This essay addresses the question of how irregular migration is framed in Western media from the location of the migration researcher. What challenges and dilemmas do media frames and practices of framing create for researchers’ participation in communicating research about irregular migration to the public? The essay is written in dialogue with topics raised by the articles in the special issue and seeks to supplement, and at times interrogate, its scrutiny of how irregular migration is covered in the news and received by the audience. © 2015 SAGE Publications.

Irregular immigration media frames Ethnography

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