Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyse whether and how Croatian media tackle the issue of foreigners' class, race and nationality, and whether they sketch the picture of desirable and welcome foreigners whose inclusion is not questionable and who are seen as a welcome enrichment of the society.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will analyse how media representations portray foreigners living in Croatia and how they evaluate their presence in Croatian society. Foreigners in Croatia make less than 1% of the total population, which makes Croatian society rather homogeneous in comparisons to other European countries. I will pay attention to the ways Croatian media describe foreigners' migration trajectories and their stories of individual success or failure. Moreover, I will be interested in the question how the connection between individual well-being and development on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural change and development of the country on the other is constructed. I will examine how media describe and interpret foreigners' involvement in Croatian society, and how they depict various responses that Croatian society does or should offer when meeting with foreigners. I intend to focus on naming and qualifications attached to these people (are they named as foreigners, (im)migrants, economic migrants, highly skilled migrants, expatriates, etc.), as well as on comparisons made in the media (are they compared to other mobile individuals, e.g. asylum seekers and refugees, emigrants, tourists, etc.). My aim is to show whether and how Croatian media tackle the issues of foreigners' class, race and nationality, and in doing so whether they sketch the picture of desirable and welcome foreigners whose inclusion is not questionable and who are seen as a welcome enrichment of the society.