Refugee children and the normalisation of their disappearances:

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Refugee children and the normalisation

of their disappearances:

an exploration of the role and power of media

on policymaking

Geerte Rietveld

October 2020 Adhemar Mercado auf der Maur Faculty of Arts Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

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This thesis is submitted for obtaining the master’s degree in International

Humanitarian Action. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from her hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly

indicated, and that the thesis has been produced in accordance with proper academic practices.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the role and power of media on policymaking, focusing on the case of unaccompanied refugee children disappearing from refugee centres in the Netherlands. There has been a serious lack of impactful action from the public and policymakers towards remedying this problem, despite ample media coverage particularly since 2018. Contrary to the dominant academic framework and the premise of awareness campaign strategies, increasing media coverage has not translated into an increase in action. In this thesis, I look at what role media has played if not that of increasing action. I want to understand the disconnect between information and action. To do so, my methodology goes from the broad to the specific. First, a scoping review reveals the reach of mass media. It shows a direct link between mass media and policymakers. It further shows that the media, as well as other actors involved in this case, have been representing the issue as a series of singular events instead of the what it is: a constant flow of unaccompanied children disappearing from Dutch refugee centers. Second, using a content and discourse analysis, this thesis delves deeper into the text describing the issue of disappearing unaccompanied refugee children. Using concepts identified in my theoretical chapter to analyse journalists’ discursive practices, I come to the conclusion that the articles

included in my analysis fail to allocate the responsibility for these children to the State (as per the UN Children’s Rights Convention) and participate in the

framing the issue as a series of singular events. By omitting mention of the legal responsibility of the State for the protection of these children, fault is taken away for when protection fails. Instead, the articles participate in victim-blaming. Ultimately, with its discourse and reach, mass media has participated in the creation of an environment where inaction from both public and government is condoned.

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DEFINITIONS & ABBREVIATIONS

The following are government structures and terminology often used in the context of asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

• Central orgaan Opvang Asielzoekers (COA): The COA is the Dutch central organisation for asylum seekers. The COA is in charge of registrations,

placements in reception centres, and of providing guidance through asylum procedures. The COA is responsible for the security and safety in the reception centres and for providing basic necessities. The COA provides unaccompanied refugee children above 15 years of age shelter in special centres with 24 hours surveillance and guidance and assigns mentors to the children to help them through the asylum procedure.

• Nidos: Nidos is the Dutch national guardianship institution for unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking children. It assigns unaccompanied minors guardians upon their arrival in the Netherlands. Nidos manages where these unaccompanied minors are sheltered: with family in the Netherlands, in special protection centres, or together with other refugee children in COA-led campus-like facilities. Children under 15 years of age are normally placed with host families.

• Vreemdelingenpolitie: The Vreemdelingenpolitie is a division of the Dutch police in charge of making sure immigration law is not breached. They do identity checks on refugees and are in charge of police work regarding human smuggling and human trafficking. They are often the first point of contact for a refugee arriving in the Netherlands.

• AdviesCommissie voor VreemdelingenZaken (ACVZ): The ACVZ is an organisation that offers council and advice to the government on issues concerning migration policies and immigration law.

• AsielZoekers Centrum (AZC): The AZC are the shelters where refugees stay.

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• Immigratie en Naturalisatie Dienst (IND): The IND is the organisation in charge of asylum procedures. They decide whether a child will be allowed to stay in the Netherlands or has to go back to his/her country of origin.

• Wet Openbaarheid Bestuur (WOB): The WOB is a law that makes sure that people have the possibility to check in with government entities. In other words, if a person requests access to government information and this information is viewed by the government as being appropriate for public viewing then information can be accessed.

• Alleenstaande Minderjarige Vreemdeling (AMV): AMV directly translates as unaccompanied minor stranger. It is the term used by government and

institutions to describe the children in this case.

• Alleenstaande Minderjarige Asielzoeker (AMA): AMA directly translates as unaccompanied minor asylum-seeker, also a term used to describe these children.

• Openbaar Ministerie (OM): The OM is the prosecution, and part of the Ministry of Justice and Security. They are in charge of investigations. • Expertisecentrum Mensenhandel en Mensensmokkel (EMM): The EMM

collects information on human trafficking and human smuggling. They are a cooperative group consisting of the national police, the IND, the Royal Military Police and the Inspection of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. • Met Onbekende Bestemming (MOB): MOB means ‘with unknown

destination’. When AMA/AMV children disappear from host families or refugee centers they are usually registered as MOB.

• Zelfstandig Zonder Toezicht (ZZT): ZZT means ‘independent without supervision’, it is the new MOB. The term has changed but its usage not.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. 10’000 refugee children going missing in Europe

The chaos along migration routes and in reception centres across Europe has caused refugee children to get separated from their families. Other refugee children travel alone. These children form a particularly vulnerable group amongst the European refugee population. In 2016, Europol former chief of staff, Brian Donald told the Observer that at least 10’000 refugee children had been reported missing from European refugee centres since 2014. (Europol 10’000 vermiste kinderen 2016) This news sparked media attention and a number of research projects and awareness campaigns in the Netherlands, yet the problem is not diminishing. A 2020 report estimated that in the Netherlands alone, 2500 unaccompanied refugee children went missing over the last decade (Kuijper & Kamerman 2020). According to Defence for Children’s yearly report on the state of the Children’s Rights Convention in the Netherlands, the number of missing refugee children has increased every year (from 160 in 2012, to 290 in 2016, to 360 in 2017). (Defence for Children 2018) Due to underreporting, the real numbers may be much higher. (Vodo n.d.: 4; Humanity House 2019) The Observer interview put the issue in an increased media spotlight since 2016, yet the problem as well as some media attention is not new. Dutch news reports of it go back as far as 1996, when hundreds of Nigerian girls were trafficked

through the Netherlands to Belgium to be enslaved in prostitution rings. In 2004, media attention was given to the 125 Indian boys who went missing from Dutch care. (Smokkelen van kinderen is niet te voorkomen 2006)

According to article 22 of the Children’s Right Convention, to which the Netherlands is a signatory, it is the State’s responsibility to offer a child

appropriate protection and rights whether they are accompanied by family members, or not. (Vluchtelingenkinderen - Artikel 22 Kinderrechtenverdrag 2017) The responsibility for the safety of unaccompanied refugee children thus falls under the State. Their vulnerability should be the State’s primary concern, even if some children perhaps leave the centres voluntarily to meet up with family members in other countries or to evade repatriation upon their 18th

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birthday. Countries do not take up this responsibility. ‘Because migration governments see themselves as transit countries, countries that comprise part of the route from Vietnam to Britain - trafficked children are the responsibility of other states. As a result, exploited children are not identified as victims, cannot access protections from their traffickers, and remain an easy target for further exploitation and harm.’ (Defence for Children 2019) As Missing Children Europe (2015: 2) puts it: ‘When children go missing in one country, regardless of the reason, the system has failed to ensure them protection.’

