| Guangchao Charles Feng (Reviewing Editor)Source: Cogent Social Sciences, Volume 3, 2017 – Issue 1
Pdf file: The consequences of colonialism in Latvia during a mass migration period in Europe 2015 2016
Abstract
The collective memory of the colonial past still attempts to determine the relationship between the different ethnic groups in Latvia and also affects the identity problems of such groups. These effects are visible today in the new arena of public space, i.e. in relation to refugees. The flow of refugees into Europe in autumn 2015 was unexpected for many people. Local media reports that the large number of refugees and migrants are making the migration process uncontrollable, has signalled that there is an accidental and intentional crisis cluster here. Public opinion polls also confirmed the nervous state of the Latvian population crisis and dislike for refugee reception demanded by the management of the European Union. This research was conducted in order to determine whether such reaction of the society is rooted in xenophobia or has other reasons. Two groups of people were surveyed. One of them shows that post-colonial thinking is still present, if supported by post-colonially oriented mass media. The second group without post-colonial experience gave the opposite response. The research used local media content analysis for the purpose of determining how the leading newspapers interpret refugee crisis related developments to their readers and studied the spectrum of media used by both surveyed groups regarding the refugee issue.
Keywords: colonial past, media, intercultural relations, refugees, migrants
Public Interest Statement
Society that frees itself of the burden of occupation and colonialism cannot adjust to the rules of existence of the democratic world quickly and painlessly. Secondary socialization facilitated by the mass media is required for this purpose. In Latvia’s case the process of transition of the public opinion from the prejudice created by dictatorship to the openness guaranteed by democracy is still ongoing even 26 years after regaining the independence and freedom from the Soviet occupation. It is proven by this study that focuses on the effects of refugee and migrant crisis on the public opinion in Latvia in 2015/2016. It attempts to determine the influence of prejudice created by post-colonialism and the mass media on the value criteria of today’s society and the related assessment of the refugee and migration crisis.
This study proved that public reaction in crisis situations cannot be explained simply and unequivocally.
1. Introduction
The consequences of colonialism in Latvia’s modern society has so far undergone only limited study (Kelertas, 2006; Racevskis, 1998; Račevskis, 2001; Riekstiņš, 2015; Rudzītis, 2004; Vardys, 1964; Zariņš, 1999). Most researchers believe “that post-colonial studies are based on the historical fact of European colonialism, and the diverse material effects to which this phenomenon gave rise” (Aschcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995, p. 2). The third “model”, or “official nationalism”, which is typical for Russia is studied to an even lesser extent. This involved the imposition of cultural homogeneity from the top, through state action. “‘Russification’ was a project which could be, and was, emulated elsewhere” (Chatterjee, 1995, p. 165). Hence the enormous twenty-seven-nation post-Soviet sphere—including the former Soviet republics and the former Eastern Bloc states “is virtually never discussed in the burgeoning discourse of post-colonial studies. Yet Russia and the successor Soviet Union exercised colonial control over the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Baltics, and central and Eastern Europe for anywhere between 50 and 200 years” (Moore, 2001, p. 111). Because of this the “Baltic States are eminently suited for post-colonial analysis due to their collective stories, which feature roughly one millennium of recurring colonial activity” (Jirgens, 2006, p. 45).
“Ethnic Latvians and ethnic Russians don’t like each other much, but they like asylum-seekers even less” (Ragozin, 2015). The current issue is not merely xenophobia but is closely related to the colonial past: because the Soviets used the Baltic countries not only for ideology but also for systematic mass immigration (Kelertas, 2006; Riekstiņš, 2015), and the process of leaving state socialism behind was not simply a technological or policy issue of “transition” (Kennedy, 2002). Rather it was sustained by the emergence of a whole new cultural formation, which he dubs “transition culture” (Hladik, 2013).
The hypothesis is an assumption that post-colonial trauma is the cause of the fact that “Latvia has the most negative attitude towards refugees in the whole of the European Union” (Latvia, 2015), and a catalyst for this effect is local mass media. The aim of this study is to find out how the media presents information about the refugees and migrants to the audience as well as which rhetorical and linguistic tools it uses and how these tools influence the public opinion regarding refugees and migrants in Latvia.
