Supervisors info:
Δέσποινα Χρονάκη, Επίκουρη Λέκτορας, Τμήμα Επικοινωνίας και ΜΜΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
In this dissertation I aim to study the complex figure of the migrant child through the
methodology of literature review of some relevant studies about migrants and migration
flows and about the social construction of childhood, and how this figure is represented and
framed in the public discourse. Due to the analysis of the two main aspects of the subject
studied, the identity of a child and the identity of a migrant, and in the attempt to explore in
depth what are the consequences in media representation when these two sides come to
converge, we are going to examine in the first place how the figure of migrants are perceived
and framed in different media around the world, based on their country of origin and on their
political influences and believes, and what are the most common narratives used in order to
describe them and to shape their image for the public. I will also go through the discover of
the main dominant frameworks of the social construction of childhood, its definition and
nature and the detachment from the figure of the mother, as to have a clearer understanding of
the social and cognitive development of the figure of the child and how a process of
migration can have influences on it, shaping the way the adult in the making will build and
maintain the relationships with others and with the self. In the moment the two sides of the
subject analyzed merge, two main narratives will come to light, the anti-youth discourse and
the anti-refugee discourse, both characterized by a negative approach of the matter, and we
will see how the anti-refugee discourse will assume a predominant position when compared
to the anti-youth discourse, underlining the criminal aspect of the child that, despite being a
minor, still seems to be endowed with agency and thus having responsibility – and guilty - for
their own decision to leave their country and traveling undocumented – hence illegally – until
the moment to be able to settle down in the country of arrival. We will also see how the only
moment in which migrant children seems to be again in possession of their usual elements of
childhood, innocence and purity, is in front of some extreme life conditions such as child
abuse and trafficking, early age marriages, pain and suffering or even death, like in the case
of the little Alan Kurdi found dead on the shores of Turkey in 2015.
Keywords:
Refugee children, public discources, refugees, migrants
