Migration Framing in Lusophone Media: A Comparative Analysis of Journalistic Narratives

Changes in migration policies have a direct impact on the lives of immigrants, affecting their rights, access to services, and social integration. In this context, the media plays a crucial role in disseminating and interpreting these changes, shaping public perception through the narratives it constructs. This study aims to understand how the media in Lusophone countries (Portugal, Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique) framed migration issues between 2022 and 2024, with a particular focus on the legislative changes in Portugal following the creation of AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum). To this end, a word frequency analysis was conducted using six predefined thematic categories (Humanitarian, Political, Legal, Economic, Cultural, and Security), through the R software. A total of 200 news articles were examined, with 102 from the Portuguese press and 98 from the other countries. In Portugal, the most frequent frame was the humanitarian theme (26.5%), followed by the legal (22.1%) and political (20.6%) themes. In the other countries, the legal theme prevailed (36.7%), reflecting interest in the legal implications of Portuguese policies on their migrant communities. The analysis also revealed that cultural and security-related themes were consistently underrepresented, despite their social relevance. Among the limitations of this study are unequal access to journalistic sources and the smaller sample sizes for Angola and Mozambique. The study recommends further qualitative research to better understand the historical and political contexts underlying the media framings identified. The research recommends future qualitative studies to better understand the historical and political contexts behind the observed media framings.