Latvian history has two colonial periods. What follows from this is the existing binary construct (Ashcroft, 2000), which is frequently characterised by the emphasis on identity. ‘It was a remnant of the colonial era, when it was necessary to lead Latvians against colonisers’ (Rudzītis, 2004). The opinion that violence against colonisers can restore self-esteem is very common in many studies (Childs & Williams, 1997; Fanon, 1999). In Latvia such a process cannot be observed because the political paradigm was replaced by the diplomatic channels ‘and colonisers were not forced to flee or to recognise the fact that they were colonisers’ (Rudzītis, 2004). All post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and “independence has not solved this problem. The development of new elites within independent societies are often buttressed by neo-colonial institutions” (Aschcroft et al., 1995). In the case of Latvia, this effect is observed in the process of taking over “neo-colonial institutions” and the colonial style that is evident in media work (Ankrava, 2002; Račevskis, 2002; Zariņš, 1999; Zepa, 2008).
The study demonstrates that there is a huge gap between opinions about the refugee issue in Latvian society. A section of respondents, who mainly use only local media, were sceptical towards refugees and migrants. The remaining respondents, who for the most part use international media sources, were less sceptical towards refugees and migrants. This means that a significant proportion of Latvian newspapers are now under the control of local political powers which basically continue the traditions of USSR colonial times and as media owners keep conversing with the Latvian public as a collective agitator, propagandist, and organizer (Ļeņins, 1901/1974, p. 10) which is something that is not acceptable for a new democracy such as Latvia. Similar trends of political parties using post-colonial trauma for their populist propaganda purposes may be observed in other post-communist countries today (Ankrava, 2008; Koczanowicz & Singer, 2005; Slovakia, 2010).
The war in Syria, and the civil unrest in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, became the prime cause of the huge wave of refugees travelling to Europe during the summer of 2015. The number of people fleeing to Europe grew exponentially, and there were warnings in the ongoing refugee crisis that jihadists may be hiding amongst refugees who were coming to Europe. Apparently even Pope Francis sounded the alarm that the terrorist sect of so-called Islamic State (IS) could “infiltrate” the power of hundreds of thousands of refugees coming from Syria and Iraq who were now seeking refuge in Europe (Pope Francis, 2015). The ongoing outflow of people from the Middle East “is a golden opportunity for IS to spread out its fighters to a larger scale, said James Clapper, director of the US intelligence services” (Ohlsson, 2015, p. 4). These comments by the pope and the leader of the US intelligence services have received special attention in the media. The level of stress being exhibited by ordinary Europeans escalated dramatically. There is an increased development of cultural conflicts becoming ever worse in those countries that take in these refugees. Many youths who burned cars in protest in a number of European suburbs in recent years were Muslims. In response, Christian youths burned refugee camps. But there is nothing to suggest that they would have done it because of Islam or Christianity. It is only social and economic factors that are behind these reactions.
Latvia as an EU Member State has a quota for refugees. It must show its solidarity with the larger member countries and share their abundance of refugees. In order to solve the migration crisis, a refugee redistribution scheme will be implemented within the EU. Figures from the UNHCR actually show that the number of asylum seekers in the country has so far been very small, with just 63 people granted refugee status in Latvia between 1998 and 2014 (Volunteers, 2016). At the same time, it does not stop emigration from Latvia to Western Europe’s labour market. The reason for this mass migration was an austerity policy (Table 1). “Latvia’s self-discipline in the face of a sharp economic downturn and tough austerity measures wins it plenty of prizes … Some fear that emigration is turning from a safety valve to a brain drain” (Far from home, 2010).
Table 1. International long-term migration of the population in Latvia per year between 2005 and 2013 (1000)
Formally, Latvia needs manpower and is not characterised by suffering from an overcrowded population, but at the same time two coalition partners in the Latvian parliament—the nationalist conservative National Alliance and the centrist Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS)—do not support the decision regarding refugees. “Unity, the leading partner in Latvia’s centre-right coalition, has warned that any refusal to shelter more refugees may have negative implications for Latvia’s economy and security” (Latvia, 2015; Rinkevics, 2015). This situation is contradictory: on the one hand at the political level the EU is threatening Latvia with possible international isolation because of its failure to agree on the resettlement of additional refugees (Refugee issue, 2015; Latvia, 776 refugees, 2015), while on the other hand, there have been no registered attacks against the refugees or refugee camps by the local residents of Latvia as opposed to the case in Sweden, France, and Germany, where it is quite common (EU länder, 2015; FNB, 80 flyktingar, 2015; Kaos, 2015; Nya attacker, 2015; Planerat, 2015; Så här, 2015) (Table 2, Valsts Robežsardze, 2017.08).