At the end of the 1990s, the Netherlands launched its first large scale police investigation into missing refugee children, operation ‘Koolvis’. It dove into the issue of mass disappearances of Nigerian girls. At least 400 girls had disappeared from the care of Dutch authorities between 1996 and 1999. (Kamerman & Wittenberg 2009) The investigation caught their first suspect in 2006. In 2007, European collaboration between Italy, France the Netherlands and Norway led to the arrest of what was described as the "entire” chain of people responsible for the 1990s trafficking in Nigerian girls. The case was closed, and attention waned while refugee children kept disappearing at an alarming rate. Warner ten Kate, national prosecutor of the human trafficking department, explains that the 2006-07 arrests only made the chain more sophisticated, concluding that there is a need for more in depth police investigations. (Interview Warner ten Kate in: Kuijper 2020) In 2018, twelve years and well over 2500 missing refugee children later, the journalists’ group ‘Lost in Europe’ launched an investigation into Vietnamese refugee children who went missing from Dutch care. Warner ten Kate, reacting to the

investigation of missing Vietnamese refugee children, said: ‘history is repeating itself, nothing has changed: so many children still disappear. The issue is inherent to the Dutch system, there are not enough specialists and the police often quit their investigations after just a few months. We need to reach out and collaborate with the countries of origin and our neighbours. (Warner ten Kate in: Kuijper 2020)

Children going missing from refugee centres is an issue inherent to Europe as a whole. In Britain 25% of children previously subjected to trafficking

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go missing from the care of local authorities. (Einashe 2018) In Belgium, 25% of unaccompanied refugee minors disappear within the first 48 hours. (Missing Children Europe 2015) Across Europe, six EU member states do not even have a ‘legal definition of what constitutes an “unaccompanied refugee minor.”’ (Vodo n.d.: 6) The Netherlands is one of these. ‘The EU lacks an overall integrated approach to child protection which would address these challenges, largely due to the lack of a comprehensive strategy defining overarching principles and priorities of the EU child rights and child protection agenda’. (Save the Children et. al. 2015: 1) With no consistent legal and policy framework across Europe offering these children protection, they are at great risk of being trafficked, exploited and abused. (Save The Children, et. al. 2015:1) They have been linked to instances of forced prostitution (Kuijper 2019; Boon 2019), of

exploitation and forms of slavery. Most cases are tied to coerced labor to pay off smuggling debts.

In recent years, civil society and the media have been very active on the issue. Since the 2016 announcement of Brian Donald and more so with the 2018 investigations led by Lost in Europe, the last three years (2018-2020) have seen an increase in media attention. NGOs such as Defence for Children and Missing Children Europe have taken the issue up in their programs. It has been greatly reported on by Dutch national and regional newspapers, and several awareness campaigns exist to attempt to give the issue a public

spotlight. Lost not Found, Notfound.org and Lost in Europe are just some of the campaigns and projects set up to raise awareness on this issue. Humanity House in The Hague as well as radio channels Argos and NPO1 have

extensively reported on these projects and investigations. This has led to more mainstream attention like Dutch cabaretier Pieter Derks analysing the issue on radio channel NPO1 back in June 2019. (Derks 2019)

Despite vast media coverage and multiple awareness raising campaigns, the disappearances of these children have not been met with appropriate policy changes, government action, or a large enough public response to push for effective protection for these minors. Public sources say that we are blind to the issue. (Lost in Europe 2018 on NPO1) There is a serious disconnect between

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the availability of information and its effect on public opinion and impactful policy changes. With the large amount of publications and projects covering it, how can we explain the lack of impact this has had on the problem? Do we understand the role of mass media in changing government policies?

1.2. The disconnect between information and action

To understand the effect mass media could be having on policymakers, it is important to understand policymaking as a process starting from an interaction of ideas. Policy has been described as a process ‘emerging from the interaction of ideas and agencies.’ (Wuyts et. al 1992: 3) Thus, can information lead to policy change, and if so, what would be the variables that make this possible? Harvie and Jacques (2003 : 252-253) stated 'There is clearly a link between knowledge and action’, and mention that research shows that TV and

newspaper are the most important opinion formers in all countries. As such, the abundance of mass media coverage available on the subject would suggest there to be an increase in interest and action for missing refugee children. However, we have seen that this is not the case.

Academia has not sufficiently addressed how the relationship between an increase in information and an increase in action takes form. According to Finger (1994:142) the dominant framework ‘states that information, knowledge, concern, and awareness will lead to behavioural change’. In awareness

campaigns the link between the increase in information and an increase in action is often taken for granted. Many have conducted research on the effect of mass media on individual and public action. Yet, the popular question is “whether” rather than “how”, with the answer being that an increase in

information has led to an increase in action (Do, et. al. 2016; Nelson & Salawu 2016; Bauman et. al. 2006; Tay 2005). Similarly, speaking up is a common strategy of activists and awareness raising campaigns, the assumption being that informed citizens take action. Doctors Without Borders calls it témoignage. They believe that speaking up about human rights abuses would help stop them. (MSF 2020) Many awareness campaigns work with the same design: raising awareness brings people into action which causes enough kerfuffle to

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pressure policymakers to take action. There have been many academics

interested in theorising the creation and impact of social movements as they are believed to be part of the political process. (McAdam, McCarthy & Zald 1988) Collective action is a powerful tool for the enactment of social change.

Information is not considered to be a catalyst of action by the many theories on mobilisation and collective action. Tajfel (1978), with his theory on identity politics, bases action on the politics between social groups. He believes action is taken based on considerations as to whether the perpetrator or the victim is part of our own social group (in-group) or another (out-group). Other theories focus more closely on what emotion the information elicits and how this emotion then has the power to influence our decision-making. (Grönlund, Herne and Setälä 2017; Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006; Crossley 1999; Millward & Takhar 2019; Crosby 1976) Finger (1994) identifies the roles that individual or group norms, values and justice beliefs play in collective action. Finally,

McCarthy and Zald (1977) as well as Zomeren and Iyer (2009) have focused more on the humans ’rationality and consequent mobilisation based on costs and benefit calculations. In other words, the relation between information and action has been theorised by many using confounding, third variables. Yet, these theories fail to look at the direct impact of information. Academia has lacked in its capacity to consider the influential power of information itself. In the theorisation of mobilisation academia has failed to map how exactly the link between information and public action works.

