5
Mediations of Europe’s ‘Others’: representations of
Albanian immigrants in the Greek media
Liza Tsaliki
Faculty of Communication and Media Studies
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Abstract The economic crisis that swept over Greece and Ireland and threatens the
remaining PIGS countries (Portugal, Spain and Italy) overshadowed another area of
contention and anxiety in Europe - and especially in its margins - the continuous influx
of economic immigrants. This problematises and questions preconceptions of what it
means to be ‘European’ in several areas of the EU. Today, some 58 percent of nonnationals in Greece come from neighbouring Albania, equating the notion of the
immigrant worker to that of the ‘Albanian’. Within contemporary Greek culture,
Albanian origin signifies trouble and raises suspicion, a stereotypical reaction usually
reified by the representation of the Albanian community in the Greek media. This
chapter explores the cultural making of Europe by examining how Albanians are
discussed and represented in the Greek media.
Keywords: media framing, news reporting, television news, Albanian immigrants
7. Introduction
Although the current economic crisis has brought closer countries like Greece
and Ireland, with Spain and Portugal following suit, it appears that the vision of
a united Europe is becoming dimmer. Despite the incorporation of yet another
EU member state to the Eurozone –Estonia- on the eve of 2011, European
peoples seem to become gradually unexcited about their common European
destiny, as the cracks in the Eurozone, arguably, question and undermine the
very essence of the EU. The overtly ambitious plan of the European
Constitution was hastily abandoned when two major players, France and the
Netherlands, voted against it in 2005, showing the first cracks in project
‘Europe’, while the intention of the Lisbon Convention in 2000 to guarantee
social cohesion and obliterate poverty within the Union echoes today like an
empty promise. For, while it may be true that the European ideal has always
been progressing at a slow pace, making room for the contradictory interests of
the various member states, in the early days, the enthusiasm that guided the first
member states, when the memories of World War II were still fresh, ensured
the cohesion of the new entity and justified the compromises made. Currently,
though, we are experiencing an age when the lacklustre of the Union is coupled
with an introvert mood due to the economic crisis, and when European leaders
have to assign part of their sovereign rights to the Union if the latter is to
survive; the severity of the unprecedented economic crisis means that national
governments now depend heavily on the developments in the international
markets and, as a result, their ability to intervene politically and resolve issues
is seriously curtailed.
Furthermore, there is growing anxiety across Europe regarding the increase
of illegal migrants and refugees, many of whom seek residence in Western
Europe, though transit through Greece in order to get to their final destination.
Even if the migrants eventually move on to other European destinations, under
the Dublin II protocol, Greece is responsible for their asylum applications as
the EU country of first entry - a situation neither the Greeks nor the immigrants
like. According to a wikileak disclosure of the official communication of the
US Ambassador in Athens, while Greece is a migration doorway into Europe
shouldering a disproportionate burden of illegal immigrants and asylum
seekers, the broader political challenges posed by these waves of migration
apply to all European nations :‘ integration programmes are of crucial
importance; in the aftermath of the economic crisis, immigration and labour
policies are under increased scrutiny, and the EU's commitment to human rights
for refugees and asylum seekers is being tested by the political reality of voters
fed up with illegal migration’ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usembassy-cables-documents/238229]. Migration is a key cross-cutting
political, national security, human rights, and socioeconomic phenomenon, and
had a strong impact on politics in the EU27 in 2009-10 as the surge in support
at the June 2009 EP elections for rightwing, anti-immigration parties showed
[Lodge 2010].
All this indicates that what is meant by ‘Europe’ is yet to be defined and
consensually accepted, leaving many questions unanswered and leading to a
build-up of tensions, especially in the margins of Europe. A number of EU
media and cultural policies (e.g. RAPHAEL, MEDIA, KALEIDOSCOPE,
CULTURE 2000) expected a degree of social cohesion to be mediated through
culture to foster ‘unity’ among EU citizens, thus ‘polishing’ the edges and
tensions of heterogeneity within the EU [Sarikakis 2007:80]. However, recent
migratory flows have led to processes of cultural fragmentation, with national
and international media becoming ‘invasive others’ from within in their quest
to cultivate a common identity. Obstacles to social cohesion posed by the
structural imbalance across societies and media landscapes, and eurocentrist
conceptions of ‘culture’ also promote exclusion and social intolerance,
especially towards those falling outside the boundaries of official European
culture.
This chapter explores some of these tensions, and the ramifications these
have for the social cohesion of Europe, by looking into the portrayal of the
largest non-EU minority group in Greece - the Albanian immigrant community
- in the Greek media. It addresses the following research questions: How do the
Greek print and broadcast media present the Albanian immigrant community in
Greece? What kinds of notions of Albanian identity do they construct? The
chapter begins by contextualizing the Albanian community in Greece. Its
starting point is a widespread stereotype regarding Albanians among ethnic
Greeks as petty thieves and potential criminals. It then addresses the
representation of Albanian immigrants in the Greek press and broadcast news.
