On the 23rd of June 2020, the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism organized an online webinar about the Media Narratives on Migrants during the COVID-19. One of the panellists of this online event was Stephanie H. Donald, who is a Distinguished Professor of Film at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom (UK).
In order to provide accurate information regarding the topic of the webinar, Donald went through the British popular news, which she does not do often. She looked at three different aspects, one was China and British Chinese in the UK, other citizens and residents in Britain described as migrants, and at those who try to cross the La Manche strait in order to get into the UK.
Based on her research of newspapers regarding the migrants, she figured out, that there is still a strange use of the term migrant in the UK, which has not changed since the 1960s. The term migrant, as she noted is usually used in British media to describe brown people.
Regarding China and British Chinese, there was not too much about this topic. The media usually talked about the fear of British citizens towards the idea of China. Talking about migrants, who are trying to enter the UK from Europe, most of the media described them as those coming without testing and bringing diseases.
Nevertheless, the British media discussed the Hong Kong issue and the decision of Johnson’s government to accept migrants from Hong Kong. However, Donald called it a colonial action made by the UK’s government.
It was a very colonial action by Johnson’s government because it was about we will accept these poor people into Britain. Expect of course, that they are held by three hundred fifteen thousand people only, there are obviously 7.2 up million people, who might want to come from Hong Kong or might well not. But families are not included on those passports. there is no financial capacity for 90% of those passport holders to relocate if they even wanted to. So it’s a very empty promise, so it was a kind of…disturbingly dishonest use of the idea of migration and how the current government mobilizes that idea. It was PR really, it was migration as PR: Stephanie H. Donald
Based on Donald’s speech, British media are being hypocrite, while talking about migrants. Their narratives have not changed since 1960’s and there is not any hope, they will change their reporting. However, this approach only disadvantages migrants, who already face other challenges.
Michal Tengeri, PhD Candidate in Asia-Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University, Taiwan, twitter: @Michal8810