Table 2. Detainees, illegal immigrants and trespassers in Latvia, 2015
So far, the reception of refugees in Latvia has been described in the media as having a great deal of public resistance. This study was carried out in order to determine whether the public really expresses the same view that is being proclaimed by the leading media outlets.
2. Study background
The media has so far explained this situation with a number of objective reasons: (a) limited experience in the reception of refugees; (b) bad experiences with immigrants after the restoration of independence, due to existing Russian-speaking economic migrants from the former Soviet Union, who currently represent around 42% of the population and do not want to integrate into the country (The measurement, 2013); (c) the economic crisis of 2007–2009, after which inhabitants have been suffering low living standards and have been taking part in mass emigration due to unemployment; (d) contributions to the refugee quota are higher than the average for Latvian senior citizens; (e) public fear of an unknown religion.
There are also other factors involved. Latvia’s population has a poor experience of communication with the EU. The so-called Latvian success story when EU experts forced austerity policies on Latvia in order to provide guidance over the economic crisis was not a forward-looking step. As a result, a fifth of the country’s population is now working abroad (Aslund & Dombrovskis, 2011; Sommers & Woolfson, 2014). An important reason for domestic discontent was the fact that the EU missed the opportunity to conduct proper crisis communication with the public of Latvia during the economic crisis and the time at which the austerity policy was implemented (Veinberg, 2014). At the same time, the government advises its citizens to be helpful to refugees and claims that rendering hospitality will affect society at all levels. The EU official articles, German and Swedish political leaders’ articles that were reprinted in two newspapers and which claimed: “it is our duty to shelter refugees”, “we can help”, “overcome national egoism”, “united Europe”, and “let’s be honest”, were not heard by the general public in Latvia.
The modern era has seen two waves of migration to and from Europe. The end of WWII brought in its wake the largest population movements in European history. Millions of people fled or were expelled from Eastern Europe. Latvians were also amongst the numbers of refugees. In the nation’s collective memory there are both refugee camps in Germany (Kalnins, 2015; Zake, 2010) and the tragic story of the Baltic legionnaires who were forcibly deported from Sweden to the Soviet Union (Lindholm, 1992; Turner, 2015). That is when Europe collectively realised that people fleeing persecution should have the right to seek refuge in order to access fundamental human rights (Alfred, 2015). On the one hand, society has the experience and awareness of refugee issues, but on the other hand, the ambitiousness of local politicians as manifested through the media hinders Latvians compassion for unhelpfulness. This was the next important question for this research.
Understanding the nature of prejudice, scapegoating, stereotypes, and discrimination as used in the media is the first step in combating these practices. In order to determine this, one needs to analyse systems of metaphors. We “choose our words from within a dominant system or frame of metaphor that offers us a specific lexicon of the language, that defines words in certain specific ways, and that shapes both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of our communication. In this way, figuratively and often literally, through metaphor we make meaning” (Steuter & Wills, 2008, p. 3). The literary meaning of the word “metaphor” is “to carry over”. A metaphor transfers aspects of one object to another symbolically, even if the objects are originally in no way connected (Hawkes, 1972, p. 1).
When the media constantly repeats one word, the patterns begin to appear as if they are true. “This transposition is one of the key effects of metaphor” (Steuter & Wills, 2008, p. 4). Media has always explored and used the power of metaphor. This is the way that metaphor has been seen by scholars since the 1970s, as an important tool for forming “an essential aspect of cognition” (Winner, 1988, p. 17). The aim of this study was to find out how the media presents information about the refugees and migrants to the audience and what kind of rhetorical and linguistic tools it uses.
3. Methodology
In order to be able to develop an understanding of which risks are accelerated in young people in Latvia by globalisation and by the country’s colonial past, a non-proportional stratified sample of the population of young adults was used. This was formed of a total of 220 students for the purpose of the survey. All of them were asked to fill out questionnaires. The average age of the participants was 25.5 years. Each of them was a student at Liepaja University and RISEBA in Riga (in March 2016), for the purpose of gathering data, including the sample site. In parallel with this, a similar public survey, the 2016 Mars month, was suggested. A total of 120 respondents with an average age of 39.6 years responded through social networking sites.
