Brothers and Barbarians: The social construction of ‘refugees’ in Russian newspapers, 2014–2015

Abstract

How were ‘refugees’ socially constructed in Russian newspapers in 2014–2015? This dissertation analyses 1,146 newspaper articles published in three Russian newspapers with nationwide circulation. Viewing ‘refugee’ as an initially empty signifier that gains meaning through discourses, this dissertation applies discourse theory to illustrate how micro links to macro: how ‘refugee’ is filled with meaning by competing discourses on the micro-level, and how these discourses are linked to antagonistic representations of Russia’s identity on the macro-level. The dissertation introduces a novel framework, combining concepts from discourse theory (articulation, subject position, discourse, myth) and other theoretical approaches (boundary-work, narrative, character). This conceptual framework forms the basis for the analysis of the social construction of refugees in Russian newspapers. This study contributes to the literature on the social construction of meaning by showing how taking a starting point in one word ‘refugee’ leads to a wide range of culturally specific meanings. Depending on the context, the narrative, or the discourse, the three Russian newspapers selected for examination represent a refugee as an ‘alien’, ‘barbarian’, ‘brother’, ‘colleague’, ‘employee’, ‘an illegal’, ‘pupil’, ‘student’, ‘terrorist’, ‘victim of interventionism and democratization’ or ‘victim of war’.