Edward Elgar’s Conflict, Security, and Migration series
Deadline: April 19, 2026
David Ramírez Plascencia (Universidad de Guadalajara, México) and Sonia Parella Rubio (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain) invite abstracts for the edited collection “Anti-migration contemporary narratives in America and Europe,” which will be submitted to Edward Elgar Publishing. The publisher has already expressed great interest in the project.
By the mid-2010s, the media, governments and local populations in Europe began to acknowledge the concrete dimensions of the migratory influx originating from Africa and the Middle East into member states of the European Union. According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), within a five-year period (2015-2020), the migrant population in Europe increased by approximately 16%, rising from 75 million to 87 million individuals. Across the Atlantic, during the same period, perhaps with less international visibility, a comparable migratory and humanitarian crisis was emerging. Large-scale movements of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Haitians, combined with the traditional migratory flows from Central America and Mexico, started departing their communities en masse, seeking to escape economic collapse, political repression, and widespread insecurity. While their primary destination was the US-Mexican border, trying to reach the “American Dream,” in recent years, with the arrival of Donald Trump to his second term, entering the US has become even more difficult, therefore millions of Latin American migrants are relocating in neighboring countries such as Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, creating new diverse migration patterns. By now, according to a recent United Nations report (2024), of the nearly 138 million displaced persons worldwide, approximately 17% reside in Latin America.
Besides their palpable differences, the migration flows in Europe and America share strong similarities. Both phenomena have spread within a highly mediated and socially polarized context, characterized by the widespread use of digital media, economic recessions, and a growing political polarization over key public issues. These migration movements have also emerged, and can be partly explained, by political instability, armed conflicts, the economic crises, and the effects of climatic change in various countries across Latin America, Africa and the Middle-East, where social and political turmoil has forced displacements and cross-border movements toward the wealthier countries.
Moreover, the mediatization of contemporary migration processes has contributed to the strengthening of far-rightmovements and politicians in the United States, Europe and even in Latin America. These actors have focused their agendas on a discourse of suspicion and hostility towards migrants and refugees, who are often stigmatized as scapegoats and portrayed as sources of social disorder and economic hardship. In mainstream media, migrants are frequently depicted as criminals or social burdens who threaten local employment and social stability. This discourse is routed by far-right political parties through social media (X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) which have become their main spaces for communication and propaganda. These parties have become successful in engaging the young electorate by appealing to concerns about immigration and the struggle for a “traditional” national identity.
Social media enables the spread of hate speech due to structural characteristics, such as potential anonymity, low-cost, flexibility and global reach. Social media, along with the irruption of fake news and social polarization, promote the irruption of digital echo chambers where information is shared within ideologically homogeneous groups in Telegram and WhatsApp, reinforcing the impact of hostile and polarized narratives. This process contributes to radicalization and social division even in democratic societies.
The main goal of this volume is to analyze, from a critical and comparative approach, the anti-migration narrative caused by the allocation flows in both continents in the last decade. Understanding this anti-migration narrative is essential for identifying, promoting, and developing alternate narratives that can contribute positively to the integration of migrants and foster greater social cohesion.
We are particularly interested in the following topics: (a) The political anti-narrative of migration (migration as a topic in the electoral campaigns, weaponization of refugees, migrants as scapegoats, etc.), (b) Media coverage and framing of the migration flows. How the media encourages hate discourse among the people, and (c) social media and anti-migrant hate discourse. How spaces such as Facebook or TikTok promote the creation and dispersion of content that promotes hate discourse towards migrants in both continents.
You are warmly invited to send an extended abstract of 500 words, please also include a brief bio for every author (no more than 250 words with titles, affiliations, and contacts). Send your proposal to the following addresses: davidram@udgvirtual.udg.mx and sonia.parella@uab.cat Please feel free to contact the editors if you have any questions.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