In order to develop an understanding of the sources of information or the news in the Latvian media during the period between August 2015 and January 2016, two leading newspapers—Diena and Latvijas Avīze—were used.1 Only the printed rather than digital versions of newspapers were studied as these newspaper publications were widely used by the Latvian population during migration crisis (Table 4). In order to analyse and systematise reporting about the flow of refugees across Europe and the effects caused by this flow, two methods were used: the dialogism implied by Mikhail Bakhtin (1979) and critical discourse analysis, which tends to be characterised as having an “active relation to reality” (Fairclough, 1992, p. 41; Nerman, 1973).
Rhetoric is always associated with a particular situation and must be seen in its historical and social context. Context is decisive for the analysis. An emergency situation is an excellent background for the analysis of the media rhetoric which is the rhetoric of authority (Nerman, 1973, p. 19). By applying this methodology we can analyse the text on four levels: (1) content, (2) emotional manifestation, (3) pointing the finger at the reader to make them act and react, and (4) appeal to the reader to share the journalist’s opinion (Nerman, 1973, p. 20). In this way we construct the median of their morale by using their words (Andersen, 1996; Karlberg & Mral, 1998).
4. Analysis, findings, and results
Publications that examine the refugee crisis in the period between August 2015 to January 2016 are regular and extensive. Table 3 shows the number of publications in both magazines. Most of them were published in September. The turning points here are the same as in other European newspapers: drowned, three-year Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi (2 September), the day upon which Germany reinstated border checks (13 September), and the EU summit that was aimed at reaching agreement on a common European approach to the migrant crisis (23 September) (EJO Pētījums, 2015). A number of publications each month are proportional in their coverage of tragedies in the Mediterranean and in their coverage of the news in Europe. The dramatic increase in the number of publications in September shows the media’s confusion in the face of the current crisis situation. Each crisis refers to a sequence of unwanted events which can have unpleasant results. And that is exactly how both newspapers explained the situation in Europe: “this wave of refugees is approaching like a storm but nobody is prepared to meet it” (Bundžu, 2015); “no problems have been solved; everything exists only on paper” (Zvirbulis, 2016), “this is not a crisis, this is a disaster” (Zandere, 2015); “this is a bankruptcy of the EU’s migration policy” (Bērziņš, 2015; Šnore, 2015).
Table 3. The number of publications covering the refuge crisis: Diena & Latvijas Avize. 08.2015 -01.2016
4.1. Two post-colonial effects
Newspapers stressed that instead of a well-thought-out strategy, Brussels and Riga issued hurried instructions. “The flow of refugees is growing steadily” (Ķezberis, 2015b), “the process is out of control” (Žīgure, 2015). It was directly stated to the reader that desperate people from the Middle East were arriving in Europe non-stop, and that this had brought the world to the Syrian refugee crisis. “European governments have ended up squabbling over ‘border fences’, ‘border security’, and ‘burden sharing’” (The Refuge Crisis, 2015), and with this overture begins the story of the wave of refugees. Moreover, the EU and national leaders expressed different positions on this matter. “The EU forces us to accept refugees on a compulsory basis” (ANO, 2015); “Latvian politicians believe that it is blackmail and populism” (Vikmanis, 2015), “Visegrad against Brussels. Where are we?” (Šmits, 2016), “Merkel’s policies are not understandable” (Lorencs, 2015), “Juncker’ is now the damn for us” (Pie valdības nama, 2015).
Both newspapers here use actions that have the ability to control reader behaviour (Johanson-Cartee, 2004, p. 152), and by using meta-communication they form their own codes and value ideology, and consequently the meanings and messages’ (Kellner, 1995). Content analysis shows the dominance from only one position in Nerman’s four steps (1973): (1) “data shows that the flow of refugees is growing steadily” (Content A), (Ķezberis, 2015b); (2) “is it possible for us to escape these refugees?” (emotional manifestations), (Zandere, 2015); (3) “everyone is waiting for the missing scenario” (“point the finger”); (4) “Hungary has declared a state of emergency and closed the borders” (“appeal”), (Ungārija, 2015).
In this position, we can observe the first post-colonial effects. In the interpretation of the current events—the need for a strong leader (Ankrava, 2002) who is capable of conducting harsh reprisals against the refugees and migrants is obvious: “There is no solution here, just empty talk in Brussels”; “There is nothing concrete, no real solution, only danger” (Valdība, 2015); “They forced us to shelter refugees in Latvia at any price”, “no leaders in this crisis” (Zvirbulis, 2015a, 2015d). The need for a leader (a one party leader) is a typical feature of the post-Soviet area and so it was interesting to know whether readers really supported this approach (Ankrava, 2002; Zepa,2008).
