tends to be the main strategy of legitimizing, moralizing and rationalizing restrictive policies.

7. Concluding discussion In this chapter, we provide a concluding discussion of the similarities and differences in the framing of the refugee crisis in the context of border controls, and of the possible consequences of this framing exercised by the Danish and Swedish governments and news media. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations of this study and identify the need for further research.

7.1 Negotiation of power in media and politics The Swedish and Danish newspaper articles and policy documents pose a dialectic relationship between power in media and politics in the way they define both problems and solutions in the

65 context of the refugee crisis. According to Entman (1993), politicians are coerced into competing with each other and journalists over news frames in order to gain public support, which often results in similar frames (Entman 1993, p. 55). Similarly, in our study, we found that the problems the two governments define in their policy documents reflect the problems that the newspapers define.

The Swedish newspapers and policy documents both emphasize the importance of cooperation and solidarity within the EU in order to solve the crisis (Parusel 2016, pp. 11-12; Ministry of Justice 2017, p. 2). For instance, in Sydsvenskan, other EU member states, including Denmark, are criticized. Danish asylum policies are described as “Danish deterrence” (Larsson 2015, p. 5), and Denmark is encouraged to take more responsibility for asylum seekers (Bredberg 2015, p. 2). A few Danish newspapers take this critique seriously, e.g. in the article “Swedish reprimand to Denmark” (Bæksgaard et. al. 2015, p. 1). Nonetheless, many of the Danish news articles reproduce the tendency of keeping focus on Denmark and Danish politics, in the same way that the Danish government mainly focuses on Danish borders, national security and cohesion (Ministry of Finance n.d.; Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015; The Government of Denmark 2016). Additionally, the Danish government tends to neglect commitments in the EU and solidarity with other EU member states as this is not an aspect that is emphasized in the Danish policy documents. The Danish government recognizes the importance of responsible actions in terms of handling the crisis, still, the main goal is to lower the number of new entries (Ministry of Immigration and Integration 2015, p. 1). The Danish government’s main focus consequently concerns the Danish nation and maintaining control within Danish borders. Danish policy changes are formulated with little or no concern for the situation of asylum seekers, their journeys, possible trauma or needs. The sample of Danish articles shows that right- wing politicians are given much attention in media, which as Horsti (2008) argues, contributes to a construction that places the European identity against “the other” (ibid. 52). In contrast to Danish migration policies, the Swedish approach explicitly considers the situation of newcomers (State Public Reports 2017, p. 31)

The sample of Swedish news articles and policy documents includes more nuanced descriptions of newcomers and their conditions by considering e.g. their previous experiences, their journey to and through Europe (Melin 2015, p. 14; Ohlsson & Littorin 2015, p. 12), accommodation

66 conditions (Ahlstrand & Ubbe 2015, pp. 8-9) and the need for psychological help to traumatized refugees (Lerner & Letmark 2015, p. 26). Furthermore, the Swedish government contributes to a nuanced description of problems during the “peak” of the crisis in autumn 2015 by explaining that this period was experienced differently in different parts of the country (State Public Reports 2017).

Overall, our data demonstrates cultural differences between Denmark and Sweden. The samples of Danish and Swedish newspapers reflect the discourse and main strategies applied by the two governments, which contributes to a broader understanding of how asylum and migration policies are approached in the two countries. Moreover, the way the newspapers and governments define and represent issues about the refugee crisis and migration policies indicates what Entman calls a “play of power” (Entman 1993, p. 55). As news media and politicians constantly negotiate over frames and discourse, they also encounter limits of discourse and consequently produce corresponding frames (ibid.). We found that both media and politicians define the problems of the crisis and that these definitions often tend to evolve and reproduce from each other. It may be problematic if discourse about newcomers is reproduced and refers to already existing frames. According to Horsti (2008), media exert a form of symbolic power and manifest the elite power of news coverage when they reproduce and use frames and labels interchangeably without question (Horsti 2008, p. 48). Eventually, reproduced frames and discourse about the crisis, borders or newcomers have certain effects and consequences for both how the public understands the topic and the newly arrived people. Our study cannot evaluate how the public is affected, however, we argue that frames constructed through news media’s representations contribute to the way an issue is experienced and perceived in society. With the perception that a “society shares a set of symbols, beliefs and images that act as interpretive schemes for making sense of the world and giving meaning to social reality" (Triandafyllidou & Fotiou 1998 in Garvin & Eyles 2001, p. 1176), we argue that media play a key role in constructing such shared socio-cultural ideas when disseminating new knowledge to the public.

