Successful integration/failed integration - My experiences with integration and the media in my country

By Patricia Curmi

Britain has a complex and, at times, paradoxical relationship with the issue of immigration and integration. It would be easy to write the media (whether print, broadcast or online) as sensationalists looking to stir up prejudice for easy sales. When tabloid newspapers like the Sun print a front page headline that reads: ‘war on a gypsy-free-for-all’, one might be led to thinking that the UK faces a bleak and intolerant future.

However, despite some appalling racism and prejudice gracing the pages of too many media outlets in the UK, there have been some cases of popular support for immigrants and signs of integration of new cultures and communities.
Last month, for example, a high-profile media campaign backed a British actress who argued for the right of retired Gurkhas (Nepali soldiers who fight for the UK) to live in Britain and receive free treatment.

My experiences with integration in the media are hard to define, mainly because it’s difficult to even measure success or failure. Is it economic success? Social cohesion? Are we looking at short-term impacts? Cultural exchange? Religious tolerance?

At the heart of the issue in Britain, I believe, is a common labelling of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ migrants. When the media perpetuates false stereotypes of certain migrants as ‘lazy’ or ‘criminal’, then this becomes embedded in the public’s consciousness and filters into attitudes and behaviour.
I think this is an issue with media outlets all over Europe, and one that will only worsen as the recession creates a strained atmosphere between those looking for jobs from overseas and the communities they arrive in.

This open public debate needs to begin happening fast: this year the fascist British National Party won three seats in the European Parliament for the first time in history, after winning a another seat on the London Council for the first time. Their success was due, in large part, to the failure of the media and mainstream political parties to listen to local communities fears about being ‘swamped’ by immigrants who spoke a different language, had a different culture and had different values.

Ultimately, it has been proven that negative media stereotypes have led to increased violence and racism within a society. Thus, the media has a central role in dispelling such stereotypes. Not through censorship, but by opening up the debate and using actual research rather than looking only at individual cases or figures that support one point of view.

Patricia Curmi is a 25-year-old journalist, who specialises in human rights and refugee law. She is no stranger to migration as she has also lived in Malta, Spain and Australia.