| dc.description.abstract | Migration has gradually become a regular topic covered in the national and local Greek-Cypriot media. National media had to accommodate significant changes related to Cyprus’ gradual transformation in the 1990s from a country of emigration to a host country. Notably, from 2012 to the drafting of this report, a period of financial turbulence for the Republic of Cyprus (hereinafter RoC), net migration turned negative, as the country exported more migrants compared to the number of migrants arriving in the country. Despite exceptions, Greek-Cypriot media have thus far been found to infuse with their coverage and reporting, anti-migration sentiments and ideologies. Anti-migrant reporting took place against the backdrop of restrictive migration policies (Trimikliniotis, 2013), inadequate integration policies and practices, including significant shortcomings of the asylum system. In this context, mainstream media and the Press specifically, continue to play a key role in constructing, monitoring, and framing the migration debate in the country, reflecting and/or reinforcing predominant ideologies and perceptions. For this reason, it is important to understand how the media report, frame and analyse migration issues in this specific social context and reflect on the implications of these representations and their diffusion in the society. This report sketches the ways that Greek-Cypriot newspapers addressed the issue of migration between the second half of 2011 to the end of 2015. It focuses on a period marked with financial turmoil for RoC, from July 2011–a year before the country applied for aid at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)-to December 2015, when the so-called refugee crisis, which unfolded earlier on, was still at its peak4. The aim of this report is twofold. It firstly provides the reader with information about the visibility of the issue in the newspapers studied, for example it presents the number of articles published on issues related to migration and the specific topics that these articles covered along with information on whether their focus was on national matters, international and/or European. Within this section, the report provides information regarding the refugee crisis (2014-2015) and discusses differences with the earlier reporting period (2011-2013). Secondly, the report presents the pro-migrant/anti-migrant debate by exploring favourable and unfavourable arguments towards migration and migrants in the newspapers studied.Specific references are again made to the refugee crisis and how it affected the content of the pro-migration/anti-migration debate. | en |