2. Putting the Albanian immigrant community into context
For many people in Greece, the uncontrolled waves of illegal immigration in
the past few years act as a major economic and social destabilize to which,
arguably, can be attributed the electoral losses of the New Democracy regime in
October 2009, following growing public dissatisfaction with its migration
policy and enforcement, the electoral surge of LAOS (Laikos Orthodoxos
Sinagermos - Popular Orthodox Alarm) , a far-right party advocating a
nationalist, anti-immigration agenda [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usembassy-cables-documents/238229]. It seems that Greece’s recently
acquired cultural diversity only superficially facilitates social cohesion and may
currently undermine it, inasmuch as Europe has difficulties in turning its own
diversity into a process of culturally based social cohesion. Europe is based
largely on either national or regional characteristics and internal divisions or
fragmentations of national and religious cultures, coupled with increased
migration, create a new, complex set of drivers not adequately or consciously
enough addressed by existing media policy [Sarikakis 2007: 85].
From the mid-1960s until the end of the twentieth century, there was a
marked shift in various European societies from an assimilation policy, where
immigrants were not to stand out from the perceived uniform national culture,
to ‘integration plus’ policies whereby national norms could, up to a point, host
immigrant cultures and become multicultural. Claims of immigrant/ethnic
minorities to be ‘different’ gained legitimacy, and in public rhetoric and in law
it was generally accepted that negative discrimination on racial and ethnic
grounds should not be sustained [Grillo 2007: 979]. The EU itself stressed unity
in diversity. By the early twenty-first century, there was a ‘backlash’ or a
'cultural-diversity sceptical turn' [Vertovec and Wessendorf 2005]. Around
Europe, the articulation of an ‘anxiety’ regarding ‘difference’ emerged,
prevalent in the increasing support for populist, anti-immigration movements,
such as LAOS in Greece, the British Nationalist Party, the Front Nationale in
France, or Forza Italia in Italy and in wider public debates about the rights and
wrongs of different ways of living and the governance of diversity. Immigration
has led to what Sartori called an 'excess of alterity' [2002] with countries
becoming 'too diverse' [Goodhart 2004], and the presence of communities with
values conflicting with dominant 'Western' secular norms threatening social
cohesion [Grillo 2007: 979].
Greece was taken by surprise by the reality 16 of greater and more diverse
immigration -and thus greater diversity of ethnic groups within it, since for
decades it had been a traditional labour-exporting country, with diaspora being
one of the most important aspects of its history. Greece has a particular
understanding of the term ‘multicultural’ which is seen as an aspirational value
and finds political expression mainly in the promotion of ethnic cultural events.
The reversal of the migratory balance occurred in the 1970s, with the first
waves of ‘repatriates’ (Greek economic migrants and political refugees)
returning to Greece. Migrant workers were first imported in the 1970s, mainly
from Poland, Pakistan, the Philippines, Egypt and Morocco [King 2000;
Kassimati 2003].
The beginning of immigration to Greece coincided with the border opening
in Eastern Europe, following the collapse of the former USSR and Eastern
European socialist regimes. Political, economic and social developments as
well as demography and geography contributed to a major and ‘unexpected’
change [Rovolis and Tragaki 2006]. Gradually, as Greece became a net receiver
of migrants, migration became an issue, causing ripple effects in the country’s
social and economic life, both at urban and rural levels [Kasimis and
Papadopoulos 2005]. The inflow of Albanians relates to ease of entry, political
and socio-economic developments in Albania after 1990, geographical
proximity, and Greek demand for a cheap and flexible labour force (e.g. in
construction and agriculture) which was reinforced by the persistence of an
extensive informal economy [Labrianidis et al; Iosifides et.al. 2007].
During the 1990s, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, set up the framework
for the construction of a ‘Southern European model’ of migration [King 2000]
as destination country for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, who now have
settled and work in the country. The Greek labour market quickly accepted
foreign labour, Greek society, however, was unready for so much diversity
within such a brief period of time, and did not [Kasimis and Papadopoulos
2005], something often reiterated in the popular media; least we forget that after
16
For a background into academic and policy discussions on the divisive and separatist character
of multiculturalism and the risk it carries for ‘sleepwalking into segregation’ for any society that
seeks unbridled versions of it, see Grillo 2007.
the Symrni (Izmir) catastrophe of 1922 and influx of immigrants from Asia
Minor, similar xenophobia was apparent. Greek migration policy [most recent
legislature, Law 3386/2005] has been more about controlling and containing
immigration than promoting the social inclusion of immigrants.