When news media and politicians continuously represent asylum seekers and refugees as a danger to society, regardless of this being true or not, it has consequences for asylum seekers and refugees, and how they are perceived and approached politically. How newcomers are represented by authoritative institutions further has consequences for how the public relates to

67 discussions about these people and, moreover, how they are perceived. Media have the role of providing information and knowledge to the public. This role entails power and responsibility in terms of providing accurate and fair coverage. According to Hall (2013 [1997]), there is a strong bond between knowledge and power as knowledge itself is a form of power. He draws on Foucault’s concept about “regimes of truth” to explain that knowledge and power together can form what we believe is “true”. In other words, knowledge tied to power holds the authority to “make itself true” (Hall 2013 [1997], p. 189). According to Strömbäck (2008), media have an influence on how “reality” is represented and understood by the public. When politics are communicated through media, the political depiction of “reality” is shaped by media (p. 230). In this study, we aimed to understand media’s framing of the refugee crisis in the context of borders and thereby the power exerted through media. Moreover, by including policy documents, we examined how media and governments as institutions of power form several “truths” and frames about the refugee crisis and borders.

Even though media and politics are not directly dependent on, nor related to, each other, our study demonstrates that the two institutions work closely together as chains that are entangled with one another, when framing political events. As discussed above, the analysis indicated that there is a symbiotic relation in the way media and politicians define both problems and solutions in the context of the refugee crisis. This relation is visible as both institutions construct frames through a complex practice of constantly producing and reproducing what is represented and perceived as the truth.

7.2 The exertion of power in news media and politics Even though Danish and Swedish newspapers and policy documents highlight similar problems, our data indicates clear differences in terms of the focus of addressing asylum seekers and refugees, the crisis, political responsibilities and solutions. Issues about risk and security are the main arguments used to legitimize, moralize and rationalize border controls and change of policies. Our news sample tends to reproduce a European version of the crisis because the articles prioritize the voice of national politicians over asylum seekers and focus on stories about “the Danish crisis” or “the Swedish crisis”. Overall, with the authoritative positions both news media and politicians have the capability and power to form mental borders and create distance between “us” and “them”. The policy documents both implicitly and explicitly formulate 68 discourse about “us” and “them”. Some media relate critically to the political changes and rhetoric, while others contribute to this practice of mental bordering by reproducing discourse about “us” and “them”.

It is necessary to comprehend the way power is practiced in order to understand the impact of authoritative texts such as news and policy documents and to understand the consequences of the frames constructed in these texts on issues related to migration. Chouliaraki and Stolic (2017) argue that the responsibility of media is “a symbolic practice of power” that is utilized to decide what audiences “see, relate to, and act on in the refugee ‘crisis’” (Chouliaraki & Stolic 2017, p. 5). Therefore, media have a crucial role in determining how a situation like the refugee crisis is framed and disseminated to the public. Mckay et. al. (2011) argue that the way a topic is framed can influence and direct the attention on how audiences react to a news frame. E.g. exaggeration and excessive use of claims and statistics to produce negative frames about asylum seekers can create a “moral panic” that involves concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality and volatility (Mckay et al. 2011, p. 611).

