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Kydyrbekova Aizada

Compare and Contrast Essay

October 17 , 2017

Attitudes of Germany and UK toward outsiders

The issue of asylum seekers, migration, and refugee crisis encompassed both of
these countries. And how government responded to these problems and how they were
represented by media differs from one another. The economic, ethnic, and security threats
posed by migrants, refugees and asylum seekers were the major focus of security both in
Germany and United Kingdom. In addition to this, the term deservingness was defined in
both cases and issues were interpreted from historical backgrounds of countries. How media
represent issues of refugee crisis and asylum seekers, who really deserves to be them and do
they put economic, ethnic and security threats both in Germany and UK are similar on one hand
and varies from the other hand.

The tabloid media in UK have accepted the image of the immigrants as a criminal
and perpetuates it in public understanding (Alexandra J. Innes, p 462.) The tabloid media plays
a significant role in shaping the asylum seekers condition in UK because they are far more
widely read in the UK than the broadsheet, and large number of people access online websites of
the tabloids. People easily adapt what is produced in media and it is important that how and in
which manner the things are represented by media. For example, in British media there was no
mention made of humanitarian issues and the need to offer refuge from persecution (Alexandra J.
Innes, p 465.) News of the World reported that Metropolitan Police Commander Ian Quinton
wrote to Home Office officials saying those foreign nationals represent a danger to ordinary
citizens. So, he is referring to all other nations as a threat to the UK.

On the contrary, the German-language press reacted to refugee crisis in Germany more
positively by representing the central themes like solidarity, responsibility, and
Willkommenkulltur(culture of welcome) ( Seth.M. Holmes & Heide Castaneda, p 8.) In
addition to this, German newspapers have issued special supplements in Arabic to welcome
refugees to the country (International Business Times, September 9, 2015.) This optimistic
attitude of local mass- media towards refugee crisis shaped the discourse of events in the
international press. As an evidence, UK Guardian, July 16, 2015 was parallelly broadcasting
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these events. Another example of positive response of media was the action taken by Startup
Boat company where leaders from various areas addressed the problem of refugee crisis in Greek
Island Soimos (p 9.)

In the case of UK, asylum seekers defined as people who are seeking to escape poverty,
civil war or natural disaster. Comparingly, in Germany the term refugee interpreted in the same
way. It states that International Conventions establish refugee as involuntarily displaced people
by political circumstances, including war and anthropogenic disasters. Consequently, they are
framed as deserving. Both terms asylum seeker and refugee are clearly distinguished from the
term migrant.

They are both treated as untrustworthy. For instance, in UK asylum seekers considered
to be as a factor which put threat into divergent sphere of society in UK. Firstly, UK hold the
idea that asylum seekers are economically motivated and simply seek access to British welfare
state and they seek to obtain something (well being) that they do not deserve. Secondly, the
societal identity was protected by physical appearance means that people from other ethnic group
or nationalities were not welcome to UK as any means. Thirdly, asylum seekers seen as a
physical threat to UK security in terms of criminal issues. They were conceived as an external
factors which causes insecurity in UK.

Likewise, in Germany community immigrants and refugees put fear to media and
political representation by their cultural, ethnic, and religious difference which had been
obviously displayed in securitization responses of German government ( Seth.M. Holmes &
Heide Castaneda, p 7.) In other words, they create a certain type of xenophobia in German
society.

In conclusion, the the current issues of refugees crisis, migration and asylum seekers are
mostly approached differently both in Germany and UK. The role of media emphasised in both
cases, either in negative or positive ways.

References
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1. Alexandria J. Innes: When the threatened become the threat: The construction of asylum
seekers in British media narratives, International Relations 2010 24: 456, link:
http://ire.sagepub.com/content/24/4/456
2. Seth M. Holmes & Heide Castaneda: Representing the European refugee crisis in
Germany and beyond: Deservingness and difference, life and death, American
ethnologist,volume 43, number 1, February 2016