The effect of an increase in publicly available information has been theorised in terms of the effectiveness of campaigning. Campaigns use mass media as a campaigning tool, assuming an increase in information will lead to an increase in action. However, in theories on public action, information seems to be disregarded as a variable in its own right. In the case of unaccompanied refugee children going missing in the Netherlands we see an increase in media attention starting from 2016, yet no resulting changes in public or political action. The academic gap lies subtly at this border between information and action.

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For this thesis, I understand media as a powerful object an sich, not solely as a tool for the transmission of facts. I will look at the different sources of information, their reach and possibilities. How does the presentation of

information in these documents influence its reader? I will look at the power of media coverage to elicit the concepts mentioned by the academics theorising on mobilisation and collective action (group boundaries, rationality and

emotions).

My searches of the University library repository and Google Scholar did not come up with many articles on the issue of unaccompanied refugee children disappearing from refugee centres in the Netherlands; only one prior master thesis (Raidma 2016) looked at the legal dimensions of missing refugee children. There is a serious lack of academic attention to the social processes that influence the state of this case. Yet, there have been many studies done by NGOs (Missing Children Europe, Defence for Children, Lost not Found),

research articles written by State institutions like the Advisory Committee on Migration Affairs and investigative journalism pieces by Lost in Europe.

Nonetheless, none of these have addressed the role mass media has played in addressing this issue.

1.3. Research question

This leads me to my research question:

What has been the role of mass media in policymaking in the case of the disappearance of unaccompanied children from refugee centres in the Netherlands?

Many news articles have been written in the Netherlands on the case of missing refugee children since 1996, however, unlike the common assumption made within activism circles, there has not been an increase in purposeful action. The number of children going missing yearly is still increasing. How is it possible that the media attention has scored so little effect? Perhaps the lack of urgency that the media has given to the situation of these children could explain the lack of reaction experienced from and by the general public. This thesis

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attempts to understand what role media attention may have played in keeping impactful action at bay.

I want to understand first the scope of the role media plays in this case. Evidence of a direct link between newspaper articles and policymakers raises the question what effect the discourse and presentation of information in the media has had on its reader and thus on framing the issue. I showcase the power of media and the consequences its discourse may have on this case.

1.4. Methodology

To answer my research question, I employ a mixed methods approach

consisting of a three-part methodology. These three approaches work together in illuminating the role media has had in the case of missing unaccompanied refugee children in the Netherlands over the last 24 years.1_{The methodology is}

described in more detail in chapter three.

• The theoretical framework (chapter two) focuses on analysing the existing literature and frames the following chapters by identifying a set of variables to understand the impact of media (responsibility, victim-blaming, personal narrative, shared humanity and urgency).

• The second approach, a scoping review (chapter four) assesses the reach of mass media. By identifying all documents that have been written on the subject by NGOs, government, institutions and mass media, it situates mass media as an actor between other actors, it shows a sphere of influence. The scoping review shows what information is made available, by whom, and who has access to what. This method will show that media has in fact a direct line to Dutch policymaking, making way for the importance of looking at how mass media might impact its reader.

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• Lastly, a discourse and content analysis (chapter five) dives deeper into the texts. It analyses the 71 newspaper articles that were identified though the scoping review. This approach analyses how mass media has contributed to the obstacles surrounding this case. Using the variables identified through the theoretical chapter, it showcases that mass media has not just been covering the news, but also shaping it.

There has been critique (Sriwimon & Zilli 2017) on the data collection

methodologies of discourse analysis. By using a scoping review as a means of data collection, I make sure to include all texts in chapter five. Moreover, the combination of a scoping review and a content/discourse analysis addresses the issue of context and text. The scoping review provides all the context of the case as well as shows the importance of these documents to understand the importance of these analyses and their repercussions. By going from the broad to the specific, together, these methods show the extent of the impact mass media has had on the case of missing refugee children in the Netherlands.

1.5. What to expect

This thesis is divided in seven chapters. The next chapter, the theoretical framework, explores how the relation between information and action has been theorised. Looking more specifically at information conveyed through the

medium of mass media, it understands how (from an academic point of view) media might have impacted the fate of the missing unaccompanied refugee children. The third chapter, the methodology, explains how I operationalise the concepts and conclusions identified in the theoretical chapter. The subsequent empirical chapters are ordered from the broad to the specific. First, the fourth chapter, a scoping review, puts mass media in relation to other publications on the subject. It looks at its sphere of influence. Chapter five looks more

specifically at how the content of news articles and the discursive practices of journalists have (inadvertently) reproduced and shaped a harmful narrative. This is followed by my concluding chapter, the bibliography and an annex which

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provides summaries and a review of newspaper articles and other documents identified in the scoping review.

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CHAPTER 2: LINKING INFORMATION TO POLICY CHANGES

The following chapter tackles the disconnect we have seen between the

increase in media coverage and the lack of purposeful action taken on behalf of missing unaccompanied refugee children. It addresses this gap by

understanding how academics have addressed both action and information. Wuyts et. al. (1992) theorise policymaking as a result of the exchange of ideas between different levels of society leading to the identification of an issue, priorities, and influencing government institutions to take action upon them. In this layered conceptualisation of policy making it is thus not only the

policymakers themselves who hold power over policy changes, but also those who hold power over policymakers. This includes several players like mass media, NGOs, experts, government institutions and activists which are included in the scoping review (chapter 4). Players who in turn influence each other as well. The patterns identifiable in the first empirical chapter show that projects from NGOs and activism have sparked media attention for the cause (like with recent projects of Lost in Europe since 2018, see chapter 4). This media attention reaches policymakers either directly (like we see with newspaper articles being directly quoted in the House of Representatives) or indirectly by influencing public opinion. Boeva (2016) states that mass media both creates public opinion by being its main informational source and is created by public opinion as it is written for its specific audience, keeping in mind what they want to read. Doing so, public opinion is translated to policymakers though mass media as well as public opinion being informed by mass media. In the process of policymaking, public opinion goes hand in hand with mass media as they influence each other. (Boeva 2016) Everything points to mass media playing a big part in the process of policy change. How then can we explain the lack of action taken with an increase of media attention?