The present PASOK-led government placed migration and asylum policy
reform high on its current agenda, announcing new measures to combat
organised human smugglers, ease naturalisation requirements for immigrants
born in Greece, give status to illegal economic migrants, and transfer Greece's
asylum process to a new independent authority- something that reflects the
attention paid to immigration and its social, economic, and security
implications for the country. Following acute criticism from international
organisations and regional and domestic NGOs (e.g. Amnesty International,
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the UN Human Rights Council, the
International Organisation for Migration and various European monitoring
bodies), of Greece’s treatment of refugees and its asylum processes, the
government aimed to bring in domestic reforms and simultaneously
‘Europeanise’ migration enforcement by putting pressure on the EU to provide
more support on border security and revisit the Dublin II agreement (whereby
Greece undertakes responsibility for all migrants entering Europe through its
borders). In certain cases, countries even suspended returning migrants and
asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin II protocol- (e.g. during the last two
years, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands intermittently halted returns to
Greece, citing human rights concerns). In September 2009, the UNHCR
reiterated its advice that EU member states not return asylum seekers to Greece.
The consolidation of law enforcement agencies (the National Police, Fire
Service, Port Police, and Coast Guard elements) into the new, DHS-like
(Department of Homeland Security) Ministry for Citizen's Protection should
help to improve coordination among security services in combating illegal
migration. NGOs largely welcomed the government's proposals to create a new,
independent asylum authority separate from the police, and promises to raise
Greece's asylum approval rate to the “European average”, though, the situation
on the ground has remained the same, with detention centres filled beyond
capacity
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cablesdocuments/238229].
The 2001 census shows that a substantial percentage of immigrants living in
Greece together with their families. 17% of the immigrant communities
comprise children under 14 years old, and a further 8%, older teenagers.
Children of immigrants are now part of the Greek student population, with
more in primary and secondary rather than in higher education [Georgopoulou
2007]. Second generation immigrants are often treated with derision and are
discriminated against, both socially and at school, due to their nationality and
immigrant status, and are socially excluded.
The sudden influx of immigrants in the 1990s provided the context for
serious self-reflection within the host country, a recurrent and contentious issue
on every national anniversary (28 October, 25 March) ever since 17 . The bulk of
the immigrant population (about 75%) originates from the ex-communist
countries, mainly from the neighbouring Balkan states (65%), while 58% of all
non-nationals) come from one country, Albania. The predominance of one
single country of origin, equates the notion of the immigrant worker in Greece
to that of the ‘Albanian’ [Rovolis and Tragaki 2006]. The Albanian migration
flows of the 1990s were a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by the
political, socio-cultural and economic changes and conditions both in Albania
and in the various destination countries, above all Greece and Italy. In fact,
within current global migratory flows, recent Albanian migration is seen as an
exceptional case because of reasons such as the fundamental role migration
played in guaranteeing the economic survival of the Albanian society; its
overall magnitude in relation to the size of the Albanian population; the way it
emerged, so suddenly, after years of internal mobility restrictions and
isolationist politics; the interconnections of these migratory flows with internal
migration, trafficking and organised crime; the centrality it acquired within
migration-related debates and policy-making in Greece (and Italy); and the
degree of stigmatisation of Albanian migrants by the host-country (Greek and
Italian) media [Mai and Schwandner-Sievers 2003]. Albanian migrants
17
On both occasions, a student parade takes place, causing major public disputes regarding
whether or not immigrants have the right to be the flag carriers- an honorary task, carried out by
the best student at each school. Many people are vehemently against non-Greek (in most cases, of
Albanian origin) students carrying the national emblem on the occasion of a national anniversary,
regardless of the fact that they may be the best performers in their classroom.
experience differential inclusion, a state in which immigrants are incorporated
into some sections of society, above all the labour market, but denied access to
others, notably welfare care, citizenship and political participation. In this
respect, Italy and Greece exert a doubly articulated influence on the Albanian
socio-economic context and on the people who inhabit it. On the one hand, the
influence of Italian and Greek capital and institutions enhance the processes of
democratisation and economic development within Albania in line with the
wider project of European integration. On the other, the economic and
geopolitical ‘power’ of the two host countries leads to the construction of a
peripheral space inhabited by people forced to accept exploitative working
conditions in deregulated and service-oriented job markets. As a result,
Albanian migrants are faced with multiple levels of social exclusion,
exploitation and marginalisation, and are rhetorically underpinned by harsh
campaigns of stigmatisation [Mai and Schwandner-Siervers 943].
