De verwelkoming van vluchtelingen in de gemeente Den Haag: een onderzoek naar de verhouding tussen gemeentelijk beleid & de media.

Abstract

The European refugee crisis is a spatial issue that has a big political tenor. Simultaneously, it is a subject that has been paid a lot of attention to by the media. This study investigates the image that is shaped of the Dutch city The Hague concerning the hospitality towards refugees. As ‘the international city of peace and justice’, The Hague seems to profile itself as a hospitable municipality by accommodating 700 refugees above the national based target. By investigating the relation between the media coverage and local policy making about the welcoming of refugees, this research points out the relevance of the interaction between the media, the political agenda and the public imagination. In order to gain understanding of this complex process, various research methods have been used. First of all, a content analyses has been conducted of 74 articles from two local newspapers and of several policy notes from municipality The Hague. Also, two interviews were conducted. First, one of the project coordinators concerning refugee accommodation in municipality The Hague was interviewed. Second, an interview was conducted with ‘Justice & Peace’, a local actor that is committed to the protection of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice. To express this mission Justice & Peace for example organizes various ‘Welcome here’ festivals in The Hague (and elsewhere in the Netherlands). An important outcome of the research is that the image, concerning the accommodation of refugees in The Hague, that is shaped by the media differs substantially from the image that is shaped by the municipality itself. The media coverage is rather negative, focusing on local resistance from the residents of The Hague. In contrast, the municipality itself seems to focus upon local initiative and a welcoming attitude towards refugees. However, the ‘politics of place’ encompass contradictory perspectives towards hospitality, local identity and the imaginative geography.