In this chapter, I look at the direct and indirect influences of the media. The direct effect of a text on its reader, and how a text can be used to mobilise the people and influence policy makers more indirectly. Are we right to assume that an increase in awareness leads to action, or is this relationship more

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complex? How exactly does information and the way it is presented form

opinions and sway people into a particular direction? To answer this, I consider theories on the power of discourse and the impact of information. I look at how information can be used to trigger a public response in the form of collective action. I explore the following concepts and how they relate to both individual and collective mobilisation: responsibility, victim-blaming, personal narrative, shared humanity and urgency, medium facts and figures, relatability, feasibility, emotion, conversation, temporality and cost.

This chapter is divided into three main sections:

• First, framing the message. This section focuses on the direct link between text and reader. What is the power of discourse and how best to frame a message to solicit a particular reaction. I address what influence this may have on its impact on both public opinion and policymakers. What, according to academics, is necessary for a text to be influential, both on an individual and policy level? Can this explain why media has failed to put our issue on the map? Could the lack of urgency accorded to this case by newspapers (see chapter five) explain the lack of reaction experienced from and by the general public? This part delves more into theories on campaigning and the medium of mass media. I look at the existing theories on the influence of public opinion on the policymaking process.

• Second, from message to action. Here I focus on the content. Why do people move? What about a cause makes people want to stand up? To understand this, I delve into theories on collective action and how these relate to my case. This is the more indirect way information can influence policymakers, by swaying public opinion. I look at how academics have approached the link between information and action, at the general impact of information and the role emotions play in mobilising people for a specific cause. Many scholars have been interested in theorising the rise, fall and impacts of social movements because they are believed to be a part of the democratic political process (McAdam, McCarthy & Zald 1988) and the policymaking process. Collective action is defined as an action ‘aimed at

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improving the power, influence or status of an entire social group, rather than that of one or a few individuals.’ (Zomeren & Iyer 2009:646) It ranges from mass political protests to more individual actions like voting, or like we have seen more recently during the Covid-19 crisis: self-isolating. Collective action is a powerful tool for the enactment of social change. It translates public opinion into action. It does so by generating enough attention from mass media and becoming part of the policymaking process as identified by Boeva (2016). It is important to grasp how collective action can be

harnessed for a particular cause, what these social movements can achieve. What role media has in mobilising people to rise up and form social

movements as well as understand why it sometimes fails to do so.

• Third, moving politicians into action, the link between information and policy change. Here I explore the temporality of political terms. I look at what kind of causes politicians typically take on, and what role public opinion and mass media have in this decision.

2.1. Framing the message

In the following section, I look closely at what role media articles could have on influencing the mobilisation of people. By going from the broad to the specific, first, I delve into how the medium with which information is conveyed impacts its message, the power of language and how specific factors within the

presentation of the message could influence its reception. How the message the text conveys is presented plays an important role in people’s first investment with the subject.

2.1.1. Power of the medium

Mass media and the impact of this medium stand central to this thesis. It is important to understand just what impact it may have. Second, awareness campaigns have played a role in increasing media coverage on the subject (Lost not Found as well as Lost in Europe). In this section, I look at how campaigning strategies can be most effective.

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The importance of mass media in the forming of public opinion is

undeniable. ‘International surveys indicate that after leaving school most people get new information and form views through the popular media, with television and newspapers being the most powerful opinion formers in all countries.’ (Harvie & Jacques 2003: 253) More recently, Boeva (2016) analysed the representation of refugees and asylum seekers in British and US media. She considers the news to play a pivotal role in understanding the agenda of a given society.’ (Boeva 2016: 341) She bases this on the ‘well-known fact that mass media plays an important role in the structuring of people’s world view. They project attitudes, opinions and stereotypes, thus shaping people’s perception of the situation.’ (Fairclough, 1989) (Boeva 2016: 341) Newspapers both influence and are influenced by the mindset of the society they write for. It can reflect changes in society as well as impose them, working as a mirror for public opinion. Since newspaper articles both form and reflect public opinion, it is important to delve more into how their discourse may have shaped their reader (chapter five). According to Fairclough (1989: 50), “the constant doses of ‘news’ which most people receive each day are a significant factor in social control, and they account for a not insignificant proportion of a person’s average daily involvement in discourse.” In our case, chapter four, the scoping review, showcases that there is a direct line between policymakers and newspaper articles. News articles are not innocent as they have been quoted in the House of Representatives.

The second medium with which information has been conveyed in our case is awareness campaigns. We see in chapter four that campaigns and journalism by the group Lost in Europe have caused an increase in media attention. Campaigns have been found to motivate collective action most if they are disruptive. (Louis 2009) ‘Organisation’s routine activities are thought to have less effect than novel, disruptive attention-getting techniques, since the former are already factored into public opinion and thus policy.’ (Louis 2009: 735) The non-disruptive route being both bureaucratic and costly, this is especially true for the organisation of campaigns by low status groups. ‘Frequency and novelty of collective action could change public opinion, which in turn changes public

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policy.’ 2_{(Louis 2009: 738) This is why actions through the art sector, like that of}

Saskia Stolz (Lost not Found 2019), are so impactful as this sector conveys emotions more easily and allows more room for novelty and creativity.

2.1.2. Power of the discourse

After having addressed the medium used to convey information and how this impacts its reception, here I look more closely at the power of the words with which it is presented. According to Fairclough (1995) language creates change, has the power of changing behaviour. Language is not neutral. We have seen that mass media lies very closely with the public in forming public opinion. Media both influences and is influenced by its readers. Doing so, it plays an important role in reproducing the discourse on a particular topic. To be a journalist is to be powerful. (Hobbs 2008) ‘Discourse is the production of knowledge through language.’ (Hall 1997:44) Foucault (1972) argues that at a given time, on a particular topic, there exist a range of statements and phrases that give meaning to it, its discourse. The discourse on a topic governs the way we talk about it, think about it and ultimately the way we act around it. It

determines the boundaries of language and thought. (Foucault 1972) Without discourse, an object or practice has no meaning, ultimately giving discourse the power to define how the object is categorised and perceived. In other words, the discourse is the parameter of thoughts existent on a particular topic. ‘Foucault then rejects the idea that there is one ‘truth’, rather that truth is constructed through discourse and therefore particular to a given society at a given time’. (Hall 1997:49) The journalist, with his/her intertwinement with society, has the power, though his/her ‘discursive practices […] to ‘make true ’ particular regimes of truth, that see the journalist participating (although perhaps unwittingly) in the ‘government ’of modern society.’ (Hobbs 2008:14) Media then cannot be neutral, as the journalist’s choice of words for the

2_{This link between information and policy change is the one I have described as indirect (via}

public opinion). The direct one being the link between text and reader, with the reader being a policymaker.

