Page - 82 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 82 participants, including artists and politicians. The president of the Austrian parliament, Barbara Prammer (of the Social Democratic Party), made a speech. Pöttker defines integration as a desirable process which interconnects various segments of society (Pöttker 2005, 40-41), a process involving both similarity and the harmonization of segments of society on the one hand and a wide variety of specific conditions on the other. Below, the criteria affecting integration cited by Pöttker are applied to the factors involved in the public perception of Arigona’s predicament. - Intensity and contents of communication between segments of society: Various groups of communicators take action and influence Arigona’s situation: a minister of the interior who refuses to reconsider his position on the one hand and on the other the mass media and the general public (which consists of many and varied groups) and the victims, who are represented by Arigona. - One result of the extent of communication and of mutual knowledge of varied segments of society: For the most part, communicated knowledge referred to the fact that this family was integrated into a variety of social communities. Arigona’s country of origin is seen as a place without any hope or perspective, where life is not possible. Her appeal culminates in the statement that she and her family “did no wrong”. What is meant is that she and her family acted in conformance with widely accepted habits and norms, in other words, that they had become assimilated. - Extent of participation on the part of societal institutions: Institutional participation is demonstrated in Arigona’s use of a video message to appeal to the public and the media and to draw attention to her needs. - Extent of collective acceptance of basic cultural values: There was a broad consensus among journalists, a number of politicians and businesspersons, and the general public that humanity was to be valued more highly than the letter of the law and that humanitarian action in granting permission to remain in the country was the required solution. - Societal consensus on the extent of pluralistic views and resolution of conflicts between heterogeneous segments of society: The majority society exhibited conflicting views: the interior minister and some official sources on the one hand, the mass media, certain politicians and businesspersons, fellow residents of the family’s town on the other. The general public is prepared to accept some Other, if that Other and his or her fate are portrayed in an individualized way.