Seeking Scapegoats: The coverage of asylum in the UK press. Working paper 5 of the 'asylum and migration' series

Asylum and migration issues have never been higher on the political and policy agendas. The unprecedented scale of movement of people for reasons of protection, employment and family reunion to both the UK and Europe as a whole poses economic, social and political opportunities and challenges.

This is an area of policy making that is fast moving and involves many different stakeholders at the international, national and local levels. ippr's Asylum and Migration Working Paper Series has been established to provide a vehicle for examining the evidence in relation to specific aspects of policy and practice in this area.

In this fifth paper of the series, Roy Greenslade takes a look at the representation of this issue in the media asking how the media generate the stories, the role of the press in generating stereotypes, and how government policy is influenced by media coverage.

View the other papers in the series here. All are available free of charge.