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portrayal of an event will reflect interpretation, ways of seeing and thinking. In this case, in chapter five, I analyse how journalists have been shaping and reproducing the harmful discourse that created the environment in which the involved parties’ inaction is perceived acceptable.

2.1.3. Urgency, facts and figures and a shared humanity

Zooming back out from language to the presentation and framing of the message, a few factors influence how well a cause is marketed to the general public: its urgency, facts and figures, personal narrative, relatability,

misinformation and a saturation of interest. These concept and processes are not necessarily the variables I will apply in my empirical chapter but rather an overview of possible ways of making sense of the problem based on the

existing literature. After discussing here how these affect the reader, in chapter five, I will look more closely at whether the authors of the selected newspaper articles have addressed a selection (personal narrative and urgency) of these in their articles.

A message is more impactful when it conveys the urgency of its subject. ‘People are reminded of the need for action when there is the likelihood of direct impact.’ (Harvie & Jacques 2003: 252) When an issue calls for direct action, it will more likely have a greater impact and get more attention. Kouchner (1980), founder of Médécins du Monde (MdM) called this the “morality of extreme emergency”, or the “philosophy of the ambulance”. An ambulance does not need to explain what is happening, as the urgency it conveys with its lights and sirens demands a public reaction. In a same way, when a text accurately showcases the emergency of its subject, it demands an immediate public reaction. In chapter five, I analyse whether our case is presented with urgency in the selected newspaper articles. This shows that there have been (limited) attempts to convey the urgency of these children’s situation. Following the train of thought of both Kouchner and Harvie & Jacques, the lack of urgency the media has given to the situation these children find themselves in could explain the lack of reaction experienced from and by the general public. In an article for

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Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol has portrayed these children as though they have gone backpacking. ‘As if it concerns a couple of spoiled teenagers.’

Although State Secretary Broekers-Knol’s over-simplification works against mobilisation, Ancian’s research (2007) shows that to be most effective a cause needs to be presented in a manner which is both simple and relatable to its reader. Ancian compares two advocacy campaigns led by MdM. The first, in 2003 on public health access, addressed to the WorldBank, demanded that they stop the privatisation of health, stop supporting policies on user fees and offer help and loans wherever possible. The second, in April 2006, demanded increased solidarity between doctors of the northern hemisphere towards those of the South. It included demands for the French government to increase

support for the medical workforce in the southern hemisphere. While both campaigns were led the same, one had significantly more public backing than the other. Ancian explains this with the nature of the cause. According to his research, the campaign aiming to reorganise Worldbank policies was deemed too complex and stood too far away from the public. The other, much more relatable, increased a feeling of solidarity between French doctors and doctors working in the southern hemisphere. (Ancian 2007: 118) The second, less technical cause, was taken up more into the mainstream media. Ancian argues that this is partly due to the parallels it has with more common political

thematics in France like that of immigration and the issue of brain drain. (Ancian 2007: 119) In short, the cause needs to be relatable, simple not technical. Chapter four shows that there is no publicly available overview of what is

actually the matter. Who is responsible for the safety of unaccompanied refugee children; where have they gone; how many have disappeared; these all remain unanswered questions.

Similarly, another important aspect of a text’s reach is for it to be grounded in facts and figures. Facts ‘promote the victims as the legitimate foundation of political truth. (Givoni 2011 :61) Informational sources need to be trusted by the reader. As I will demonstrate in the scoping review, a combination of factors like a lack of communication and coordination between institutions and organisations, public accessibility, underreporting, and unsystematic

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registration of refugees in the first place have made the facts difficult to find in our case. Information like disappearance statistics are (for some years) not publicly available at all. The scoping review as well as sources like Humanity House (2019) have made clear that facts and figures are not correctly included in these news articles, for this reason I will not include this factor as a layer of analysis of their content and discourse. Misinformation plays an important role in the loss of momentum. If people are misinformed, they might not recognise the urgency or importance of an issue and more importantly the public will lose its trust in the information source. Yet, with the problem of misreporting in this case there is no trustworthy source on this subject. Every institution and NGO seems to have a different and incomplete data set (see chapter 4). The scoping review will show that the lack of coordination of the institutions has in fact

created a lack of a reliable sources of information. Every institution has

collected their part of the chain (somewhat), yet no one has the overview. With no one responsible of collecting reliable information, institutions work in silos. Kuijper and Boon (2020) ‘This is partly because there is no central information point, the report shows. The military police, the police, Immigration and

Naturalisation Service (IND) and the Social Affairs and Employment

Inspectorate all register Vietnamese minors in a different way.’ and later again Kuijper 2020: ‘And, especially painful: the police, military police, the

Inspectorate SZW (Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment) and the IND work on islands. They barely share information with each other.’ These quotes from articles from newspaper NRC show exactly what the problem is: no coordination whatsoever.

To influence a person into action, facts work best hand in hand with a personal narrative. Heartfelt personal stories call for a shared humanity.

(Redfield 2006) They call upon the superordinate human identity. (Louis 2009) Givoni (2011) identified the success of the MSF campaign for the Cambodian cause in its ‘blend of heart-rending descriptions of Cambodian refugees with detailed accounts of medical and logistics techniques.’ (Givoni 2011: 61) MSF combines an ‘assertions of universalised human sentiment and opinion with those of specific expertise.’ (Redfield 2006: 5) Giving victims faces and stories

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‘conveys a shared humanity across geographic and social distance.’ (Redfield 2006: 13) Shared humanity and superordinate identity are elaborated upon below in the section on emotion investment, identifying a superordinate identity, a shared humanity as a means to increase collective guilt. (Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006) Action is taken quicker for people that are part of one’s in-group. (Tajfel 1978) Therefore, emphasising a shared social identity will better catalyse action, bringing the issue closer to home. In our case, perhaps its shared

humanity lies in the victims’ age. Children portray innocence and ‘cannot be held accountable for the political acts of their families, communities or

governments.’ (Boyden & Hart 2007: 240) The discourse analysis (chapter five) shows that the children are in fact most often referred to as children as opposed to ‘refugees’, ‘asylum seekers’ or ‘strangers’, referring indeed to a shared

humanity.

2.2. From message to action

In the previous section we looked at how the presentation of information in a newspaper article impacts how it received by its reader. Doing so we looked at the power of mass media to contribute to the discourse, and at specific factors like facts, simplicity and urgency. In the following section we are zooming out and looking at theories on the reaction between information and action. The question for this section is what the effect is of information held in newspaper articles on people’s likeliness to contribute to its subject. In trying to understand the role media has had in the case of missing refugee children it is important to understand how and whether information has the power to mobilise people. Will being more informed on the case of missing refugee children increase a

person’s willingness to help them?