The media in particular, both in Greece and Italy, have played a significant
role in the stigmatisation of Albanians by regularly associating them with
crimes of a particularly ferocious or morally reprehensible nature. The Albanian
migrant in Greece and Italy has become what Hall termed the ‘constitutive
other’ [Hall 1996: 4-5] at times of intense political confrontation and sociocultural and economic change in both host countries. Stereotypical
identifications with violence and crime led many Albanian immigrants to resort
to subversive coping strategies, such as adult baptism and name changing [Mai
and Schwandner-Sievers 2003: 943-44; Labrianidis et.al. 2004: 1193], in order
to avoid individual exclusion and to generate trust within the local host
communities.
In Greece, Albanian immigrants are predominantly employed as nonspecialised labourers in the construction, service and primary sectors,
irrespective of their personal skills and type of work in Albania (where they
often were skilled workers in the industrial sector, craftsmen, scientific or
technical personnel). This, along with the limited opportunities for formal reeducation and training for immigrants in Greece, inevitably leads to gradual deskilling and a decrease in opportunities for upward social mobility, reinforcing
‘ethnic specialisation’ (e.g. construction for Albanians, personal services for
Filipinos etc.). As most Albanian immigrants are channeled to specific jobs
through family and ethnic networks, an ‘ethnic enclave’ economy gradually
takes shape. This ethnic mobility entrapment limits the opportunities of
Albanian immigrants for wider labour market integration and employment
progression according to their education, training or other skills [Iosifides et al.
2007: 1350].
Furthermore, social relations with Greeks, what Iosifides et al. [2007: 1354]
call ‘bridging social capital’, is very weak and problematises the smooth social
acceptance of Albanians into Greek society. In that respect, it is interesting to
see how Greeks view immigrants. According to the 2003 European Social
Survey, young Greeks reflect a xenophobic attitude towards immigrants who,
regardless of race, religion and economic status, are expected to be totally
assimilated into the host culture. The ‘other’ must first and foremost ‘accept the
Greek way of life’, secondly ‘speak Greek’, and then ‘have the relevant
qualifications needed’. Immigrants are viewed negatively and seen to be
responsible for ‘an increase in deviance’; ‘they take away jobs from Greeks’;
‘they make Greece a worse place to live’. Overall, young Greeks overestimate
the number of immigrants and would prefer fewer to be accepted. Their views
generally resonate with the views of the rest of the population [Dragona 2007].
3. The symbolic representation of Albanian immigrants
in the Greek media
3.1 THE PORTRAYAL OF THE ALBANIAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY
IN THE GREK PRESS
Among a variety of public portrayals, news representations play a significant
role in the way people, culture, politics and social life are represented in the
public eye: news representations contribute as to how people see themselves,
their own identity and the identity of the ‘others’, as well as the relationship
between ‘us’ and ‘them’. News coverage is a means for all social groups to
make their voices heard and communicate their agendas. Which views are
covered, and in which ways, depends on the economic and political structure,
the institutional role of the press, and the characteristics of the wider media
environment [Pietikäinen 2003: 583]. News representations of ethnic minorities
have usually been described as biased and partial, favouring the dominant
group over the communities of the ‘others’, the latter frequently being
portrayed within a context of problems, crime and disturbance [Cottle 2000;
Halloran 1998; Teo 2000]. Van Dijk [1991] argued that ethnic minorities were
mainly represented in the print media in association with crime, violence, social
welfare and problematic immigration, claiming that it is through newspapers
that elites may affect what ‘ordinary’ people think, therefore giving racist views
popular currency. He went on to suggest that denial of racism was an important
part of this process in which positive self-presentation attempts to conceal and
deflect actual racist statements.
The problematic representation of foreign immigrants in the media cannot
be explained by suggesting that journalists around the world are racists, rather
this reflects journalistic practices and the routine of journalists’ daily work,
which is similar everywhere [Allan 1999]. In practice journalism relies heavily
on ready-made material: stories compatible with journalistic routines or stories
already covered in another news outlet, in press releases or in agency reports
(i.e. the police) have better chances of ending up in the news. The chance to
shape the news in this way favours groups already in an advantageous position
and, conversely, is less favourable to those who do not have such services ethnic minorities are seldom in such a position of power [Pietikäinen
2003:589].
