Who’s to Blame for Asylum ‘Moral Panics’? Asylum Seekers’ Perspectives on UK Policymaking, News Reporting, and Preferences of Identity Construction
Affiliation: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, GB
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Chapter from the book: Frederiksen M. & Harboe Knudsen I. 2021. Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil.
This chapter critically reviews policies and news reporting in the United Kingdom claiming that they create, circulate and sustain a labelling of asylum seekers as folk devils. Drawing on interviews with asylum seekers on their preferred forms of representation, the author argues that, while the news media is mainly blamed for moral panics and representations of asylum seekers as folk devils, policymaking is equally complicit in the current demonization of asylum seekers in the UK.