Seeking asylum during a pandemic: A postcolonial media discourse analysis

Abstract

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw an increase in people seeking asylum in the UK via small boats across the English Channel. The small boat arrivals reported in the news were analyzed using critical discourse analysis to investigate how different outlets framed people seeking sanctuary both visually and linguistically, as well as how postcolonial theory assists an understanding of such discourses. This research conceptualizes common findings in the literature of forced migrants as dehumanized and “othered,” arguing that humanitarian securitization is not an oxymoron but an extension of colonial logic in post-Brexit Britain. The article ends with recommendations for critical reporting of forced migration and for representing people seeking sanctuary in more humanizing ways.