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This study explores the country-specific, regional and cultural differences and similarities between China and two European countries in their coverage of the European refugee issue and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the various political interests, social values, and journalism cultures in the countries under study. It analyzed and compared 2,368 news articles in Belgian, Swedish, and Chinese newspapers from 2015 to 2017. The analysis demonstrated that Chinese newspapers put less emphasis on welcoming the refugees by politicians and citizens, but are more prone to report on Islamic religion in their coverage of the refugees than the Belgian and Swedish newspapers. The empirical evidence suggests that the differences in reporting are not only a representation of different political interests and social engagement of the three countries, but, to a large extent, a result of different journalism cultures across nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since Putnam (2000) made social capital a concept that should be mourned for its decline in the USA, researchers and policy makers in some western countries have adopted it as a solution to what they believe to be the failed practices of multiculturalism. Instead of preserving their individual cultures and traditions, critics would have them build social capital by bridging to people and institutions in their new countries and adopt the ‘shared values’ of the host countries and become ‘integrated’. This study, based on a study conducted in the Netherlands in 2006, and supplemented with survey findings from Flanders at the same time, examines whether this perspective is accurate, focusing on women migrants who live in the Low Countries (Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium), of the networks they have built or not and the reasons for that, and of the role of media and the internet in that process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2015, refugee numbers in Europe have risen to an all-time high. Despite the desperate conditions of most refugees, many European countries have been reluctant to accept them. We investigate how refugees are received in five European countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Turkey) and the perceptions of the general population on these refugees. Our data were collected through face-to-face interviews (N = 2,649) in Turkey and an online survey (N = 6,000) in Western Europe. Our findings indicate that positive socio-economic conditions are related to more positive attitudes at the country level, whereas a high number of refugees are related to more negative attitudes. On the individual level, we find that attitudes are shaped by economic class, religiosity, religious piety, and settlement conditionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]