Shifting UK press portrayals of EU migrants since the Brexit referendum.
What is it about?
This article analyses the ways in which UK national newspapers portrayed European Union economic migrants - and immigrants more generally - in the period immediately before the 2016 Brexit referendum and over the weeks and months after the country voted to the leave the EU.
Why is it important?
The article is important because it demonstrates that the longstanding negative portrayals of foreign migrants that have characterised UK press coverage for some years are not unchallengeable or unchangeable. Although EU migrants were portrayed as an economic 'threat' to the UK in the run-up to the 2016 referendum, the period immediately after the vote saw a significant change of emphasis, as politicians, public and press appeared to recognise the likely costs to the economy of ending the 'free movement of labour'.