The first survey shows that the first test group read the newspapers more. According to Table 4, the first group in the survey (average age: 39.6) showed more interest in paper newspapers than their digital natives (25.5) who read almost only on screen. Printed media no longer rates amongst the top sources of information for respondents in Latvia, but it is interesting to find out what niche the classical media has today. Reading parents and reading friends are relatively important for both groups (Table 4). The first group (39.6) “sometimes” reads news on paper as often as their digital natives read news on screen. This means that people no longer subscribed to newspapers on paper (this tradition disappears) and the future of newspapers is only on the computer or phone screen. The news media are used by both groups equally (50–55%) and the only thing that was unusual was that “other sources” were used by 18–19% of them. In order to determine the need for “other sources”, the next question was whether the existing sources meet requirements. Further results (Table 5) show that readers are stressed but that they do not accept the information provided by the local media. Nearly 40% describe information about the migrant crisis as “tendentious” (age 39.6). Both groups agree that attention to the crisis in the media is “bad”. Only 4% of readers rated it as “good” (Table 5).
Table 4. Using newspapers in Latvia. Period: August 2013–January 2016
Table 5. Latvian media about refugee problem (%)
Both newspapers have at least two daily publications that cover refugee issues. Relatively little information on the flow of refugees across Europe is provided; instead there are more analytical articles and discussions about the opinions of local politicians. This explains why the results of the survey show that the publications are “tendentious” (Table 5). The author must agree with that the European Journalism Observatory (EJO) study, which concluded that “the media of Eastern European and the Baltic States was mainly occupied with negative attitudes, without showing compassion for the refugees, and was against the European Union’s migration policy” (EJO, 2015). There were almost no human stories about the everyday life of refugees or interviews with refugees themselves. Even the tragic picture of the deceased Kurdish boy was only published in one Latvian newspaper—Diena (2 September 2015)—and did not have “the big emotional impact as highlighted, for example, in the German, Italian, or Portuguese media” (EJO, 2015). It stems from the two post-colonial consequences above: (1) the need for a single leader, and (2) public distrust of the media (Ankrava, 2002; Havel, 1991; Račevskis, 2002).
4.2. Media rhetoric during the crisis
4.2.1. The human interest argument
The news services believe that an event with “an unpredictable ending” is one of the most important news selection criteria in the flow of news something that helps promote human interest, and “human interest is an essential ingredient of news” (Mencher, 2000, p. 63). Publications in both newspapers show the flow of refugees across Europe and state that this is that crisis with an unpredictable ending, a crisis situation without a way out. That is why the newspapers are using: (a) statistics with illustrations: “191,000 people killed” (Kasparāns, 2015); “100 refugees an hour arriving in Munich” (Liepiņa, 2015); (b) emotionally powerful images: illustrations and drawings, such as barbed wire fences, which build up reactions against refugees, pictures of destroyed areas of Syria, the “Refugees Welcome” photo from Germany (Tūkstošiem, 2015); the “Stop Halt Polizei” photo from Germany (Ir plans, 2015); or showing a drawing of a medieval pillory by the church. A woman tied to the stake is Latvia and the pillory is the EU (Ošs, 2015); (c) the use of emotionally strong language (metaphors, features, and rhetorical phrases): “a respectable number of immigrants” (Ķezberis, 2015a, b); “the disobedient member countries”, “a tool to exert pressure”, “waves of refugees are rising and might drown Europe in the shape of an enormous tsunami” (Eniņš, 2015); “a dramatically growing number of migrants” (Zvirbulis, 2015b, c); “the drowning of Europe” (Līcītis, 2015a); (d) irony: “don’t worry, they won’t be Jews”, “Members of Parliament joking”, “Pope calls on every Catholic family to shelter one immigrant family” (Zanders, 2015); (e) the use of language and illustration for ironic purposes: “Muhammad has arrived with a fortune and a cell phone in his hand” (Līcītis, 2015b); “sons of deserts”, (Līcītis, 2015c); “souls fleeing from tyrannies” (Līcītis, 2015d); “refugees with advanced handsets” & “a crisis that has forced our politicians up a coconut tree” (Zanders, 2015). In fact this is not humanitarian interest, but deliberate populism which, in eastern and central European media, “should be treated as a dynamic phenomenon in which radical ideological components are becoming overshadowed by pure anti-establishment appeal” (Učen, 2007, p. 49).
