The latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Migration Letters, features an article, “The Migration-Crime Nexus and the Press in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom,” by Dr. Alexander Caviedes of the Department of Politics and International Affairs.
The article, which examines the link between migrants and crime as portrayed in newspapers from France, Germany and the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2016, also charts the prevalence of this narrative over time, describing which aspects of crime are most commonly referenced in each country.
These findings, Dr. Caviedes said, suggest that while there has been little increase in the coverage of crime and migration, the press securitizes migration by focusing on crime through a shared emphasis on human trafficking and the non-European background of the perpetrators.
The article represents a further aspect of the data gathered by Caviedes through a research project based upon collaboration with Fredonia students, who review, code, and summarize newspaper articles from five countries, spanning English, French, German, Italian and Spanish languages.
The project exemplifies Fredonia's dedication to faculty-student collaboration on advanced research. The article benefited from the assistance of the following current and former Fredonia students: Erin Bischoff, Nathaniel Clark, James Coughlin, Sierra Cuellar, Alex Ives, Zachary Jones, Andrew Lent, Mitchell Macholz, Gabrielle Macool, Richard Nolan, Hannah Orsino, Daniel Orzechowski, Jason Pandich, Austin Parr, Joseph Sienkewicz, Rebecca Thompson, Caroline Villafrank, William Webber and Dylan Yetter.
In March, Caviedes presented the research paper “Constructing the Economic Migrant: European Press Portrayals of Labor Immigration” at the international Council of Europeanists Conference in Chicago. That paper also builds upon data generated through the aforementioned research collaboration between Caviedes and Fredonia students.
