The utopia of equality or covert dystopia?

As Russia started the invasion of Ukraine and, consequently, the largest forced migration in Europe since the Second World War, anti-migration policies of neighbouring countries were set aside to welcome Ukrainian forcibly displaced people. However, the treatment of forcibly displaced individuals is inconsistent, as Syrians have faced racist and violent policies from European countries. Additionally, certain international news media and politicians justify such double standards under the narrative that forcibly displaced Ukrainians are Christian and Western neighbours. Such discursive practices operate at an individual and societal level, influencing our perception and communication of reality. Society's perception of forced migration can be partly influenced by the discourses of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as they are the top global organisation aiding forcibly displaced people, and sometimes, their representations of forcibly displaced people have been subject to criticism. However, social media also play crucial roles in influencing the discourses around those who suffer as the public resorts to these networks for news and information nowadays. Instagram, specifically, has grown in popularity among refugee organisations and the general public. Therefore, the representations shared on UNHCR's Instagram account can shape the public's perception of migration to varying degrees. The arbitrary narratives of news media and governments raise questions about whether there are also differences in the discoursive strategies applied by the UNHCR to represent forcibly displaced Syrians and Ukrainians. As such, this study analysed how the UNHCR represents forcibly displaced Ukrainians and Syrians on Instagram. By applying Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis on UNHCR's Instagram posts of Syrian (N=45) and Ukrainian (N=45) forcibly displaced people, the representational strategies of UNHCR and their societal implications were analysed. MCDA allowed for a critical understanding of how words and images can contribute to the meaning-making of reality. More specifically, it illustrated how textual and visual representations on Instagram could be ingrained with societal biases and reinforce asymmetric power relations. Overall, the results indicate that the UNHCR primarily represents Syrian and Ukrainian forcibly displaced people as victimised and voiceless masses in constant need of support to draw attention towards its brand and legitime its work. By doing so, the UNHCR emphasises a self-focused discourse typical of post- humanitarian appeals over the voices and agency of those who suffer. Notably, on some occasions, the UNHCR refers explicitly to Ukrainian forcibly displaced people as families or neighbours. By contrast, when representing forcibly displaced Syrians, the UNHCR sometimes described them as refugees or refugee families, which can have dehumanising effects. At the same time, the second most common approach involved representing forcibly displaced Syrians as empowered and talented individuals to prove the impact of donations in humanitarian causes. This way, the UNHCR applies a deliberate positivism strategy that reinforces global South and North power asymmetries. To a lesser extent, such a strategy has also been combined with post-humanitarian appeals. These results elucidate the significant marketisation of the humanitarian sector and the effects of the logic of social media on UNHCR's work.