According to Finger (1994: 142) the dominant framework ‘states that information, knowledge, concern, and awareness will lead to behavioural change.’ However, in his own explorations of the subject he found that this relation might not be so simple. In his research on the relationship between knowledge and behaviour with regard to environmental issues in Switzerland, his main finding showed that more education and knowledge on the subject did

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not magnify environmental behaviour and might, actually, have made people less active. According to Harvie and Jacques (2003), although public

awareness campaigns are ‘often credited for advancement of environmentally responsible behaviour’ (Harvie & Jacques 2003: 247), the relation between public awareness and behavioural change is actually more complex. The researchers ran an experiment in Shanghai, measuring people’s reaction to an awareness publicity stunt. Though 86% of respondent said the publicity had increased their environmental knowledge, ‘real improvements in attitudes and behaviour were negligible.’ (Harvie & Jacques 2003: 251) Although written with the environment in mind, I believe these studies provide interesting insights that help better understand the refugee children cause. Like campaigns on refugee rights, the main strategy for our case has been exposing the issue (Lost not Found campaign), raising awareness and getting people informed (Lost in Europe) (see chapter four). Focusing on the impact of information on the cause, we can draw parallels between the cases. Both these cases show that the link between an increase in awareness and individual action is not straightforward. While Harvie and Jacques’ (2003) respondents stated to have become more knowledgeable, it is apparent that other factors influence their engagement with a subject.

According to Finger (1994), one of these other factors is personal

experience. Finger found that behaviour stems from life experiences rather than knowledge gathered though information. These experiences ranged from

environmental catastrophes to voyages, all grounded in emotion. Negative emotion associated to the experience would more likely lead people to participate in protests. For example, respondents who had experienced catastrophes, associated these with fear. Being informed and aware plays a ‘significant role here in the meaning making process’ (Finger 1994: 145), nevertheless, personal experiences and their associated emotions formed the rationale for political action and increased environmental behaviour. Following Finger, the link between information and action is then not direct, rather

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information an sich but rather the emotion the person associates with it which makes people move.

2.2.1. The role of emotions

The emphasis on the role of emotion in the mobilisation of people started to take form back in the 1990’s. Crosby’s (1976) theory on relative deprivation is one of these. They were often discarded in earlier theories, as they were deemed irrational and unpredictable. Nevertheless, ‘there was an important cultural turn in the study of collective action and activism when focus was put on how emotions encourage, maintain and end participations in protest activities.’ (Millward & Takhar 2019: 5) It was recognised that emotions could not be separated from people’s cognitive beliefs and moral values and that they play an important role in stirring people into action. (Millward & Takhar 2019: 6) It is important to recognise the role emotions possibly play in mobilising people in this case as many possibly jump up from reading about the plight of these children. Emotions like empathy, guilt and anger go hand in hand in making people stand up for each other. Whereas theory such as Resource Mobilisation Theory (discussed below) is a rational deliberation as to whether mobilisation will be fruitful, the irrational nature of emotions can mobilise people

nonetheless, even when the obstacle seems insurmountable like human trafficking in our case. “No doubt it is natural that many people would feel helpless and discouraged in the face of the relentless materialism and

unstoppable deviousness that drive human trafficking.” (Bhattacharjee 2015) Emotions make the insurmountable seem surmountable. Crossley (1999) sees emotions as being the link between knowledge and action. Information puts the movement on the map, yet emotion is the key to a personal

investment. This relates back to Finger’s (1994) necessity of personal

experience. When a person encounters a personal emotional interaction with a subject they are more likely to engage with it. In other words: ‘Emotions

effectively make movements “move”.’ (Millward & Takhar 2019: 6) Empathy, anger and collective guilt are seen to mobilise people to come into action for the rights of an out-group. ‘Collective action can be psychologically motivating when

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it expresses group emotions such as anger, moral outrage or guilt.’ (Louis 2009: 729) These emotions are catalysers for situations where a high status group mobilises for a lower status group, like in this case where Dutch nationals need to stand up for the case of asylum seekers. Action is taken when people get emotionally involved with a cause. An effective campaign manufactures moral outrage, guilt or empathy. These emotions can be triggered through shock value. Take for example the memorable picture of the drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi. This one picture of a little boy on the beach lit a moral outrage fire around the world and created new and bigger international attention towards the

refugee cause.3

One of these emotions is collective guilt, theorised by Wohl, Branscombe and Klar in 2006 as an important catalyst for the mobilisation of collective

action. Its sole existence warrants a willingness to minimise it, since it is not a state of mind an individual wishes to stay in. This is why collective guilt often leads to action in the forms of an apology, reduced prejudice towards the out-group and positive interout-group relations. (Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006: 9) Their research explores themes like colonisation, torture and slavery. I believe the concept of collective guilt as defined by Wohl et. al. would apply to the situation of migration policy in Europe and of that in Netherlands. Migration in Europe reflects the relationship between a high and low status group in a society. For collective guilt to play a role in taking action in our case there is a need to clear up the issue of responsibility (a concept I will discuss in detail in chapter five). Who needs to feel guilty for what? While the existence of many institutions and organisations that work with the issue fog who the end

responsible is, the legal responsibility of these children’s security (as stated in the Children’s Rights Convention (OHCHR | Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990)) lies with the State of the Netherlands. From her role as project coordinator children’s rights and sexual exploitation at Defence for Children, Iara de Witte states that there is need for one person to take the lead in the national response for missing refugee children. ‘At the moment the police, the

3_{Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that pictures like these can lead to processes of}

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IND, Nidos and COA4_{shift responsibility to each other.’ (de Witte in: Kuijper}

2018) Moreover, as the discourse analysis shows, the State’s legal

responsibility over these children is not something the newspapers emphasise. When the issue of responsibility is cleared up, perhaps Dutch citizens would experience more collective guilt. This would lead to a greater involvement on their part.