Georgio and Zaborowski (2017) found that a systematic and persistent proportion of European press promoted hate speech and hostility towards migrants and refugees in 2015 (Georgio & Zaborowski 2017, p. 3). They argue that this tendency can be connected to limited knowledge and understanding among journalists (ibid. pp. 13-14). Nonetheless, such discriminating media coverage has consequences for people with refugee status and how they are perceived. As we found in our analysis, news media can contribute to a practice of mental bordering when framing newcomers as intruders or reproducing discourse about “us” and “them”. Creating such discourse that formulates barriers between “us” and “them” tends to produce stereotypical portrayals of newcomers. Our analysis shows that the analysed texts often represent asylum seekers, refugees and migrants as one homogeneous group with little consideration of the fact that these people are individuals. This tendency can be described as a misrecognition of refugees as “political, social and historical subjects” (Chouliaraki & Zaborowski 2017, p. 616). Chouliaraki and Zaborowski (2017) argue that the humanity of “the other” in such cases solely is considered to affirm the kindness of “us” and not to include “‘them’ into ‘our’ communities of belonging” (ibid. p. 616). According to Mastro and Tukachinsky (2013), media can contribute to the formation of stereotypes by placing focus on people’s political status (Mastro & Tukachinsky

2013, p. 4). Stereotypes can “enhance effective, but not necessarily accurate, information,” which further can lead to misrepresentation (ibid. p. 9). Several sources offer suggestions and thorough guidance on how journalists can improve the standard of their coverage of asylum and migration (UNAOC 2014a; UNAOC 2014b; UNHCR 2016). With the purpose of encouraging non-racist media coverage, UNHCR provides guidelines for interviewing refugees and asylum seekers and terminology that is appropriate for fair journalism (UNHCR 2016). According to UNHCR, vulnerable groups are affected directly by media representations that use inaccurate terms to describe them. As a consequence of journalists’ incorrectness, people are considered hurt through unreliable representations. Thus, it is important that journalists check and cross-check their information and carefully consider their choice of language to secure fair and honest journalism (UNHCR 2016, p. 1).

In this study, we sought to understand how news media and governments exert power through the negotiation of frames about the refugee crisis. Media hold both power and responsibility in terms of providing accurate and fair coverage when disseminating information to the public. Therefore, the way in which the crisis, refugees and asylum seekers are represented and framed by authoritative institutions affects how the situation and this group of people are perceived and approached politically and in public. Therefore, accuracy and appropriateness in terms of describing newcomers and the political events of 2015 are important in order to provide objective and fair journalism, avoid generalizations, stereotypical representations and misrepresentations.

7.3 Limitations of our study and the need for further research Our study is centred around four comparative elements, the two national contexts and the two time periods. These components define the main focus of this research project. Besides, we searched for news articles about borders and selected particular policy documents which further narrow the focal point of the study. Since we analyse specific time periods, we cannot make any statements or provide knowledge about the whole refugee crisis as a period nor can we make general assessments about Danish or Swedish news coverage of the crisis. Thus, through a qualitative analysis, we analyse the main patterns and characteristics within the collected data and provide our interpretations and understandings of such data. 70

Because this study is limited to printed news media from eight different news outlets, we can only discuss how these particular news outlets frame issues about asylum and migration during the chosen time periods. Furthermore, the chosen research focus and data cannot be used to evaluate how news media influence readers or public opinion. Based on literature, we argue that media have an impact on how the public understands, debates and relates to newcomers and the overall crisis. Nonetheless, we cannot make statements about how this influence is revealed or how it affects people.

In this study, we show how Danish and Swedish news media and policy documents as authoritative texts influence and exert power. However, more knowledge is still needed to understand the consequences of how news media and policymakers frame asylum and migration issues. Future studies could look closer at the consequences of how news media frame asylum and migration issues for newcomers. A qualitative study could examine how newcomers in e.g. Denmark and Sweden perceive news representations of asylum seekers and refugees and moreover, the political approaches to newcomers. The empirical data could be based on interviews with newcomers about how they themselves experience the consequences of specific frames and discourse established and reproduced by authorities.

