Reporting on climate-induced migration: a media discourse analysis of three Dutch newspapers

Over the past two decades, news coverage of climate-induced migration has grown exponentially. In news media, climate-induced migration is often portrayed as vast amounts of climate refugees coming to Western and/or European countries in the future, if we let climate change run its course. By conducting a discourse analysis of the articles by three Dutch newspapers: De Limburger, De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant, retrieved via the database of Nexis Uni, this thesis aims to gain an insight in the way climate-induced migration is being framed in the Dutch media, with specific focus on the political affiliation of the newspapers and their regional focus, as these factors can shape their editorial position and coverage. The findings indicate that De Limburger, despite its regional nature, still pays considerable attention to the global dimensions of climate-induced migration. De Telegraaf on the other hand, predominantly focuses on climate-induced migration at the national level. Additionally, De Volkskrant is significantly more left-wing compared to De Telegraaf in their reporting on climate-induced migration, but not compared to De Limburger. What the three newspapers have in common is the trend to adopt the ‘climate refugee’ frame, despite this term being criticized by the scientific literature. Besides, they have the inclination to frame these climate refugees as being a sizable population, depicting their mass migration to the Netherlands or Europe.