A rather wild imagination: who is and who is not a migrant in the Czech media and society?

This paper examines migrants and migration in the Czech Republic, a largely homogeneous country with limited migration experience, where migration nevertheless became highly salient in 2015 and has remained central to political and public discourse. The study combines a quantitative computer-assisted content analysis of major Czech media (2015–2018) with focus group interviews (2020) to explore how migration was covered and how citizens perceived both migrants and media coverage. Media attention peaked in 2015, often employing negative and securitized frames centered on migrants from the Middle East as potential terrorists unlikely to adapt. Focus group respondents recognized exaggeration and one-sidedness in media coverage, and socially constructed the “migrant” primarily as visibly different, non-integrating, and dependent on social benefits. Conversely, those who come to settle and work—perceived as culturally closer—were excluded from the mental category of “migrant.”