Outside in and inside out: Media portrayal, reception and identification of Moroccan minorities in the Low Countries.

Summary

This study examines the interplay between media portrayal and identity construction for Moroccan minorities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Immigration and integration, as well as religious and ethnic minorities are often depicted negatively in the news. Especially the events related to the young people from various countries departing as foreign fighters to Syria (so-called 'Syria fighters’) and terrorist attacks in France and Belgium have caused a lot of negative news about Muslims and Moroccan minorities. This type of media portrayal can influence feelings of belonging in the Netherlands and Belgium, and can thus affect feelings of national commitment and identification.

            The case of the 'Syria fighters' is used as an illustrative example of the media portrayal of Moroccan minorities in the current social context. We chose a mixed method approach to study the integration debate, news Moroccan minority, news reception and impact of integration related news and social networks on social identifications, feelings of belonging, and online and offline social interactions. Several types of data have been used: newspapers, forums, interviews and a cross-national survey. Additionally, various types of analysis have been used: relational discourse analysis, inductive and deductive media framing, online ethnography, social network analysis, and qualitative content analysis.

            The results indicate that the public debate on minority integration debate is more intensely debated in the Netherlands than in Flanders (2006-2012) and that anti-immigration views have become more common in the public debate in the Low Countries. The Syria fighter case study confirms findings from previous research that framing with respect to Muslims is relatively one-sided and negative. Various frames were used in the news articles, but the positive frames were mostly invalidated by hints of the journalists such as quote marks or co-occurrence with negative frames. In mainstream forums in Belgium and the Netherlands there was less space for nuance: the negative frames were dominant. Only the Moroccan forum showed more variance, with the greatest diversity of frames on the Syria fighters. The online forum discussions reflected perceived tensions between communities (Muslims and/or Moroccan minority versus majority groups in Belgium and the Netherlands), including through the regular occurrence of slurs that referred to religion or origin.

            Media portrayal, social networks and identity construction have been discussed with Moroccan Belgians and Moroccan Dutch in a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews. The results show that the participants do not recognize themselves in the media portrayal in Belgium and the Netherlands, which is perceived as one-sided and overly negative for both their ethnic and religious background. The media portrayal also had an impact on their interpersonal relationships with people of the majority groups, who incorporate elements and interpretations of the media coverage about Moroccan minorities and Muslims in their worldviews. Most participants identified with a mix of their national, ethnic and religious background. A small group of participants repeatedly experienced that people from the majority group do not affirm their expression of national identity and treat them invariably and exclusively as Moroccans and/or Muslims. In reaction, these participants solely value their ethnic or religious identities. This is reflected in their social network, which consists of mostly people with a Moroccan and/or Muslim background. The results of these interview studies are examined on a larger scale in a survey, analyzing the relationship between perceived discrimination, media use and identity construction. These results indicate that Moroccan minorities perceived high levels of discrimination and that the perceived discrimination is positively related to their ethnic and religious identifications. The more discrimination they perceive, the more value they attach to their ethnic and religious identifications. The perceived discrimination was independent of the national identification of the participants. It was also clear that there is no link between the ethnic and religious identifications on the one hand and national identification on the other. Identification as a Muslim and as a Moroccan does not impede identification as Belgian or Dutch.