4.2.2. Shifting the problem at the micro level
Economic issues were highlighted as being the most important argument against refugees in Latvia. In newspaper articles about internal issues many of these people are referred to as “economic migrants” or “immigrants” who “cannot be accommodated because ‘there are no free apartments available because young families are already in the queue for these’” (Egle, 2015). The arguments are as follows: (a) immigrants can worsen Latvia’s prosperity: “refugees should not be provided with a material standard of living that is higher than that of our poor people and senior citizens” (Bēgļiem, 2015); (b) it will inevitably lead to a conflict of cultures: “they do not speak our language” (Eksperti, 2015), and “it is a matter of concern that after integrating refugees Latvia might do much worse” (Liepiņš, 2015). “Where will the refugees live? We have no answer. Where will they work? No answer either” (Saeimā, 2015), “If immigrants are not going to work, then there will be pressure on taxes. If they are trained, then they will outdo us on the labour market” (Uzņēmēji, 2015).
Applying the problem to the private economy of the population is an effective meta-communication on a micro level. The most popular phrases in newspapers in August were the following: “the problem has fallen on the shoulders of local government authorities” (Bēgļiem, 2015); “should clarify how much it will cost for local authorities”, “be tolerant of local people”, “there is no need to provoke local people”, “where and how will immigrants work?” (Pašvaldību, 2015); and, finally, only one appearance of: “maybe it’s not so bad” (Jēkabsons, 2015). It is noteworthy that most of the articles devoted themselves to the point of view of local government policy, which is almost as Aleksandrs Bartašēvičs of Rēzekne City Council illustrates: “Latvija does not need refugees. We have no place for them” (Bēgļiem, 2015). Such a statement without a contradictory point of view or a discussion may be considered a consequence of post-colonialism in the Latvian media because the politician’s opinion is the only point of view expressed by both dailies (Ankrava, 2002; Spolītis & Reez, 2008; Zepa, 2008). It is clear that the two leading dailies have taken the position of certain political parties when it comes to refugee issues continuing the media work logics established by the colonial times when newspapers are used as agitators of political leaders and propagandists. If it was not for the post-colonial effects such media work practice would have no influence on the public opinion.
The next step is to find out if other local media reflect the refugee problem better. Table 6 shows that none of the local media outlets can supply “objective” information to readers. The best information about the crisis is coming from the public service media outlet, Latvian TV (LTV) at 21%, followed by the newspaper, Latvijas Avīze (LA) with 16%, and public service radio (Latvijas radio) with 14%. Only the second group with an average age of 25.5 years was participating in this stage of the study. The most tendentious information during the crisis was published via internet media: Kas Jauns, Delfi, TVNET, and Apollo. The least tendentious and the most objective was once again Latvijas Avīze. The study showed that both groups of respondents were not satisfied with how local media reflected the refugee crisis.
Table 6. How is the refugee issue reflected in the Latvian media? 2015/2016 (%)
4.2.3. The image of a refugee
The next step was an analysis of the concept of a “refugee” using Mikhail Bakhtin’s literary theory of dialogic imagination (Bakhtin, 1981). The text in a newspaper is a dialogic work. This means that the journalist creates a continuous dialogue with other texts (documents from government bodies, institutions, the European Union, etc.), other authors of opinion (politicians, decision makers, etc.), and with public opinion. This is about the essential dialogue, formed in the process of social interaction, and this leads to the interaction of different social values being registered in terms of the re-accentuation of the speech of others (Bakhtin, 1979). For Bakhtin “being” “means to communicate dialogically”, and “one voice nothing ends and nothing permits. Two voices—at least life, at least life” (Bakhtin, 1979, p. 294) is a very important process. This includes a perception of the text (1) understanding the meaning in the given language, (2) understanding in the context of culture, and (3) an active dialogical understanding (Viktorova, 1998).
