Claiming the Crisis: Mediated Public Debates about the Refugee Crisis in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia

The arrival of refugees to Europe increased dramatically in 2015. This situation produced polarized responses across the European Union and caused intensive media attention and public debate. This study investigates claim-making on the so-called refugee crisis in the public sphere in three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It asks who shaped the discourse on the crisis in national public realms, how the discourse took shape and to what degree a common European discourse would emerge. Actors' positions and claims in the mediated discourse during the first peak of the crisis between August and October 2015 are examined, drawing on an analysis of 3,226 claims in a cross-country comparison. Results indicate institutionalization and shift between security-humanitarian discourses and balanced threat-victim-framing. The findings suggest that the debate was confined to national public spheres, but with first signs of a common European discourse. This study contributes to the literature on representation of migration in the media in a cross-national perspective within the context of the recent crisis.