Russian imperialism, racist differentiation and refugees at the Polish borders: Media as ‘borderscapers’

Abstract

This article investigates media as ‘borderscapers’ that discursively shape state borders by representing human interactions with and at the borders and generating ‘borderscapes’ that imbue borders with social and political meaning. Empirically, the article focuses on a two-pronged border emergency in Poland, involving non-European irregularised migrants stranded at the frontier with Belarus and the arrival of millions of war refugees from Ukraine. It applies Foucauldian discourse analysis to the coverage by the pro-government wPolityce.pl and the watchdog OKO.press. The study uncovers four borderscapes: (1) the Polish–Belarusian ‘borderscape of invisibility’ (wPolityce.pl); (2) the Polish–Belarusian ‘borderscape of rejection’ (OKO.press); (3) the Polish–Ukrainian ‘borderscape without borders’ (wPolityce.pl); and (4) the Polish–Ukrainian ‘borderscape of assimilation’ (OKO.press). The article argues that these borderscapes are contingent on (1) who is seen to interact with a given border and how and why, and (2) each outlet's referential relation towards the state politics of belonging.