Exploring how entertainment documentaries construct London to account for the residence of the international super-rich in the “hostile environment” for migrants

Philippa Carr; Simon Goodman; Adam Jowett; Jackie Abell

doi:10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856

Exploring how entertainment documentaries construct London to account for the residence of the international super-rich in the “hostile environment” for migrants

Philippa Carr
, Simon Goodman
, Adam Jowett
, Jackie Abell

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Unlike poorer migrant groups, governments offer visa inducements to attract wealthy individuals into a country. However, super-rich migrants’ impact on the UK has been shown to be negative. This research explored how entertainment documentaries account for super-rich individuals residing in London. Discursive Social Psychology was used to analyse 2490 min of programmes from non-subscription UK terrestrial channels broadcast throughout 2016 in the UK using the term ‘super-rich’. Within the programmes, London was constructed as a (1) playground, (2) safe space and (3) place of economic opportunity. The super-rich were positioned as good migrants who have integrated into society. By drawing upon human rights arguments within the broadcasts, London was constructed as a safe haven. The construction of super-rich migrants formed a stark contrast to poorer groups who contribute more to the economy yet are targeted by hostile immigration policy and media reporting.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-25
Number of pages	25
Journal	Qualitative Research in Psychology
Volume	(In-Press)
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 30 Jun 2025

Bibliographical note

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s)or with their consent.

Keywords

discursive social psychology
migration
super-rich
television
Wealth inequality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Psychology(all)
Social Sciences(all)
Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856Licence: CC BY

Abell2025VoRFinal published version, 551 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{0633e6f33eb44d449133a984c6406b3e,

title = "Exploring how entertainment documentaries construct London to account for the residence of the international super-rich in the “hostile environment” for migrants",

abstract = "Unlike poorer migrant groups, governments offer visa inducements to attract wealthy individuals into a country. However, super-rich migrants{\textquoteright} impact on the UK has been shown to be negative. This research explored how entertainment documentaries account for super-rich individuals residing in London. Discursive Social Psychology was used to analyse 2490 min of programmes from non-subscription UK terrestrial channels broadcast throughout 2016 in the UK using the term {\textquoteleft}super-rich{\textquoteright}. Within the programmes, London was constructed as a (1) playground, (2) safe space and (3) place of economic opportunity. The super-rich were positioned as good migrants who have integrated into society. By drawing upon human rights arguments within the broadcasts, London was constructed as a safe haven. The construction of super-rich migrants formed a stark contrast to poorer groups who contribute more to the economy yet are targeted by hostile immigration policy and media reporting.",

keywords = "discursive social psychology, migration, super-rich, television, Wealth inequality",

author = "Philippa Carr and Simon Goodman and Adam Jowett and Jackie Abell",

note = "This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s)or with their consent.",

year = "2025",

month = jun,

day = "30",

doi = "10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856",

language = "English",

volume = "(In-Press)",

pages = "1--25",

journal = "Qualitative Research in Psychology",

issn = "1478-0887",

publisher = "Taylor and Francis",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring how entertainment documentaries construct London to account for the residence of the international super-rich in the “hostile environment” for migrants

AU - Carr, Philippa

AU - Goodman, Simon

AU - Jowett, Adam

AU - Abell, Jackie

N1 - This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s)or with their consent.

PY - 2025/6/30

Y1 - 2025/6/30

N2 - Unlike poorer migrant groups, governments offer visa inducements to attract wealthy individuals into a country. However, super-rich migrants’ impact on the UK has been shown to be negative. This research explored how entertainment documentaries account for super-rich individuals residing in London. Discursive Social Psychology was used to analyse 2490 min of programmes from non-subscription UK terrestrial channels broadcast throughout 2016 in the UK using the term ‘super-rich’. Within the programmes, London was constructed as a (1) playground, (2) safe space and (3) place of economic opportunity. The super-rich were positioned as good migrants who have integrated into society. By drawing upon human rights arguments within the broadcasts, London was constructed as a safe haven. The construction of super-rich migrants formed a stark contrast to poorer groups who contribute more to the economy yet are targeted by hostile immigration policy and media reporting.

AB - Unlike poorer migrant groups, governments offer visa inducements to attract wealthy individuals into a country. However, super-rich migrants’ impact on the UK has been shown to be negative. This research explored how entertainment documentaries account for super-rich individuals residing in London. Discursive Social Psychology was used to analyse 2490 min of programmes from non-subscription UK terrestrial channels broadcast throughout 2016 in the UK using the term ‘super-rich’. Within the programmes, London was constructed as a (1) playground, (2) safe space and (3) place of economic opportunity. The super-rich were positioned as good migrants who have integrated into society. By drawing upon human rights arguments within the broadcasts, London was constructed as a safe haven. The construction of super-rich migrants formed a stark contrast to poorer groups who contribute more to the economy yet are targeted by hostile immigration policy and media reporting.

KW - discursive social psychology

KW - migration

KW - super-rich

KW - television

KW - Wealth inequality

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105009525487

U2 - 10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856

DO - 10.1080/14780887.2025.2525856

M3 - Article

SN - 1478-0887

VL - (In-Press)

SP - 1

EP - 25

JO - Qualitative Research in Psychology

JF - Qualitative Research in Psychology

ER -

Exploring how entertainment documentaries construct London to account for the residence of the international super-rich in the “hostile environment” for migrants

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Exploring economic inequality with critical qualitative approaches in psychology

Rethinking Economic Growth: The impact of media narratives on inequality, wealth and growth: Rethinking Economic Growth

Examining the role of television programmes in legitimising inherited wealth and privilege for the super-rich in a society that values meritocracy

Cite this