How social media portray migrants: a study reveals the role of gender stereotypes

Extraordinary professor at Charles University Nico Carpentier, Associate Professor Vaia Doudaki, and doctoral researcher Miloš Hroch from the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, are co-authors of a recently published article in the journal European Journal of Cultural Studies, which focuses on intersectional discourses of migration and gender in the social media environments of three European countries – Belgium, Greece, and Italy.

The study analyzes how people on social media portray migrants and identifies a clash between two main types of discourse. The first is an inclusive discourse that supports the integration of migrants and emphasizes values such as empathy, solidarity, care, and equality. However, the study points out that this discourse sometimes fails to avoid reproducing traditional stereotypes. In order for migrants to be accepted, social media users frequently depict them according to conventional gender roles – for example, portraying men as hardworking family breadwinners.

On the opposite side stands an exclusionary discourse that justifies the exclusion of migrants from society. This perspective deliberately emphasizes their “otherness” and portrays them as different, with gender again playing a key role in this rhetoric. Migrant men are often depicted as a threat – whether as criminals, religious fanatics, or a danger to local women. Migrant women, such as pregnant women or mothers with children, are in turn mostly presented as vulnerable individuals and are perceived primarily as a social and economic burden on the host state.

“Gender remains highly relevant in the 21st century, but we should not study it in isolation. Gender interacts and intersects with many other identities and positionalities, including ethnicity. This shows that the struggle against sexism is often also a struggle against racism,” explains Nico Carpentier. 

The authors also point out that social media represent an important space where these meanings and interpretations clash and are negotiated. “This research shows that in three very different European countries, social media function as arenas of political contestation over migration. Gender is not neutral within them, but becomes part of these conflicts,” adds Carpentier.

The full article is available in Open Access.