The Impact of the Media in Portraying the Refugees in America

Categories: Politics Refugees Social Issues

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When viewing refugees strictly through the lens of the media, a narrow picture is often painted. In the chaotic political climate of the 21st century, especially after the devastating events of 9/11, the media has contributed to the overwhelming sense of fear that accompanies the slightest thought of refugee assistance, as well as the unwavering uprising of American Nativism. The media misconstruing the true image of refugees into one of threatening danger is not a new phenomenon. In October of 1980, during the sweep of 125,000 Cubans arriving in South Florida, the media continuously referred to these refugees as “boat people.

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” This term was then accompanied by various reports stating that a majority of these refugees were violent criminals, unstable mental patients, and posed an imminent threat to civil society; when in reality, criminals and the mentally unstable comprised only 2.2% of the total population. (Pew Research)

Influential intellectuals, authors, artists, and even cultural icons have fueled the fear, resentment, and xenophobic views towards refugees through the media.

The Passing of the Great Race and Saturday Evening Post are two of the many books that have cultivated a sense of inferiority and subordination to a general audience. Political cartoonists drew insulting, racist images that portrayed the immigrants as "unsavory looking figures whose inherent attributes threatened the United States." (Journal on migration and human society source) These representations depicted by the media grew from simply tainting individual perspectives to creating derogatory physical enforcements in response to the newfound fear.

"Americans across social and political spectrums frequently blamed immigrants for bringing disease into the US, creating a kind of medicalized nativism that led to humiliating immigration inspections, and helped drive the impetus for legal restrictions on immigration.

” (Journal on Migration and Human Society) September 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the most tragic and unforgettable events that America has ever seen, and the reactions are still evidently felt today. The media has done an overwhelmingly successful job at generalizing the Muslim population to encompass a mass fueled by rage, violence, and extremism; when in reality, Muslim American attitudes show extremely low levels of acceptance, or tolerance, for religious extremism. “Nativists fail to account for the wide degree of cultural difference among Muslims worldwide, or to distinguish between the tiny majority that participate in terrorist acts and the vast majority that do not." (Journal on Migration and Human Society)

Immigrant opponents are more vocal, outspoken, and ferocious now more than ever. This may be due to several factors, but having a President that not only tolerates, but encourages these arguments only strengthens their willpower and determination to spread their viewpoints. Broadcasters such as Lou Dobbs and Ann Coulter publicly transmit these ideas across the nation, and more importantly, to younger and more impressionable crowds. The United States of America is no longer seen as the land of opportunity and acceptance; “anti-immigrant groups are now explicitly promoting a racialized version of a “European” America, in which nonwhites are completely excluded from entry.”