Learning objectives
Analyze common narratives on migration and examine how they spread and are amplified. Develop a clearer understanding of how narratives affect perceptions, attitudes, and debates around migration. By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
- Identify common disinformation narratives about migration.
- Understand how these narratives spread and shape public opinion.
- Recognize and question disinformation narratives about migration.
Our research within the Mild project shows that newsrooms largely lack racialized professionals and people with migrant backgrounds. This absence fuels bias and often leads to stereotyped or misleading narratives. As journalists and communicators, we have a responsibility to deliver accurate, ethical, and responsible information.
How disinformation narratives work
As journalists and content creators, we have a social responsibility: to produce accurate information, free from bias, stereotypes, misleading or false information. In order to do this, knowing how disinformation narratives work is important.
Disinformation is false information spread intentionally, often with the aim of causing a stir and polarising public opinion. For example, evoking the "risk of an invasion" of millions of migrants in a news headline when people arrive by sea. When we talk about disinformation, we often think of individual fake posts or viral hoaxes. But behind many of these lies something much bigger: a misleading narrative.
A misleading narrative is the intentional story that disinformation wants us to believe. It's not just one message, it's the idea that many different hoaxes repeat again and again.
If many false stories push the same idea, over time that idea starts to feel familiar... and more believable. That's why understanding the narrative behind a hoax is so important for journalists, communicators, and, more broadly, for anyone working with information. It helps us recognize the role we play when we report a news story or cover an issue, and makes us more aware of how our work can either reinforce or counter misleading narratives.
The real goal of disinformation isn't just for us to believe one fake post. Their goal is for us to accept their narrative. And once we, as journalists or communicators, are able to recognize these narratives, you strengthen your ability to critically understand the process that produces toxic patterns, making us far less vulnerable to new hoaxes that attempt to reinforce them.
A misleading narrative is basically a story created to spread a false idea. It can blame migrants for economic problems, or try to deny climate change.
Often these stories are presented as if they were "good for you": "If migrants leave, the economy will improve." And if one hoax doesn't go viral? Another one is created. Narratives evolve constantly.
They spread through social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, using memes, videos, voice notes, screenshots... anything quick, emotional, and easy to share.
It is important to debunk them because if you understand how people are being manipulated, they can expose not only each false claim but also the bigger story behind it.
A single hoax can contain more than one narrative. Many misleading messages work like Russian dolls: you open one idea and find another hidden inside. For example, a fake video claiming that migrants attacked a shop might also suggest that authorities are hiding the truth or that the country is in chaos. Layering narratives makes the message more adaptable and persuasive.
Narratives often include a tiny piece of reality, taken out of context to make the lie feel true. Disinformation might use a real photo from years ago and present it as recent, or take a true statistic and twist its meaning. Mixing truth with fiction makes the content seem credible, even when the message is false.
These narratives rely on mental shortcuts. They use quick associations like "migration = violence" to trigger emotional reactions. These shortcuts are meant to bypass critical thinking and push you to accept the message instantly.
Misleading narratives appeal to emotions, to our cognitive biases, and to simple logical fallacies. They encourage you to share without thinking. The more you feel, the less you question.
While reality requires nuance, data, and context, disinformation can invent simple explanations without any obligation to be accurate. If a situation is too complex, an easiest or most dramatic version of the story gets created. This makes the messages faster to consume and easier to share, even if they are completely wrong.
If something doesn't work, it gets changed. Disinformation is a constant process of trial and error. If a hoax doesn't go viral, it's rewritten, changing the tone, replacing the image, or trying another platform. Producing content is cheap and fast, so it can be experimented until something spreads. Even when one hoax is debunked, the narrative survives because it keeps adapting it.
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Disinformation narratives on migration
Ongoing analyses of disinformation and hate speech directed at migrants across Europe reveal a persistent pattern: hostile narratives do not merely circulate, they shape public attitudes in profound ways. As these narratives spread through online platforms, political discourse, and interpersonal communication, they create simplified and emotionally charged representations of migration that become embedded in public consciousness. Over time, the repetition of these messages makes them appear familiar and therefore credible, even when they lack factual basis.
Within this broader ecosystem of disinformation, several recurring narratives about migration dominate public discussion in Europe. These narratives distill migration into emotionally charged themes that overshadow its complexity.
Key themes of recurrent misleading narratives on migration propose connections between migrants, refugees or racialized people with crime, emergency/alarm/invasion, threat to cultural/religious identity, unsustainability for welfare and public spending.
"Migrants want to impose their customs and traditions to the detriment of (supposed) traditional Western values."
This narrative portrays immigrants as unwilling to adapt to local cultural norms or social expectations. It suggests that migrants resist learning the language, following community rules, or adopting shared values. In many cases, the narrative uses anecdotal examples or unverified claims to generalize the behavior of entire groups. For example, in the content circulating on this subject, Muslims are identified as foreigners to emphasize that they come to impose their customs (Ramadan, halal food, prayers, etc.). Although integration is a complex process involving many structural factors, the narrative frames it as a personal refusal by migrants.
"The state gives migrants preferential treatment"
A widely circulated narrative claims that migrants receive special privileges, particularly in access to welfare benefits, housing support, or social services. Messages often describe non-existent or exaggerated financial allowances offered exclusively to foreign nationals. These claims flourish because they align with the emotional perception that resources are scarce and that institutions may be failing to protect local citizens.
In reality, welfare systems across Europe include detailed eligibility criteria, and migrants are neither granted automatic access nor privileged treatment. However, disinformation uses bureaucratic complexities to create confusion and feed suspicion.
"Unaccompanied foreign minors are dangerous"
Another widespread narrative asserts that migrant minors who arrive without family supervision are inherently violent or prone to criminal behavior. Fabricated or distorted stories about alleged attacks by minors regularly circulate online, often referencing dramatic or sensationalized events. Even when such incidents are inaccurate or taken out of context, their emotional power makes them highly shareable.
"Migrants are linked to crime"
This narrative claims that migrants are disproportionately involved in robbery, violence, or sexual offenses. Disinformation amplifies isolated incidents, mislabels unrelated individuals as migrants, or circulates old footage as if it were current. These messages exploit fears about safety and are often accompanied by imagery designed to evoke shock.
Although evidence consistently shows that crime rates are not inherently tied to migration status, the repetition of the narrative fuels public anxiety.
These migration narratives gain influence because they present complex social issues in simple, emotionally charged terms that people can easily grasp.
Recognizing these misleading narratives won't stop disinformation from existing, but it will make you stronger against it. Learn the patterns. Question the stories. And don't let others decide what you believe and what you write.
PDF Disinformation Narratives
Downloadable Resources
Download the materials of the module.