In order to describe “the other” (Boguslavskaya, 2011, p. 18) or “alien” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 423), Diena and Latvijas Avīze used the following words: “refugees”, “migrants” (Lībijā, 2015); “immigrants”, “islamists” (Līcītis, 2015d); “EU migrants”, “travelling migrants”, “illegal immigrants” (Vācijā, 2015); “those who are desperately trying to reach rich Europe” (Jēkabsons, 2015); and “those who have not clearly heard that their women here should not wear Muslim clothing” (Antonevičs, 2015). In order to determine the recurrence of the word “refugee”, two randomly selected articles in October,2 and two in December,3 were analysed (Table 7). The most frequently used word is “migrant”—24%, followed by “asylum seeker”—19%. In October and December, the most used term was “migrant”, repeated 24 and eleven times respectively. This was followed by “asylum seeker”—with nineteen occurrences in October and six in December. The third most used was “immigrant”—thirteen times in October and seven in December. In December the use of the words “refugee” (10 times) and “aliens” (6 times) was growing. A quantitative analysis shows that newspapers tend to focus on migrants rather than the refugee issue. Such an approach creates the preconditions for the effects of a hybridisation of value. In this way “the refugee issue” has become invisible and has disappeared into the shadow of “migration”. At the same time, one can observe reaccentuation and an accentuation of value, which “can substantially alter the sound of a word in its context” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 422). Therefore we can make an assumption that the perception of readers of the newspaper’s text may be mistaken: they fail to understand “cultural differences” (Bibler, 1991, p. 85) between refugees and migrants which makes them unable to participate in a dialogue with the authors of the article.
Table 7. An analysis of the recurrence of the words “refugee” & “migrant” in Diena and Latvijas Avīze between October and December, 2015
Since September the newspapers have been offering the reader two stereotypes of a refugee that are diametrically opposite. The first of them is the compassionate image in which the refugee is considered to be a man on the run, in need of help. From a qualitative point of view, there were less publications that involved this view. The second image of a refugee is a brazen, dangerous competitor on the labour market, almost a terrorist, and such articles are quantitatively far more common. Both papers retained the same attitude throughout the investigation period until the crisis reached its culmination in January 2016. The survey shows that the public does not support such a stereotype of refugees and migrants (Table 7). The results of a survey show that the majority of young people (and an overwhelming majority of students) distinguish refugees from migrants and do not seek to use the stereotypes “they are all alike” or “they all are bad”. People from the oldest age group share an opinion that is closer to the position of the newspapers. It seemed interesting to find out whether students had met and had a chance to get to know refugees as people and therefore their attitude towards these people was more positive. Table 8 shows that students often have not met people who are on the run—90% of them. This was more probable for the other group of respondents (39.6)—20%. But most of them were sceptical about refugees and relied more on the opinion of the newspapers (40%). Students were more interested in meeting migrants privately (30%) while 20% would not like to have such an encounter (Table 9). It seemed important to find out why students (25.5) condemned the two newspapers and were more positive towards refugees. Maybe this is the European Union’s information success story in Latvia. Table 10 showed that the EU’s official information is not particularly popular amongst participants (25.5); however, regardless of this, students were more positive towards refugees. The question was: “Do you have information about the refugee crisis that has been gathered from the EU’s sources of information?” Half of students (51%) answered “no”, 25% said “sometimes”, 10% “hadn’t noticed” such information at all, 5% did not know that such information existed, and only 4% had received information about the refugee crisis from the EU information channels. It turns out that the European Union channels of information are not the best source of information for this areas of the population.
Table 8. How would you describe a person called as a refugee? (%)
Table 9. Would you ever meet a refuge? (%)
Table 10. Du you use information from the EU about the refugee crisis in Latvia? (%)
4.2.4. ”Power” and “We” groups
Both newspapers portrayed the EU during the crisis as public enemy No. 1. “Refugees are Junkers’ gift to Europe” (Zvirbulis, 2015b, 2015d), “the crisis is a result of the bad policies of former colonial powers or of the European Union’s largest countries” (Šmits, 2015). During the month of September, newspapers were revealed to have divided the audience into two groups: “we” and “power.” The “power” group includes the EU institutions, the national government, and the refugees themselves, while on the opposite side are Latvian newspaper readers and the local media. This is a typical expression of post-colonial “privatisation of democracy” (Zepa, 2008) which provokes “a process of social disintegration accompanied by a gradual loss of legitimacy for parliamentary democracy, and this, quite possibly, may provoke authoritarianism” (Ostrovska, 1996/1997, 19). The EJO, in its 2015 study on the topic of European refugees in the media, stresses that in the media of the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Baltic States, “articles about refugees devote more attention to politics” and therefore they “were more negative, especially towards the EU” (EJO, 2015). The emphasis is placed on the desired description of events instead of the actual description of events (Jaworsky & Coupland, 1999; Mills, 2004). Only 9% of articles noticed that “the crisis could also provide new opportunities” (Uzņēmēji, 2015). European conservative newspapers: The Daily Mail, The Telegraph (both from the UK), Il Giornale (Italy), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), Mlada Fronta Dnes (Czech Republic), and Rzeczpospolita (Poland), (EJO, 2015) responded to the refugee crisis in 2015/2016 in a similar style. In order to understand why the student audience is more optimistic about refugees, the author had to investigate how they use the international media.