According to Wohl et. al., the existence of collective guilt presupposes a strong identification with the social group that has caused the harm. They

explain that ‘as the group becomes more important to the self, emotions derived from that group are more likely to be experienced.’ (Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006: 10) The actions of one’s in-group have strong implications for the

perception of self. Here, the actions of the State can be experienced by those that identify themselves as Dutch. Guilt can be felt even if the individual has not played a direct hand in the harm committed against the out-group. Collective guilt can be felt without ‘a close relationship between perpetrator and victimised group prior to the inflected harm.’ (Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006: 4) In other words, Dutch residents need not have had a close relation with refugees, or children to feel collective guilt for the harm inflicted upon them by the Dutch State. ‘Collective guilt will be at its most intense when the importance of

restoring justice is high and the effort needed is feasible but not so difficult that it outweighs the benefits of doing so. (Wohl & Branscombe & Klar 2006: 21) This calculation of costs and benefits falls under the Resource Mobilisation Theory as discussed below. Collective guilt as a result increases even more if the victimised group is categorised within the in-group or through a

superordinate identity. (Louis 2009: 730) This can be done by categorising people under the same nationality or even by emphasising our shared humanity. These relations show the importance of categorising people in a certain way. For the case of refugee children, framing them as part of a shared humanity could increase collective guilt and mobilise more people to help their case.

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Collective guilt can only be felt if harm and responsibility is recognised, otherwise there is nothing to feel guilty about. In our case, as I demonstrate in chapter four, an obstacle for the recognition of harm is the fact that these disappearances are being framed (by media, as well as policymakers) as singular events, rather than systematic failures of the Dutch State (see chapter 4). Moreover, collective guilt is minimised when the harm done is portrayed from the victim’s perspective. This shifts the responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim, the responsibility is put on the victim’s behaviour. The harm is

dissociated from the perpetrator and consequently from the in-group. This is commonly referred to as victim-blaming (see also chapter 4). This is also the case in our study where the children are blamed for their disappearance. They are said to have gone missing on purpose, to join family in another country or to evade repatriation. In reality, nobody knows where these children have gone and why, as they are seldom found and asked. The effect of victim-blaming on collective action was showcased by Wohl et. al. (2006) with the example of racial discrimination in the United States. White people felt more guilt if the issue was framed in terms of white advantage rather than black disadvantage. (Wohl et. al. 2006: 14) They showed that framing an issue from the perspective of the victim triggers the feeling of empathy rather than mobilising people. (Wohl et. al. 2006)

The emphasis on emotions in the mobilisation of people for collective action was first put on the map in the form of Crosby’s Relative Deprivation Theory (1976). However, rather than looking at guilt as we have done above, it focuses on the feeling of anger and resentment. Relative deprivation theory focuses on inter-group relations. First established by Crosby in 1976, it states that when a relative disadvantage is perceived as group-based, an individual will develop anger and resentment, leading him/her into collective action in an attempt to alter their collective situation. (Zomeren & Iyer 2009: 648) In this theory, emotion plays the main role in catalysing action. Resentment and anger towards their position in society as member of a social group motivates the individual for the fate of the collective. Crosby’s Relative Deprivation Theory plays a role in rectifying the position of the oppressed. Young (1990) argues

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that: ‘social group differences exist, and some groups are privileged while others are oppressed, social justice requires explicitly acknowledging and attending to those group differences in order to undermine oppression.’ (Young 1990: 3) Relative deprivation theory shows that anger about perceived

deprivation and unjust societal positions are strong affect motivators for collective action. (Miller et. al. 2009) Relating this theory to the case would suggest that the victims, namely the children, conscious of their unfair treatment in Dutch society would protest for better care and protection. Yet, more than the obvious issue of power, the victims here are minors in the custody of the State. Their age and therefore lack of responsibility shifts this responsibility of

representation back onto the State, culprit of not taking it up. Moreover, the children, because of their movements and disappearances, lack the capacity of organising themselves around this common issue. These children find

themselves in a precarious situation with no access to policymakers. This calculation brings me to the next theory: Resource Mobilisation Theory.

2.2.2. Calculating cost and benefit

Resource Mobilisation Theory (McCarthy & Zald 1977) proposes that collective action is more reliant on cost and benefits calculations. While social barriers and categorisations might feel unjust to group members, resource mobilisation theory states that a perceived inability to contribute called the ‘social dilemma ’ will hamper the mobilisation of an individual for the collective. When an

individual feels their influence is powerless, that their individual behavioural changes will not impact the greater issue at hand, most often they will not endeavour to contribute at all. Wohl, Brancombe and Klar (2006: 30) argue that the feeling of guilt and the need for reparation will be low if they are coupled with a low sense of efficacy to bring about social change. When feelings of collective guilt are associated with a perceived inability to achieve the goal of the emotion subsequent reparative response may be low. This is often seen in environmental campaigns when people do not believe that their efforts in

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proposes that when an individual fails to see material or social rewards for their efforts, they will often choose not to participate in collective action. (Olson 1968; Stürmer & Simon 2004) The cost of collective action can also be found to be too high for the individual (material, financial or social). Resource Mobilisation Theory states that if the individual finds the costs to outweigh the possible outcomes of mobilisation then the path of collective action will often not be taken. Although our victims don’t have the agency to stand up for themselves (being minors in an unknown country), this theory applies to the reader of the newspaper article too (public or policymaker).

Which brings us back to the feeling of insurmountability of human trafficking. (Bhattacharjee 2015) De Jong (2019) refers to human trafficking as the ‘many headed- monster’, like the hydra. How does one even begin to tackle a problem of such amplitude? This feeling of inability to enforce change applies to both the resources of the group and the individual; an individual might believe that their group does not have significant influence to enforce social change, or that they do not have the ‘material resources to mount an effective challenge to inequality or injustice.’ (Zomeren & Iyer 2009: 649) In other words, if people believe that the Dutch State as a group entity does not have the means to tackle the disappearances of the children, they will not feel mobilised to try. Even if a text conveys the right message, using all the factors and strategies included in the first section of this chapter, the mountain of work that is required to dismantle the European trafficking network could be rendering them useless.

2.2.3. The role of empathy

Coming back to the discussion on emotions, the following section looks more closely at the impact of empathy. Wohl et. al. (2006) showed that empathy is triggered when framing an issue from the perspective of the victim. Several studies had shown that empathy impacts the willingness to come to aid positively, even when helping was costly. (Batson, et. al. 1997) Empathy creates the possibility of other people putting themselves in your shoes and could increase their inclination to help you.

