This article offers a comparative overview of the case studies included in this Special Issue with the aim of providing a narrative of how the refugee emergency in Europe has unfolded during the period 2014–2016. I look at the ‘real’ events as they happened, identify which events were taken up in the different national political scenes and media landscape as highly relevant, and then identify on the basis of a meta-analysis of the findings of the different articles, the main interpretative frames used to make sense of the refugee emergency. This meta-analysis allows me also to relate the discourses with the actual policies adopted or decisions taken with a view to addressing the emergency. The article focuses on contrasted discourses, how they are politicized in different countries and how they are eventually brought together adopting a frame of ‘reason’/rationalization that reconciles solidarity with public order. © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

discourse Solidarity Mediterranean rationality mediatization threat Refugee crisis

rationalization political discourse meta-analysis Mediterranean Region media role refugee Europe social conflict