My content analysis of the Greek press examined news representations of
the Albanian immigrant community. It surveyed three national newspapers,
each with a different political orientation: Ta Nea, Kathimerini, and Avgi. Ta
Nea is an influential national paper, part of the Labrakis Foundation, plays a
significant role in shaping public opinion [Bantimaroudis and Kampanellou
2007], in the political centre and the PASOK Opposition 18 ; Kathimerini is
18
The selection is based on one title from each political orientation, the Left, the Right and the
political Centre, which explains why some of the major national presses, such as Elefterotypia,
were not included in the analysis. The sample comprised 540 articles, 403 of which appeared on
weekdays and 137 on weekends, over one year (March 2007-2008). All articles including the
words ‘Albanian’ or ‘Albanians’ were collected. Of the three newspapers, Kathimerini carried the
lengthiest coverage of the issue with 295 articles (230 on weekdays and 65 on weekends);
followed by Ta Nea with 129 articles on weekdays and 39 on weekends; and Avgi with a total of
another influential and more elitist national daily, representing the centre-right
and with a critical eye on the conservative government of New Democracy.
Avgi is a small national daily on the political left. Following Winter [2007],
mainstream print media are treated as institutionalised (re)producers of
dominant representations within public discourse. A detailed investigation or
comparison of the editorial stances of the three newspapers is outside the scope
of this chapter. It focuses on the re-construction of the Albanian immigrant
community by investigating how Greek newspapers cover Albanian economic
immigrants.
3.2 THE PORTRAYAL OF THE ALBANIAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY
ON GREEK TELEVISION
Following the analysis of press representations of Albanians, television news
discourse was explored. Some accounts suggest that contemporary TV reports
paint a negative picture of Albanians. ‘The Albanian’ is characterised as:
‘casual worker’, ‘marginalised, unemployed, homeless’, often ‘illiterate with no
skills’, of low potential and ability, ‘doomed to hard and badly-paid jobs’. The
stereotype of deprivation concludes with a blanket condemnation of Albanians
as ‘criminals’ or ‘hardened Mafiosi’ [Labrianidis et al op.cit.: 1191]. I
examined the evening news on four television channels : NET (public
broadcaster), and MEGA, ANTENNA, STAR (commercial operators). Each of
the commercial operators has a different profile: MEGA usually criticises the
77 articles (44 on weekdays and 33 on weekends). Newspaper articles were coded on the basis of
27 variables. These variables included length of article, type of article, position in the newspaper,
title, issue under consideration, the framing of the news piece, the identity of the Albanians in the
article, the occurrence of negative or positive evaluations of them, and the source of the news
story. Weekend editions have a different structure and cover issues at more length in relation to
weekday ones; moreover, weekend editions manage higher circulation figures compared to the
daily editions of the same newspaper. The reliability test for the print analysis was done
according to North, Holsti, Zanninovich
Zinnes (1963): R= 2(C1,2)/C1+C2, where C1, 2 is
the number of categories all researchers were agreed upon, and C1+C2 is the total number of
cases coded by researchers. The equation was applied in 20% of the sample, after random
selection. With 0.7 as the minimum and 1 as maximum, here are the results:
VARIABLERTITLE0.8SUBJECT0.8NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES0.9FRAMING0.7NEWS SOURCE0.8
conservative party of New Democracy (at the time, in office), ANTENNA TV
(owned by Pro-ND Kiriakov) swings from centre-left to right (and
ANTENNA’s flagship broadcast news was unequivocally pro-PASOK).
ANTENNA and MEGA are the two major commercial sector players. STAR
has a news profile based on lifestyle and celebrity gossip 19 . Forty two television
news stories were found, which comprise a small sample. This reinforces the
argument that Albanian immigrants receive scant media attention and hence are
not well provided with a public forum from which to make their agenda known.
4. Main findings and discussion
4.1 TYPE OF NEWS STORIES (NEWSPAPER ARTICLES)
Week days press coverage showed that just over half the stories on Albanians
(57%) were main articles (reports of events): commentaries accounted for a
modest 18%, and short bulletins for 14%. Detailed reports and interviews were
rare (3,7% and 2% respectively). The picture varies slightly over weekends,
with 56% of the stories being main articles; a quarter (25%) being
commentaries, and only 3% short bulletins. There were slightly more detailed
reports and interviews (5% and 6% respectively). The variation may be
explained by the fact that weekend editions often devote more space to detailed
accounts and investigations of intricate social, political and economic issues.
19
Sixty prime time news programmes were analysed in the same period (five each
month), covering week days and weekends. Selected dates matched closely the dates of the press
analysis. Twenty-six variables were used, the majority of which match those previously used.