Another future study could examine how the representation of borders in European news media and the strategies politicians use to legitimize, moralize and rationalize borders, influence public opinions about borders and bordering as a mental practice of creating barriers between “us”, the “citizens”, and “them” the newcomers. By examining public debates about border controls and borders on media platforms such as social media, radio or television programmes, newspaper etc., one could gain insight into how public discussions treat the topic of borders, and how specific groups of audiences relate to the overall concept of bordering. One could also collect qualitative data about public opinions on borders through interviews.

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Larsen, Thomas (2015b) ‘Løkke smider fløjlshandsken’, Berlingske, 14 November, p. 8.

Larsson, Petter (2015) ‘EU får ta rodret’, Sydsvenskan, 15 November, p. 5.

Lerner, Thomas and Letmark, Peter (2015) ‘Många behöver psykologstöd’, Dagens Nyheter, 16 November, p. 26.

Lönegård, Claes and Rogberg, Salomon (2017) ‘Id-kontrollerna slopas men gränskontrollerna skärps’, Svenska Dagbladet, 3 May, p. 7.

Lönnaeus, Olle (2015) ‘Nu följer Sverige efter ett allt stramare Europa’, Sydsvenskan, 12 November, p. 6. 81

Lönnaeus, Olle and El-Alawi, Hussein (2015) ‘Hålen i gränsen öppnar för terrorister’, Sydsvenskan, 19 November, p. 10.

Mathiessen, Per (2015) ‘Bombemand kom med flygtninge-strømmen’, Ekstra Bladet, 16 November, p. 6.

Melin, Anika Ström (2015) ‘Larm om polisvåld vid gräns’, Dagens Nyheter, 14 November, p. 14.

Mellgren, Fredrik (2015) ‘Allt svårara att hitta boende’, Svenska Dagbladet, 17 November, p. 16.

Mellin, Lena (2015) ‘Regeringen måste faktiskt göra något’, Aftonbladet, 19 November, p. 20.

Ministry of Finance [Finansministeriet] (n.d.) Konsekvent udlændingepolitik - der virker! [Consequent immigration policies - that work!]. Retrieved from https://www.fm.dk/temaer/regeringens- resultater/konsekvent-udlaendingepolitik-der-virker, Accessed February 12, 2018.

Ministry of Immigration and Integration [Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet] (2015) English information about changes to regulations applied in the area of asylum. Retrieved from http://uim.dk/nyheder/2015/2015-11/changes-to-asylum-regulations. Accessed February 19, 2018.

Ministry of Immigration and Integration [Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet] (n.d) Gennemførte stramninger på udlændingeområdet. [Implemented tightenings on the area of immigration] Retrieved from http://uim.dk/gennemforte-stramninger-pa-udlaendingeomradet, Accessed February 12, 2018.

Ministry of Justice (2017) Sweden’s Migration and Asylum Policy. Stockholm: Government Offices of Sweden.

Nielsen, Jørgen Steen (2015) ‘Vi er på vej væk fra retsstaten’, Information, 19 November, p. 4.

Nilsson, Daniel and Johansson, Hanna (2017) ‘Pendlare: Det här är bättre än julafton’, Dagens Nyheter, 3 May, p. 8-9.

Nordh, Emelie and Kudo, Per (2015) ‘Ingen skillnad i antalet asylsökande’, Svenska Dagbladet, 14 November, p. 14. 82

Nyman, Emelie (2015) ‘Regeringen kan förlänga åtgärder’, Svenska Dagbladet, 13 November, p. 9.

Nørgaard, Marie (2015) ‘Ekstra Bladets terror-ekspert om terror i Danmark: Vi har et problem, hvis de slår til i Jylland’, Ekstra Bladet, 17 November, pp. 8-9.

