Representations of Migrants in Twenty-First-Century European Cinema: A Survey of Films from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Onwuneme, Joy (2022) Representations of Migrants in Twenty-First-Century European Cinema: A Survey of Films from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Masters thesis, Dundalk Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

This study explores the cinematic representation of migrants in European cinema. The case studies focus on films from the five European countries that have the highest levels of foreign-born population as of January 2018. These countries are: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. These five nations were colonisers of various countries at certain points since the seventeenth century. The countries also are the five biggest film producing countries in Europe. The main aim of the research is to identify current and recurring themes in migrant and diasporic cinema and to identify the contemporary cinematic discourses that prevail in relation to issues of immigration, race and ethnicity. A corpus of twenty-one films dealing with migration is analysed. The films are selected based on their relevance to the topic of migration and migrant experiences in European cinema in the twenty-first century. The films included in the corpus do not represent an exhaustive list of all European films dealing with migration. Documentary films are excluded as are non-feature length films and films made for television. The research findings reported on reveal that the media continue to dehumanise and criminalise migrants through the deployment of negative stereotypes. Also, The Research findings reveal that migrants are generally represented as struggling to assimilate or integrate hence excelling in Europe is portrayed as a significant challenge for them. Given the limited amount of films tackling the issue of migrants and migration and the lack of accessibility of many of these, the research raises concerns about whether migrants are being represented accurately.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	Arts and Humanities > Film and Media Studies
Research Centres:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Ingrid Lewis
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2025 12:07
Last Modified:	27 Feb 2025 12:07
License:	Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0
URI:	https://eprints.dkit.ie/id/eprint/918

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