LABOUR MIGRATION IN THE AGE OF ANTI-IMMIGRATION SENTIMENT News Media Framings in Finland and Sweden

Abstract

This thesis aims to advance comparative knowledge of how labour migration is framed in the Finnish and Swedish news media. Additionally, it aims to understand the prevailing political ideology behind the frames, using the theories of economic competition and welfare chauvinism. It uses frame analysis to examine the media representations of a less focused form of immigration, labour migration. The material analysed in this thesis was collected from four news outlets: Helsingin Sanomat and Iltalehti from Finland and Aftonbladet and Expressen from Sweden. The frame analysis reveals demand, victimisation and economic framing of labour migration to be present in all four newspapers. The newspapers have relatively small differences in the framing of labour migration, most significantly, Helsingin Sanomat has a major emphasis on the economic frame. The demand, victimisation and economic frames were examined for their underlying political ideology, finding that the framing of labour migration can be explained through economic competition, whereas welfare chauvinistic ideology is less present. The results suggest that political ideology plays a notable, yet small role in the Finnish and Swedish media framing of labour migration. Furthermore, previous theories have a limited ability to explain the framing of labour migration, as welfare chauvinistic ideology is present in a limited number of articles.