Ohlsson, Thomas and Littorin, Jens (2015) ‘Flyktingarnas resa tar slut i Danmark’, Dagens Nyheter, 14 November, p. 12.

Olsson, Hans (2015a) ‘I dag införs gränskontroller - kan leda till fler asylsökande’, Dagens Nyheter, 12 November, p. 1.

Olsson, Hans (2015b) ‘Ministerens besked: kontroller’, Dagens Nyheter, 12 November, pp. 8-9.

Parusel, Bernd (ed.) (2016) EMN Policy Report 2015 - Sweden. Swedish Migration Agency and European Migration Network.

Pettersson, Karin (2015) ‘Terrorn utnyttjas som slagträ mot flyktingar’, Aftonbladet, 17 November, p. 2.

Rogberg, Salomon (2017) ‘Kameror ska skärpa den svenska gränskontrollen’, Svenska Dagbladet, 5 May, p. 7.

Rydén, Daniel (2015) ‘Så vänder IS sina två fiender mot varandra’, Sydsvenskan, 17 November, p. 10.

Seidelin, Michael (2015) ‘Opgør i Frankrig om krigen i Syrien og kampen mod terror’, Politiken, 16 November, p. 2.

State Public Reports [Statens Offentliga Utredningar] (2017) Att ta emot människor på flykt. Sverige hösten 2015. Betänkande av Utredningen om migrationsmottagandet 2015. [To welcome people seeking refuge. Sweden autumn 2015. Report of Study on the Migration Reception 2015]. Stockholm.

Stenberg, Ewa (2015) ‘Det som var otänkbart för tre veckor sedan är nu fullt möjligt’, Dagens Nyheter, 13 November, p. 10. 83

Svenska Dagbladet 1 (2015) ‘Lugn start för kontroller’, 13 November, p. 1

Svenska Dagbladet 2 (2015) ‘Gränskontrollens gisslan’, 14 November, p. 1.

Sydsvenskan 1 (2015) ‘Rejal förstärkning på väg’, 13 November, p. 1.

The Government of Denmark [Regeringen] (2016) Et stærkere Danmark – styr på flygtningestrømmen [A stronger Denmark – controlling the flow of refugees]. Retrieved from https://www.regeringen.dk/nyheder/helhedsplanen/laes-udspillet-til-helhedsplan-for- et-staerkere-danmark/, Accessed February 12, 2018.

The Government of Denmark [Regeringen] (n.d.) Udlændinge og integration. [Foreigners and integration] Retrieved from https://www.regeringen.dk/regeringens-politik-a- %C3%A5/udlaendinge-og-integration/, Accessed February 12, 2018.

Thiemann, Per (2015a) ‘Afrika: Byg ikke et fort om Europa – det medvirker til krisen’, Politiken, 12 November, p. 11.

Thiemann, Per (2015b) ‘Grænseværn er et dyrt og dårligt tiltag mod terror’, Politiken, 19 November, p. 6.

Thiemann, Per and Lauritzen, Thomas (2015) ‘Kamp mod uret i EU’s asylkrise’, Politiken, 13 November, p. 1.

Thobo-Carlsen, Jesper (2017) ‘Lavere asyltal får Sverige til at droppe id-kontrol’, Politiken, 3 May, p. 11.

Treijs, Erica (2015a) ‘En helg i tält för asylsökande’, 16 November, Svenska Dagbladet, p. 12.

Treijs, Erica (2015b) ‘Sverige är inte fullt’, Svenska Dagbladet, 12 November, p. 8.

Winther, Bent (2015) ‘Fra “åbne hjerter” til et land truet af indvandring’, Berlingske, 14 November, pp. 10-11.

Wiraeus, Julia (2015) ‘Flyktingar klättrar över staketen’, Svenska Dagbladet, 15 November, p. 26. 84

Østergaards, Janus (2017a) ‘Provo-Sass skaber ny ravage’, Ekstra Bladet, 2 May, pp. 4-5.

