UKRAINIAN IDENTITIES IN THE GREEK MEDIA: CONSTRUCTING THE IMAGE OF THE “ACCEPTABLE” REFUGEE

Abstract

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian refugees fleeing their homeland appear to have been more positively perceived in European countries and media than those coming from Asian or African countries, who were treated with suspicion and even hostility. The present study focuses on the identities Ukrainian refugees construct for themselves while addressing the Greek audience and attempting to become accepted by them. We specifically examine Ukrainian refugees’ oral narratives embedded in Greek news reports, where they recount their experiences from the war zone, their fear and uncertainty for the future, their concerns for those who were left
behind, as well as their experiences and expectations in the host country. The analysis in terms of the model of three dilemmas (Bamberg 2004, 2011) and the typology of racist strategies (Karachaliou et al. 2024) will demonstrate, respectively, how Ukrainian refugees frame themselves and their trajectories after deciding to leave their country of origin, and how aspects of the Greek national/racist discourse become part of how Ukrainian refugees perceive and represent themselves in front of the Greek audience.