This translates into 3,120 news stories (13 stories on average per channel X 60 news programmes
= 780 news stories X 4 channels = 3,120). The reliability test for TV coding was done following
North, Holsti, Zanninovich
Zinnes (1963): R= 2(C1, 2)/C1+C2, where C1, 2 is the number of
categories all researchers were agreed upon, and C1+C2 is the total number of cases coded by
researchers. The equation was applied in 20% of the sample, after random selection. With 0.7 as
the minimum and 1 as maximum, here are the results: VARIABLES: RELIABILITY SUBJECT 1; INSTITUTION
0.75; STORY NATIONALITY 1; SUBJECT NATIONALITY 0.85; FRAMING 0.75; ALBANIAN’S IDENTITY1 ALBANIAN’S AGE 0.9
ALBANIAN’S PROFESSION 1; ALBANIAN’S RESIDENCE 1; ALBANIAN’S EDUCATION 1; ALBANIAN’S CLASS 1; ALBANIAN’S
ROLE 1; NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES 0.75; POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES 0.9; TALKING HEADS 1; SOURCE 1; NEWSOURCE 1; SOURCE
NATIONALITY 1
Kathimerini is consistently more interested in Albanian-related issues,
followed by Ta Nea and to a much lesser extent by Avgi (Figures 1 & 2).
11%
32%
TA NEA
KATHIMERINI
AVGI
57%
Figure 2. Articles per newspaper (weekends)
When it comes to television, the public broadcaster is marginally more
interested in reporting Albanian immigrants-related news than are private
operators MEGA and ANTENNA (36%: 31% and 26%). STAR channel,
renowned for its policy to steer away from ‘serious’ news, only rarely covers
Albanians (7%) 20 (Figure 3).
20
True to form, the few times this happened on STAR channel, it concerned a middle-aged exreality-game-player, Roula Vroxopoulou, who became famous when she married an Albanian
some 25 years her junior. When her young groom left her soon after the wedding, Roula ran after
him in Albania only to become an instant celebrity in both countries.
7%
36%
31%
NET
MEGA
ANT1
STAR
26%
Figure 3. Television coverage
4.2 TITLE OF THE NEWS STORY
Almost 75% of weekday press stories used a neutral heading:‘border
guard killed immigrant’ (
) [Avgi
09.11.07];
‘Kosovo’s
independence’
(
) [Kathimerini 05.04.07] a quarter, a negative one:‘the
nationalistic international in action: myth and reality of ‘Great Albania’
(
:
) [Avgi 02.12.07]; ‘the mystery Albanian and the
streets of cocaine’ (o
)
[Kathimerini 12/02/08]and only seldom (5%) did the title predispose the
reader positively towards Albanian immigrants - a pattern replicated in
weekend headings: ‘a better future for Kosovo and the neighbours’
(
), [Kathimerini
17.02.08]; ‘the industrious hands of the immigrants’ (
) [Kathimerini 05/09/07].
35%
31%
29%
30%
23%
25%
20%
15%
10%
10%
5%
5%
1%
1%
0%
TA NEA
KATHIMERINI
AVGI
Figure 4. Title evaluation per newspaper (weekdays)
This is interesting since the title can frame the article, affecting the ways in
which readers interpret it. Furthermore, headings are read even if the rest of the
news items are not, and are best recalled [van Dijk 1988; Wodak 1996;
Pietikäinen 2003; Gardikiotis et. al. 2004]. Less than ten percent of news
headings related to Albanian immigrants, confirming the lack of media interest
in Albanian-related news. When looking across all three newspapers, in most
cases on weekdays and at weekends, headings portray Albanians in a neutral
way (ranging from 31% in Ta Nea and 10% in Avgi) (Figure 4). This shows
that, overall, news discourse is not so negatively disposed towards Albanian
immigrants-related issues, and a moderate tone and style of analysis is adopted
more often than not.
4.3 EMERGING ISSUES
When looking into the issues under consideration in newspaper articles, the
majority during the week (approximately half of them) are politically-oriented.
This corresponds to a heightened political (and media) attention to
developments in neighbouring FYROM and Kosovo and the Albanian residents
there, and constitutes foreign rather than domestic news. 18% refer to crimes
committed by Albanians, and 14% have a cultural theme. Tied into this is a
sharp drop in the percentage of articles on deviant behaviour by Albanians
(7%). Again, it may be assumed that crime reports are part of the everyday
subject matter of the daily news compared to weekend editions.
The overall percentage of articles discussing Albanians within a discourse of
criminality and deviance (25%) serve to construct subject positions 21 for them
only to a certain extent. In this respect, I argue that such reports caricatured the
Albanian immigrant community as predisposed to deviant behaviour in a
limited way only. It would be interesting, however, to examine how Albanian
deviance from the established order compares to deviance by other immigrant
communities and Greeks in the print media. Finally, 15% of weekend news
stories have a cultural slant. This means that approximately 30% of the news
pieces on Albanians are culturally-oriented which indicates that the print media
do not portray them always and exclusively as deviants.
Similarly, Greek television coverage of Albanian immigrants rose during
periods of political development in neighbouring FYROM and Kosovo
[February and March 2008], where local Albanian populations are involved.