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Yet, does people’s empathy determine whether they will take action for a group? Grönlund, Herne and Setälä (2017) researched the role of empathy in democratic deliberation. They define empathy as being ‘the capacity and motivation to put oneself in the position of others’ (Grönlund, Herne & Setälä 2007: 459), a quality crucial to the democratic deliberation process. In their research they studied two groups of people based on their stance on

immigration. Immigration was chosen as it demands the capacity to put oneself in the shoes of another. They assessed the level of empathy of the different group members and whether this altered post deliberation. Next, in the form of a donation to charity, they evaluated whether their empathy levels had an

influence on pro-social behaviour. This study bases itself on the same

hypotheses as Klofstad (2007), namely that individual involvement increases in group deliberations, adding the layer of affect. The findings included that

general levels of empathy amongst respondents had not changed after being subject to political deliberation in either mixed or like-minded group. However, differences were recorded in participants willingness to take ‘into account immigrants’ perspectives. (Grönlund, Herne & Setälä 2007: 475) The

researchers distinguished this as ‘out-group empathy,’ with the prior empathy level being ‘general empathy’. On the matter of pro-social behaviour, it was found that increased out-group empathy did lead to increased prosocial

behaviour, however there was no link recorded between general empathy levels and prosocial behaviour. Finally, pro-immigration people that had been subject to like-minded deliberation were found to be 20 percent more likely to donate.

This shows ‘that discussion with like-minded people foster willingness toward collective action, whereas cross-cutting exposure decreases people’s willingness to act’. (Grönlund, Herne & Setälä 2007: 476) The findings of Klofstad (2007) on the impact of conversation on civic participation align themselves with this thought. She researched the effect that talking about politics and current events would have on our civic participation. Her findings show that dialogue increases people likeliness of political participation.

Nevertheless, empathy does not seem to be a reliable quality to ensure action, nor does it seem to be influenced by conversation. Wohl, et. al. argued quite

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similarly, that empathy ‘fails to predict support for affirmative action policies aimed at compensating the victim.’ (Wohl et. al. 2006: 16) Rather finding that corrective actions are more likely to stem from a desire to reduce perceived guilt rather than empathetic concern. (Wohl et. al. 2006: p.20)

Many of the emotions mentioned above stem from a person’s justice belief system, what they feel is right and wrong. Relative deprivation theory theorises anger born out of the belief of an unjust society, unfair relations between social groups. Finger (1994) emphasises the importance of an individual’s and social groups’ justice beliefs for collective action. A set of underlying qualities, morals, notions of rights, entitlements, fairness will dictate whether a person is mobilised for the cause of both their in-group and the other. Simply put, in our case, people who are against immigration will be unlikely to stand up for the rights of these children. As seen in the section on collective guilt, the moral framework, the set of norms and values of a group play an important role in whether an individual is motivated to take action. People tend to act in a way that conforms to their group’s moral framework. When the cause disagrees with the normative framework, ‘they are unlikely to engage in

collective action.’ (Ellemers et al. 1993) Wohl et. al. have shown how people try to minimise their perceived guilt in harmful actions in order to preserve their group’s self-image. This self-image is held up by a set of morals and norms. Oftentimes, it may occur that instead of trying to minimise harm done by in-group members, the harmful action is instead recognised as not being in line with the groups moral values and consequently viewed as unacceptable. The action will then be assigned to a group of outliers. This can be the case where discrimination of the out-group is seen ‘as inappropriate and widely disapproved of, when it is known to be contrary to the values of the advantaged group.’ (Louis 2009:731) In our case, this is done by seeing the disappearances are being the fault of smugglers instead of recognising the fault of the State for failing to take protective measures.

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2.3. What moves politicians?

Above, I have considered how media and information can influence people and mobilise them into action. In doing so, I have considered the policymaker as a reader like any other. However, belonging to the political system, the

policymaker has a number of additional constraints limiting his actions. Like the individual, the political system has a certain number of reasons why it would or wouldn’t address a certain cause. These form the last step in the chain from information to policy changes through public opinion and collective action. Many campaigns make a huge impact on people’s consciousnesses, way of thinking, yet fail to accomplish any real social change. (Millward & Takhar 2019: 8) Social change is ‘characterized by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behaviour, social organizations, or value systems’. (Form & Wilterdink 2019) In this section I address how collective actions, awareness campaigns and mass media

manage to produce policy changes. Overall, there seems to be a lack of impact that can be backtracked to collective action. Louis (2009) goes as far as to suggest: ‘democratic collective actions are globally ineffective, that social movements had no impact on national policy’. (Louis 2009: 733) A number of reasons can be given to explain this lack of effect.

On one hand this lack of impact can be explained by the limited time a single politician has to act. ‘Political horizons are short’. (Harvie & Jacques 2003 : 251) To be more likely to be reelected, a politician needs to be able to show his/her effectiveness through results, and because elected terms are short (4 years), projects need to be able to produce fast results. Returning to the scale of the problem of human trafficking, the trafficking of unaccompanied refugee children is a very large problem to tackle. According to Millward and Takhar, politicians assess causes ‘on whether or to what extent the demands for social change can be accommodated or seen as beneficial in electoral politics.

(Millward & Takhar 2019: 8) Nonetheless, there have been attempts to make an impact though the resolutions of singular events. However, these have actually worked negatively for the case as a whole (see chapter four). As I demonstrate in the scoping review, dealing with this issue as something that is not

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systematic but rather a series of short-term individual events, does not render sustainable results. As Warner ten Kate puts it: ’Research into human trafficking must be in-depth and lengthy.’ (ten Kate in: Kuijper 2020)

For such large-scale operations and investigations, a number of

resources, financial, material as well as human are necessary. Coming back to Resource Mobilization Theory, in the words of Louis (2009) ‘collective action cannot be effective if its target is unable to meet its demand.’ (Louis 2009: 734) In our case, the target being the Dutch government and the demand being procuring a sustainable solution for the issue of missing refugee children. Although logical, it is important to keep this possibility in mind. Addressing the issue might necessitate more resources than are available to the government. When the issue in question is part of a bigger problem, addressing the issue from a political point of view can be seen as opening pandora’s box as it would mean addressing the issue in its entirety. As we see in chapter five, our case would require a structural reorganisation of the Dutch system and increased international cooperation both within Europe and with countries of origin. Does the Dutch government have the resources to address this issue on such a large scale?

Lastly, the government follows what the public rates as most important, usually matters of health, education or public transportation. A cause different from these needs to sway a strong public opinion to be included into the government agenda. ‘It is a brave government, or a government faced with short term consequences, that chooses to go against the tide of public opinion.’ (Harvie & Jacques 2003: 252) In other words, with policy being influenced by mainstream ideas, unless a cause is supported by a majority of the population, it has little influencing capacity. Statistical research on the matter has

established that the variables public policy and collective action have no causal relationship, as both are influenced by a third factor, public opinion. (Louis 2009: 734) As we have established with Boeva (2016), the media plays a big role in forming public opinion. As such, the question remains whether media has fulfilled its role in this case. Chapter five dives deeper into this. ‘Policy makers conform to public opinion independent of social movement action.’ (Louis 2009:

Refugee children and the normalisation of their disappearances: