Focus: Investigates how Russia exploits societal divisions over migration to destabilise and polarise European societies.
Description: This project examines how Russia exploits societal divisions over migration as part of its broader strategy to destabilise and influence European societies. Russian state-controlled media and social media platforms have been instrumental in disseminating conflicting narratives, accusing the West of both Western-centric colonialism and overly liberal migration policies. These narratives are not only targeted at Russian-speaking populations through Russian-language media but are also circulated across Europe through social media accounts, bots, and fake news sites in various European languages. This project will analyse how these narratives are constructed, disseminated, and adjusted to exploit specific societal vulnerabilities to fuel polarisation, undermine social cohesion, and erode trust in democratic institutions. By combining discourse analysis and media monitoring with case studies of significant migration-related events, the research will assess how migration narratives are tailored to specific European contexts and their role in creating political fragmentation and fostering extremist ideologies. Additionally, the project will evaluate the interplay between domestic migration policies in European states and the narratives promoted by Russia, highlighting vulnerabilities that facilitate external interference.
Application details and procedures can be found here:
Doctoral Researcher (MSCA), Exploiting Migration to Influence and Destabilise Societies Job Details | University of Helsinki