The portrayal and stereotyping of european immigration in cinema: an analysis of the spanish case (1990-2022)
- Autores: Ikhlass Chetouani
- Directores de la Tesis: Marta Pérez Pereiro (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ( España ) en 2025
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Josu Amezaga Albizu (presid.), Marta Rodríguez Castro (secret.), Carmen Ciller Tenreiro (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Comunicación e Información Contemporánea por la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: MINERVA
- Resumen
This dissertation examines the portrayal of immigrants in Spanish cinema within the broader European context and assesses whether these depictions reinforce or challenge existing stereotypes. Focusing on films produced between 1990 and 2022, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of how immigration is represented in Spanish cinema over time. By analyzing the evolving portrayals of immigrants, including their diverse characteristics and statistical trends, the research will provide a thorough overview of the shifts and continuities in how immigrants are depicted. The media, particularly cinema, plays a pivotal role in shaping societal awareness in the modern era, surpassing the traditional roles of institutions such as the family, school, and places of worship. In recent decades, cinema has emerged as a powerful tool for influencing perceptions and an attractive means of guiding society and shaping perceptions of various concepts. The rise of cinema coincided with global migration waves. However, Europe did not know immigration as a major destination until the 1960s after the economic boom and the need for a foreign labor force. This social change was reflected in the cinema that depicted immigration and the experiences of immigrants from multiple perspectives, leading to the birth of a new genre of European cinema known as Immigration Cinema. In the 1980s, Spain saw economic growth and joined the European Community in 1986, propelling it into the ranks of developed countries and making it an attractive destination for immigrants. This shift in Spanish society influenced filmmakers to address this new topic and produce numerous films in the early 1990s that focused on the phenomenon and portrayed the "other" immigrant. These portrayals may contributed to shaping and reinforcing stereotypes of immigrants in Spanish individual imagination over time. The research question of this thesis is how immigrant characters are portrayed in Spanish films and how these portrayals may influence societal perceptions and stereotypes of immigrants. The study aims to investigate the extent to which these films contribute to the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. The research is also driven by the desire to understand how major social events, such as economic crises or terrorist acts involving immigrants, shape the narratives and portrayals of immigrants.
Additionally, the thesis explores the changing representations of immigrants in Spanish cinema and whether these portrayals reinforce stereotypes by audiences and involve immigrants relinquishing their cultural identities in favor of assimilation. By addressing these issues, this research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Spanish immigration cinema on the creation and perpetuation of stereotypes, offering valuable insights into immigrant portrayals. The study aims to analyze the representation of immigrants in Spanish cinema within the European context, focusing on the key characteristics of the characters and film narratives that define these portrayals. It seeks to identify and categorize the stereotypes associated with immigrant characters, tracing their evolution and evaluating their potential influence on audience perceptions through the lens of Cultivation Theory. Examining the portrayal of immigrant characters in Spanish cinema involves conducting a detailed analysis of how immigrant characters are depicted across a broad range of Spanish films to identify pattern themes, narrative structures, and visual elements associated with these characters. By categorizing the stereotypes associated with immigrant characters, this analysis will trace the persistence or transformation of these portrayals over time. This study investigates the correlation between cinematic representations and societal stereotypes by exploring the portrayal of immigrants and its connection to the formation, reinforcement, or challenge of stereotypes about immigrants in Spanish society. And how films reflect or impact public perceptions, contributing to the broader discussion on the role of media in shaping societal views on immigration.
Furthermore, this study also aims to contribute to the academic discourse on immigration cinema by providing comprehensive insights into how Spanish films from 1990 to 2022 reflect, reinforce, or challenge societal attitudes toward immigrants. The research will address gaps in the existing literature by expanding the analysis to a broader range of films and offering a more detailed examination of the intersection between cinema, immigration, and stereotypes prevailing in society. The findings will be relevant to scholars in communication and film studies, migration studies, sociology, and related fields, offering a valuable resource for understanding the complex relationship between media representations and social attitudes toward immigrants.
