Media framing of immigration in the United Kingdom: a critical discourse analysis of newspaper coverage of the Windrush scandal between 2018 and 2020

Abstract

Immigration has historically been a major political issue in the United Kingdom. Older migration waves, dating back to the mid-20th century, have become the subject of news coverage again in the last five years following the Windrush scandal. The present research focuses on the coverage of the events surrounding the Windrush scandal in the United Kingdom in 2018-2020 and how the media's political leanings impacted the framing of Commonwealth immigration. The data sources include the media's online platforms and third-party newspaper archives within the six chosen media among three subgroups (right-wing/Conservative, left-wing/Labour, and centrist). The research applied a critical discourse analysis approach to the texts of the newsprint media covering the issue. It was found that there is considerable variation in immigration coverage and the presentation of the government's response to the Windrush scandal between differently ideologically aligned newspapers. The right-leaning media were the most negative in framing non-Commonwealth immigration and the least critical of the government's response to the scandal, whereas the left-leaning and centrist newspapers showed the opposite tendencies. This study contributes to the scholarship on migration framing by media in the context of a political scandal.