VIEWED from the OTHER SIDE: Media Coverage and Personal Tales of Migration in Iraqi Kurdistan
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VIEWED FROM THE OTHER SIDE: Media Coverage and Personal Tales of Migration in Iraqi Kurdistan Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud, Espen Gran, Mohammed A. Salih, Sareng Aziz Viewed from the other Side: Media Coverage and Personal Tales of Migration in Iraqi Kurdistan Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud, Espen Gran, Mohammed A. Salih and Sareng Aziz IMK Report 2012 Department of Media and Communication Faculty of Humanities University of Oslo Viewed from the other side: Media Coverage and Personal Tales of Migration in Iraqi Kurdistan Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ III Abbreviations..................................................................................................................... IV Executive summary ............................................................................................................. V The coverage of migration in Iraqi Kurdistan ....................................................................VI Why certain frames and stories dominate in the news – findings from elite interviews .... VII The main motivations of migration in Iraqi Kurdistan .......................................................IX The experiences of those who have returned from Europe – expectations and disappointments ................................................................................................................IX Knowledge and evaluation of European immigration and return policies ............................ X Main conclusions ............................................................................................................... X Recommendations.............................................................................................................. XI 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Research question and research design ................................................................................ 2 2. Analytical framework ....................................................................................................... 5 The unbound flow of information ........................................................................................ 5 Transnationalism vs. the state as the primary definer ........................................................... 7 The media discourse on irregular migration ......................................................................... 8 3. Background ..................................................................................................................... 11 Historical and political context .......................................................................................... 11 Social context: The legacy of tribalism .............................................................................. 12 Economic development ..................................................................................................... 13 History and background of Kurdish media ....................................................................... 14 Migration .......................................................................................................................... 16 Migration from Iraqi Kurdistan to Norway ........................................................................ 17 4. Research methodology .................................................................................................... 21 Research ethics ................................................................................................................. 21 Qualitative interview data ................................................................................................. 22 Survey data ....................................................................................................................... 23 The content analysis of Kurdish news on migration ........................................................... 24 Norwegian news on return migration................................................................................. 26 5. The Kurdish media discourse on migration: Dominant perspectives and absent stories....................................................................................................................... 27 The media discourse on migration in Iraqi Kurdistan – general traits ................................ 28 Immigration to Kurdistan .............................................................................................. 30 Life of emigrants in the West......................................................................................... 31 I Viewed from the other side: Media Coverage and Personal Tales of Migration in Iraqi Kurdistan Reasons for leaving Iraqi Kurdistan ............................................................................... 32 Returns of emigrants ..................................................................................................... 32 Irregular emigration and forced returns in Kurdish news ............................................... 33 Perils and hardship: Stories on the destinies of irregular migrants in the West ................... 33 Reports on deportations ..................................................................................................... 35 The Kurdish discourse on deportation compared to the Western debate ............................. 37 Conclusion and main findings ........................................................................................... 40 6. Media professionals and sources on the coverage of irregular migration and forced returns ................................................................................................................................. 43 The official views of the Kurdish Government and IFIR ................................................... 43 The views of the media professionals ................................................................................ 45 The stigma of mandatory and forced returns ...................................................................... 49 The media campaign of STATT ........................................................................................ 51 Conclusion and main findings ........................................................................................... 52 7. Push and pull – the stories of life in Europe and Iraqi Kurdistan ................................ 55 Media use ......................................................................................................................... 55 Pull factors – the stories of life in Europe ......................................................................... 56 Push factors: The felt inflexibility of life .......................................................................... 58 Nepotism ...................................................................................................................... 58 Political repression and power abuse ............................................................................ 59 Lack of individual freedom ........................................................................................... 60 What European citizenship can do .................................................................................... 62 Brutal Europe – stories of denial ...................................................................................... 63 The impossibility of returning .......................................................................................... 65 Deportation and ‘voluntary’ returns .................................................................................. 67 Dreams and nightmares seeping into the public discourse ................................................. 68 Conclusion and main findings .......................................................................................... 70 8. Experiences of an arbitrary asylum system in Europe.................................................. 73 Lack of knowledge and understanding of the asylum system ............................................. 74 An unjust an arbitrary migration system ........................................................................... 75 ‘We had to lie. All of us did.’ ............................................................................................ 76 The moral discourse of an unjust migration system .......................................................... 79 Conclusion and main findings ........................................................................................... 82 9. Conclusions and recommendations ................................................................................ 85 Main findings .................................................................................................................... 86 Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 87 Appendix I – Interview guides ........................................................................................... 89 Appendix II – List of informants ....................................................................................... 99 Appendix III – Survey questionnaire ............................................................................... 103 Appendix IV – Codebook. Migration in Kurdish news ................................................... 107 References