Thematic analysis of United Kingdom newspapers’ coverage of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

In United Kingdom policy, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) are people assessed as under 18, and have applied for asylum, having arrived in the UK without parents or other responsible adults. As of 31st March 2024, there were 7380 of these young people in the UK. As with other immigration related topics, the care for, and conduct of UASC continues to be a subject for debate among policy makers, campaign groups, the general public, and in the media. This paper analyses the coverage of UASC in the UK’s eight most read newspapers from 2020-2024. UASC are presented as vulnerable to different challenging circumstances, while also being at times, a threat to UK citizens, and lacking genuineness. It also concludes that there is variation in how different newspapers present UASC, which themes they focus on, and how they use language to imply characteristics and behaviours.