ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the ‘refugee crisis’ was made salient and selectively amplified in the news media through claims of organised actors in the public sphere. In particular, drawing on claims-making, it identifies the extent to which acts of solidarity towards refugees were granted public awareness and what claims on behalf of or against hospitality towards refugees were made, and by whom. The chapter also examines the discursive construction of European solidarity in terms of its positions and justifications, and how such differences are used in contestations between various allegiances. In addition, it looks into the fault lines that opened up across Europe; in particular assesses the extent to which national debates followed similar patterns of division among governments, political parties and civil society actors in the public sphere, for example, in terms of both the positioning vis-à-vis refugees, and the way these same actors justified (or disqualified) solidarity with refugees.