Østergaards, Janus (2017b) ‘Rød vrede over Sass - og så på 1. maj’, Ekstra Bladet, 2 May, pp. 4- 5.

Appendix 1: Coding table for newspaper articles

Coding Category Variable Description

Date Date-month-year the article is published

Newspaper Swedish: Mark the newspaper in 1. Aftonbladet which the article is 2. Dagens Nyheter published in. 3. Sydsvenskan 4. Svenska Dagbladet Danish: 5. Ekstra Bladet 6. Politiken 7. Berlingske 8. Information

Page number Mark the page/pages the article is printed on.

Headline Write the headline of the article.

Summary Short description/summary of the article.

Genre 1. Editorial Mark the genre of the 2. Opinion article 3. News article (reportage, feature or short notice) 4. Political comment/analysis 5. Front-page

Source: First actor 1. Prime minister Mark the first actor who is 2. Ministers given a voice in the article 3. National politicians either referenced or 4. Foreign politicians quoted. 5. Government officials (e.g. Udlændingestyrelsen/migrationsverket) 6. EU Commission 7. Academics 8. Journalists/media 9. NGOs/Aid 10. Police

11. Business 12. Citizens (individuals) 13. Civil society (collective) 14. Migrants/refugees/asylum seekers 15. UN/UNHCR 16. Law/judiciary 17. Think tank 18. Frontex

Source: Second 1. Prime minister Mark the second actor actor 2. Ministers who is given a voice in the 3. National politicians article either referenced or 4. Foreign politicians quoted. 5. Government officials (e.g. Udlændingestyrelsen/migrationsverket) 6. EU Commission 7. Academics 8. Journalists/media 9. NGOs/Aid 10. Police 11. Business 12. Citizens (individuals) 13. Civil society (collective) 14. Migrants/refugees/asylum seekers 15. UN/UNHCR 16. Law/judiciary 17. Think tank 18. Frontex

Migrant/refugee 1. Yes Is the voice of a voice represented 2. No refugee/migrant referred to in the article?

Migrant/refugee 1. Yes Is the migrant/refugee quoted in the 2. No quoted? article

Citizen voice 1. Yes Is a citizen referred to in represented 2. No the article?

Citizen quoted in 1. Yes Is a citizen quoted? the article 2. No

Labels 1. Migrant [migrant(er)/ migrerande] Mark all the labels that are 2. Refugees [Flygtning/ flykting] used in the article to 3. Quota refugees [kvoteflygtninge/ describe the people kvotflyktingar] arriving in Denmark and Sweden.

4. Newly arrived [nyankomne/ nyanlända] 5. Asylum seeker [asylansøger/ asylansöker] 6. Alien [fremmede/ utländsk] 7. Illegal [illegal/ ulovlig] 8. People [mennesker, folk, person/ människor, person] 9. Paperless [papirløs/ papperslösa] 10. New Dane/ new Swede [nydansker/ nya svenskar] 11. Immigrant [indvandrer/ invandra] 12. Refugee flow [flygtningestrøm/ flyktingström] 13. Foreigner [udlændinge/utlänning]

Themes in 1. Immigration figures/level (statistics Mark all the themes that coverage and factual based data) occur in the article. 2. Humanitarianism (NGOs and organized civil society efforts/aid) 3. Human rights (law, policies concerning human rights, human rights institutions, EU) 4. Economy (welfare/benefits/resources, threat to national security) 5. Crisis/societal collapse 6. Danish/Swedish relations 7. Borders/border politics/control 8. Citizen experience 9. Human trafficking/mafia 10. Political response/solution 11. Post arrival integration 12. Moral responsibility 13. Role of media/ digital/ social media 14. Fear, national threat/ terror

Moral/value 1. Positive The general tone of the judgement 2. Negative article. 3. Neutral

Metaphors Write down the metaphors that are used, e.g. to describe a situation or people