New publication by Tim Heinkelmann-Wild, Daniel Beck and Alexander Spencer
02.08.2019 -
Heroes welcome: an exceptional story of ‘good’ refugees in the German tabloid discourse
The article by Tim-Heinkelmann-Wild, Daniel Beck and Prof. Dr. Alexander Spencer examines the social construction of the ‘refugee’ in the German tabloid media by investigating an instance in 2016 in which specific refugees from Syria were constructed not as terrorists or as victims but as heroes following their help in the arrest of a terrorist in Chemnitz. While this constitution of the heroic refugee appears to be a positive development at first, the article argues that the celebration of the good refugee is in fact counterproductive as it reinforces the idea that it is unusual for refugees to oppose terrorism.