The impact of stories on attitudes toward emigration and personal migration aspirations

The project addresses a research question of whether exposure to persuasive messages emphasising the negative or positive aspects of emigration is consequential for perceptions of emigration. It aims to identify the potential role of stories in shaping attitudes toward both emigration as a phenomenon and personal migration aspirations (an umbrella category encompassing e.g. desires, intentions, plans, or expectations). Based on experimental data, we will test the effects of both narratives in which migration is negatively framed and those in which it is positively framed as well as the potential moderating effect of real-life exposure to emigration. To this end, we plan to examine 1) if exposure to a migration-encouraging or migration-discouraging story has a message-consistent impact on attitudes toward emigration/migration aspirations; 2) if the effect of the story depends on the operationalisation of migration aspirations; and 3) if prior personal or family migration experience and maintaining regular contact with friends and relatives who moved abroad play a role in the reception of the story. The project will contribute to the academic literature in communication studies on the persuasive effects of narratives on attitudes and behavioural intentions – by considering a sphere of life so far understudied in this literature: human spatial mobility – and to migration studies scholarship on determinants of attitudes toward emigration and determinants of migration aspirations – by pointing to the role of stories in driving them.

Duration

2024 - 2025

Source of funding

“Excellence Initiative – Research University” Programme (IDUB), Priority Research Area V (POB V), CESS grant

Partners

Prof. Sonya Dal Cin, LSA Communication and Media, University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor