Refugees in the Netherlands: victims or intruders? - A qualitative analysis on the representation of refugees in Dutch newspapers

This thesis studies the notion of framing in Dutch newspapers. Different articles from January 1st 2015 until December 31st 2017 will be examined, in order to look at the presences of frames. The reason for studying framing is that it has effects on society, politics, news media and the integration of refugees. This thesis mainly looks at the factor of time and the commercialization of Dutch newspapers linked to the frames used in the newspaper articles. A total of 60 articles published in 5 different newspapers are examined: De Telegraaf, de Trouw, NRC Handelsblad, Algemeen Dagblad and de Volkskrant. A qualitative content analysis has been conducted by using NVIVO and establishing different tests in this program. The results indicated that framing in the Dutch newspapers is slightly decreasing over the years. Despite this decrease, there are still a significant amount of frames being used. Two main frames were being found in the different newspapers: the illegitimacy of refugees frame and the human interest frame. The human interest frame was almost the only victim frame that was frequently used in the articles. Especially the intruder frames are present in the Dutch newspapers. This tendency for negative news and sensationalism might be explained by the commercialization of news in the Netherlands. The practical implications of the predominant use of intruder frames might be that the integration of refugees will be negatively impacted. Refugees partially form their identity around stories they read in the media, which could impact the integration. Furthermore, due to the emotional appeal of negative stories, it could affect the tendency to view refugees as a negative influence on society.