This paper analyzes descriptions of Ukrainian refugees in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Findings of previous research on news media descriptions of refugees point to problematic descriptions of refugees that downgrade their deservingness of refuge and treat refugee status as an inherent feature of fleeing individuals instead of as contingent on external circumstances. However, there is a widespread perception that Ukrainian refugees are being reported on in a more positive light. We therefore examine how news media describe these refugees. Our corpus includes English media news coverage from February 25, 2022, to March 25, 2022, the initial period of the invasion. A discursive psychological analysis of news interactions where hosts elicit information from correspondents about current ongoings with Ukrainian refugees shows that Ukrainian refugees are constructed as vulnerable, and their actions are treated as reasonable given the situation. These descriptions construct Ukrainian refugees as those who are only contingently refugees and legitimate help-giving by other parties. Our findings, therefore, highlight distinct, previously unanalyzed ways that refugees are constructed: contingent refugees. We discuss implications of our findings for understanding refugee inclusion and exclusion.

中文翻译：

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“他们突然无缘无故地流离失所”：在早期媒体关于乌克兰难民的报道中构建“临时难民”

本文分析了俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后对乌克兰难民的描述。先前对新闻媒体对难民描述的研究发现，对难民的描述存在问题，这些描述降低了难民的避难价值，并将难民身份视为逃离个人的固有特征，而不是视外部环境而定。然而，人们普遍认为乌克兰难民的报道更加积极。因此，我们研究新闻媒体如何描述这些难民。我们的语料库包括从 2022 年 2 月 25 日到 2022 年 3 月 25 日（入侵初期）的英文媒体新闻报道。对新闻互动的话语心理分析显示，乌克兰难民被认为是弱势群体，考虑到这种情况，他们的行为被视为合理。这些描述将乌克兰难民视为只是偶然的难民和其他各方合法提供的帮助。因此，我们的研究结果强调了难民的独特的、以前未分析过的构造方式：临时难民。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对于理解难民包容和排斥的影响。