Description
The article develops a theoretical framework for analysing how mediatised discourses on forced migration in Portugal sustain (or challenge) dominant self-representations of Portugal and the European Union (EU). Rather than focusing on migrants themselves, it examines how representations of migration become a mirror through which Europe constructs and legitimises its own moral and political identity. Taking Portugal as a case study within the EU, the argument holds that these discourses must be grounded in the colonial and racial genealogies that have shaped Europe’s self-identity and its historical processes of othering migrants and formerly colonised peoples. Bringing together postcolonial, decolonial and Gramscian perspectives, the article highlights the interdependence between coloniality, hegemony, and race in the (re)production of European identity. Mediatised discourses function as key instruments through which these imaginaries and hierarchies are reproduced, allowing the persistence of Europe’s humanitarian and normative self-image despite its exclusionary practices. This symbolic reproduction is sustained by a constructed hegemonic consensus, which obscures the material continuities of colonial power and prevents their contestation; media actors play a central role in this process. The article situates this dynamic within the broader history of European modernity, where the construction of moral authority and racial superiority has been central to both imperial expansion and contemporary migration governance. By articulating discourse with historical contextualisation, the framework exposes the racial and colonial foundations of Europe’s social and political imaginaries, revealing how they legitimise hierarchies of belonging and sustain the Union’s global position. Ultimately, the article contributes to International Relations debates by reframing migration analysis around the self-construction of Europe, foregrounding the necessary interconnection between coloniality, hegemony, and race.
