The differential portrayals of people who seek asylum along notions of postcolonial legacies

Abstract In Dutch media, people seeking asylum are predominantly portrayed either as a threat to the recipient country or as passive victims, both of which adversely affect their societal position. Academic research understands these differential portrayals through the lens of securitization, which posits that migration shifts from regular politics to an issue of security. However, this perspective is criticized for focusing solely on singular shifts, neglecting broader historical and contextual factors. In this thesis, I contend that a postcolonial perspective offers a more comprehensive explanation of Dutch media's constructions of asylum-seeking people. It elucidates how postcolonial power structures and hierarchies perpetuate practices of othering in their representations. Based on a critical discourse analysis of 60 Dutch news articles on asylum-seeking people published between 2020 and 2024, I demonstrate how postcolonial legacies, such as dehumanization and notions of cultural superiority are reflected in the portrayals of asylum-seeking people. Dehumanization is manifested through various depictions of asylum-seeking people as depersonalized non-human entities - such as crises, burdens, waves and trends. Cultural superiority is underscored by the emphasis on integration. Depictions such as these contribute to constructing asylum-seeking people as a threat, as victims and/or as problems. These postcolonial legacies are instrumental in constructing asylum-seeking people in ways that uphold their distance from the host society, while simultaneously functioning to self-construct the European or Dutch Self in a way that reinforces their hegemonic power.