De-ethnicized victims: Mediatized advocacy for asylum seekers

Abstract

This article analyzes the framing of asylum seekers in the context of mediatized sanctuary policy and pro-asylum activism in Finland. In 2007, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, together with secular activist groups, successfully campaigned against the deportation of three female asylum seekers. In a textual analysis of the three categories of mediated communication, three approaches to framing analysis are used: the social movement approach, the coverage studies approach, and the framing effects approach (Scheufele and Scheufele, 2010: 111–112). In addition to a constructivist and qualitative line of frame analysis, framing of asylum seekers is studied in the light of Luc Boltanski’s (1999) concept of the communitarian figure. The article examines how framings in and around journalism construct such representative figures (‘others’), who qualify for ‘our’ support. The article concludes that the engagement of the Church raised the issue of asylum seekers to the journalistic agenda; however, socially and politically challenging debate did not fully develop. News coverage used practices of cultural proximity and presented particular asylum seekers as suitable victims, un-marking their difference through de-ethnicizing and de-muslimizing them.