However, since the aim of this chapter is to make sense of the way in which the
Greek media construct the Albanian immigrant community in Greece, rather
than the ethnic Albanian communities living in Skopje and Kosovo, it focuses
on domestic news, leaving foreign news aside. In this context, Albanian-related
television news was mostly crime-related (38%). Such stories featured mostly
on ANTENNA news programmes (21%) and much less on MEGA (12%). The
public broadcaster barely covered this category of news (5%), and STAR
channel, surprisingly, ignored it. The only time Albanian-related issues arose in
its news programmes, concerned Roula’s appeal for help to the Greek and
Albanian community so that her groom returned to the marital bed. As a result,
family- and relationship-related issues rose to 7% on STAR TV.
21
See Hall, S. et al, 1978 for a comprehensive discussion of the representation of ‘mugging’ by
ethnic minorities on British newspapers in the seventies.
4.4 FRAMING OF NEWS STORIES
As expected [Cottle 2000; Halloran 1998; Teo 2000], in most cases, the
Albanian-related newspaper piece was presented within a conflictual frame
(45%), and only in a few (7.2%) in a consensual one 22 . Conflictual is the main
means of framing news stories over the weekend as well, and in equal measure
too (46%) (Figure 6). Overall, crime- and cultural news stories are either
consensually or neutrally framed across all three newspapers.
Television news about Albanians was mainly presented in a frame of
conflict (86%), and only rarely in a consensual frame (5%). Combining the
representation of immigrants as ‘Albanians’ (that is only in relation to their
ethnic identity) with how certain issues were framed shows that
family/relationship-oriented issues were moderately set within a frame of
conflict (33%), while crime-related issues were conflictually over-emphasised.
(87%) (Figure 7). A quick cross examination of television and newspaper
coverage (where 33% of family-oriented pieces on ‘Albanians’ were presented
in a context of negotiation and 48% of crime-related ones in a context of
conflict) suggests that television news portrayed Albanian migrants in a much
more negative manner and, therefore, news coverage of Albanians on Greek
television may work to amplify already existing phobic and xenophobic
attitudes towards them.
22
Conflictual is the frame where the media emphasise conflict between individuals,
groups or institutions as a means of capturing audience interest, as in the case of
presidential election campaigns; respectively, in consensual frames, the media
emphasise consent between all parties involved [Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000: 95].
24%
NEUTRAL
7%
CONSENT
46%
CONFLICT
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Figure 5. Issue framing (weekdays)
4.5 PORTRAYAL OF ALBANIANS
In two-thirds of newspaper reports of Albanians, Albanians existed only as an
ethnic identity, the word ‘Albanian’ being perjorative and used to describe a
‘one-label-fits-all’ homogeneous group. This follows patterns of journalistic
practice also seen elsewhere, where in Italy ‘Albanian’ is an insult: the choice
of terms inevitably creates a certain angle in the news [Walter 2002; Pietikäinen
2003]. Only rarely are Albanians referred to as ‘immigrants’, ‘illegal
immigrants’, ‘foreigners’, or ‘economic immigrants’, something that may
reflect their invisibility in the eyes of the Greek state and its immigration policy
and reinforce their stigmatisation.
When the identity of immigrants (as ‘Albanians’) is combined with the
existence of positive or negative attributes, 7% of articles present Albanian
immigrants negatively, and only 2% positively indicating therefore gradual
acceptance of the Albanian community into their newfound homeland, and
alleviating the stereotypical construction of Albanians as Greece’s ‘constitutive
other’ within the print news discourse. The situation on weekends hardly
changes. Bearing in mind that all political stories within the period under
examination concern developments in neighbouring Kosovo and FYROM, I
decided not to look into the kind of attributes (positive or negative) used to
qualify Albanian-related political issues (because the majority of them would
also refer to the local Albanian population). Instead, more revealing was how
crime-related stories covered Albanian immigrants in Greece. While 18% of
such articles did not ascribe any positive attribute (or combination of words) to
them, and few found anything positive to say, only 2% of news stories depicted
them negatively 23 . That contradicted similar findings regarding mainstream
media coverage of immigrant minorities (see above). This may reflect a fall in
the level of stigmatisation of Albanian immigrants, once again suggesting
acceptance of the ‘Albanian’ in news discourse. Hence, the need to conduct
comparative research on the depictions of Albanians in the Greek press over the
past 15-20 years becomes paramount.
On TV news, Albanians exist almost exclusively as an ethnic identity
(93%): the term ‘Albanian’ branding them as second-class citizens (with no
citizenship rights in reality). This one-dimensional depiction of Albanian
immigrants may reinforce biased perceptions of them by the mainstream media.
