This article is based on the findings of the 2020 European Policy Centre’s (EPC) study into the prevalence of online disinformation narratives relating to migration.
The Same Old (False) Story: Reinforcing Anti-Migration and Racist Narratives Why does migration, broadly understood, attract so much disinformation? What are the most common themes found in disinformation sources and in online content spreading hostility towards migrants, refugees, and minority groups? What strategies have governments and civil-society organizations taken to oppose migration-related disinformation and misinformation? Focusing on the European context, this article answers these questions by drawing on research carried out by the European Policy Centre (EPC) with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in 20. It is clear that when it comes to the consequences of disinformation about migration, the stakes are very real and very high-as is the need to counter it effectively. Disinformation and conspiracy theories relating to immigrants and religious and ethnic minorities have a long history of being used to radicalize individuals, sometimes resulting in episodes of violence, as shown by the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque attacks in 2019 and Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting in 2022. This is neither a purely European nor a recent phenomenon, however. In the 2022 French presidential elections, right-wing candidates Valérie Pécresse and Éric Zemmour purposefully cited the White-nationalist “Great Replacement” theory in their campaigns, claiming that global elites were engaged in a conspiracy to “replace” White European populations with foreigners. Conspiracy theories are also frequently used as a rhetorical tool by far-right movements and nativist politicians to advocate for hardline anti-immigration policies and mobilize their voters.
Doctored images and sensationalist articles fanned fears about an imminent “invasion” of Afghans, turning European countries’ migration policy agenda into a discussion focused on security, neglecting humanitarian considerations.įrom Afghanistan to Ukraine and beyond, each development concerning global migrant flows or the management of cultural diversity can give rise to a new stream of disinformation, with significant consequences for policymaking, public discourse, and social relations. Right-wing activists promoted mistruths that Afghan men were the only ones to escape, leaving their families behind, and that their lives were not in danger. To take another prominent example, a few days after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021 it was falsely claimed that hundreds of thousands of Afghans were heading to Europe. Salient events such as the war in Ukraine act as catalysts, enabling coordinated disinformation-producing activist groups and extremists to grab people’s attention and stoke fears, in some cases even setting the tone of the political discourse surrounding the management of migratory phenomena and the policies governing them. This is just the latest instance of how disinformation about refugees, other migrants, and minority groups adapts to the shifting news cycle-while also appealing to people’s pre-existing convictions and tapping into current worries, in this case about generalized violence and household incomes struggling to keep up with rising prices. Resulting comments were resentful against refugees, aid groups, and governments alike. In Poland, Ukrainians were falsely accused of committing violent crimes against residents. In Czechia and Romania, social media and suspicious websites, some purporting to be genuine news outlets, were flooded with messages claiming that arriving Ukrainians were wealthy yet receiving significant social and financial support, while needy locals were left without help. Soon after the start of the massive human displacement to the European Union caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rumors and hoaxes about Ukrainian refugees began to spread online.
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