4.2.5. The international media as the provider of a polyphony of information
The survey showed that digital natives are not worried about religious differences. The only exception is the debate on whether Muslim women should be allowed or not allowed to wear Muslim headscarves in public spaces. This topic does not appear as being important. The finding was the importance of the foreign media as an information source (Table 11). The question was posed as follows: which media source best reported the refugee crisis? The responses from students were unexpectedly interesting. They showed that foreign media consumption is voluminous. F news (foreign news), F radio (foreign radio), and F int port (foreign internet portals) are far more in demand than many of the domestic media sources. Latvian news (LV news) picked up only 14% and Latvian public service television (LV TV) even less at 8%, both being were mentioned as accurate sources of information. Foreign internet media has explained the crisis in an exhaustive and clever manner (19%). This is followed by Latvian public service television (18%) and Latvian public service radio (18%). Russian media that is available on a daily basis in Latvia was found to be highly tendentious (29%). Domestic internet portals (LV Internet) were ranked the second most tendentious (25%).
Table 11. Which source informs the best about the refugee crisis? (%)
The next table, Table 12, shows the most popular foreign media sources, with the UK media leading with its illustrations (34%), news (33%), and reports (23%) at the top of the list. The runner up was the USA with its news (23%), movies (16%), discussions (16%), and interviews (16%). These were followed by Germany with news (19%), reports (13%), discussions (9%), and illustrations (9%). Nordic and Russian media sources were the fifth and sixth most-used sources by Latvian students. The least used sources of information on the refugee crisis were the French media, where news and reports were followed by just 8%. And the least used source of foreign information were German movies at 1%.
Table 12. Foreign media covering the refugee crisis 2015/2016 (%)
This means that both of the surveyed groups use significantly different sources for their media-delivered information. The first group uses a domestic media information feed on the refugee crisis that they do not trust and almost never use foreign sources which can be seen as post-colonial, this remaining part of their thought process which is characterised by “distrust any information” (Havel, 1991, p. 136). At the same time they look at world events as being an incomprehensible and decadent process “because nothing has changed” (Račevskis, 2002, p. 21). The need for a strong leader or the “return of authoritarianism” (Spolītis & Reez, 2008, p. 27), distrust in the media, and confusion in the face of complex events with different views are three post-colonial effects.
It is possible that the use of foreign sources explains the difference between the two groups. Students do not exhibit similar attitudes. They showed a different approach in their use of news sources and seemed to be free of post-colonial effects in the use of information.
5. Discussion and conclusion
| (1) | The results of the study showed that different age groups have different reactions to the refugee crisis. It is likely that the post-colonial past affects senior respondent groups, whose dislike to mass migration is contributed to by emotionally strained stand of the local press towards mass migration. The same was not observed in young adults who have not experienced the effects of colonial past personally and use mainly objective foreign information sources. | ||||
| (2) | The study found that the local and foreign media provide different interpretations of information about the refugees and migrants to the Latvian audience and therefore media use for the most part explains different attitudes of the first and the second group towards migrants and migration issues in the country. | ||||
| (3) | Strikingly tendentious interpretation of events and use of rhetorical and linguistic tools can be observed in the way the local media reflects the crisis. | ||||
| (4) | The crisis highlights the problems on the Latvian media market. The lack of a liberal and independent press is the reason why public opinion about the refugee crisis in Latvia is so negative. | ||||
| (5) | The lack of a liberal media on the local market explains the pursuit of young people for foreign resources that are covering the refugee crisis. | ||||
Notes
1. Latvijas Avīze being abbreviated to LA from this point forwards.
2. Ķezberis, Soļi migrantu krīzes risināšanai, Diena, 27 October 2015; Zvirbulis, Valsts plāns—uzgrūst bēgļus pašvaldībām. LA, 26 October 2015.
3. Diena, 23 Feruary 2015, LA, Eiropā ieradies miljons migrantu. 23 December 2015.
Sandra Veinberg 
Reblogged this on Sandra Veinberga.
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