If we examine the channel profile, NET, the public broadcaster, and the two
commercial majors treat Albanian immigrants predominantly as ‘Albanians’
(33%: 26% MEGA: 26% ANTENNA), and only rarely as ‘foreigners’.
As to television news, only 2.5% of news stories said anything
positive(in the form of attributes or any other qualifications and linguistic
constructions) and only 12% something negative. MEGA used the most
negative comments about Albanians (13%), while ANTENNA and NET were
more moderate (5% and 2%). MEGA topped negative coverage of Albanians
in political issues (18%) while none of the other three said anything negative.
Examining crime-related stories, MEGA’s coverage was the most negative
23
Examples are, for negative attributes: ‘Albanian gangster’ (‘
’ Ta Nea,
19/06/07); ‘the specialisation of the Albanian mafia (‘
, Kathimerini,
07/10/07); for positive- ‘able Albanian craftsmen build firing places’ (‘
’, Kathimerini 22/3/08; ‘[the bullet] went through the unfortunate
immigrant’ (‘
’, Avgi, 08/11/07).
(27%), ANTENNA (15%) and NET (7%). STAR TV was responsible for 33%
of positive evaluations of Albanian immigrants in family/relationship-oriented
issues -although the human interest character of the stories needs to be taken
into account when considering this. Negative Greek television coverage of
Albanians was low. As with the press, this is due to the slow erosion of distance
between the immigrant and host communities and the development of a culture
of tolerance within the host society, enhanced by mainstream media discourses.
2%
NET
33%
MEGA
26%
5%
ANT1
STAR
26%
ALBANIAN
IMMIGRANTS
AS
FOREIGNER
7%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Figure 6. Television portrayal of Albanians
5. CONCLUSIONS
This chapter explored the cultural making of Europe by looking at how some of
Europe’s ‘others’ - Albanian immigrants - are discussed and represented in the
Greek media. The influx of Albanian economic immigrants problematised
social cohesion while questioning existing preconceptions of what it means to
be ‘European’. What kind of media representations of the Albanian immigrants
are articulated within Greek press and television news coverage? How much
easier has it become to be an Albanian in contemporary Greece, as far as the
symbolic representations of Albanian immigrants are concerned, and what does
this say about the cultural making of Europe’s ‘others’? These questions framed
my analysis. Overall, contemporary news discourse generally ignores the
Albanian community in Greece. The relative absence of Albanians in
mainstream media coverage may weaken their position and participation in the
host society: Albanians are left outside an influential arena for public
discussion and decision-making. Therefore, it may be harder for them to expose
a larger audience to their agenda. By failing to articulate the diversity of Greek
society, news media may, whether on purpose or not, contribute to a shortsighted construction of Albanian identity [Wal 2002]. While invisibility in the
news may also be relevant for many other social groups, the marginalised
position of ethnic minorities means that they are not represented any better
anywhere else. Thus, their position is vulnerable, since media publicity is even
more important for them. Significantly for the Greek mainstream media, my
research has also shown that when represented, Albanians are often portrayed in
a positive, rather than negative, light. This indicates that discourses of
stigmatisation and caricature in the media may be on the wane.
Print news discourse does not necessarily construct the ‘Albanians’ as
Greece’s ‘constitutive other’, but makes room for an (eventually) smooth
cohabitation, exemplified in the large ratio of news stories with neutral titles,
the largely moderate tone and style of analysis in news stories, the limited
extent to which the newspaper discourse constructs subject positions of
deviance for Albanian immigrants, and the fact that almost one third of the
news stories cover cultural rather than crime-related issues. Television news
portrayed Albanian immigrants negatively more so than the press, but such
portrayals were, arguably, limited. Even so, mainstream media are still
powerful and pervasive enough to construct biased perceptions of them. The
overall low percentage of negative representations of Albanians suggests that
contrary to the ‘differential inclusion’ and the existence of ‘immigrant
enclaves’ they experience, there is a growing acceptance of the immigrant
community within the host country. What that means as to how Europe
mediates the construction of the ‘other’, and how that will affect the EU in the
dawning decade, remains to be seen- perhaps Europe should have opted for
‘enrichment’ of existing structures instead of ‘enlargement’.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to the Laboratory of Social Research of the Faculty of
Communication and Media Studies, University of Athens, and Despina
Chronaki, M.A. Faculty graduate who co-ordinated the following
undergraduates: Georgia Aitaki, Alexis Bikas, Dimitris Dionisatos, Panagiotis
Gourgoulios, Maria Hirdari, Stefanos Ikonomou, Maria Kaliviotou, Mina
Koukou, Danai Lebessopoulou, Tatiana Mihailidou, Katerina Mitsiopoulou,
Kostantinos Serdaris, Haris Tsitsopoulos, Christina Vrodou.
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