The Role of the Media Narratives in the Relationship between Migrations and Shrinking Areas in Europe

European shrinking areas, understood as regions in demographic and economic decline in Europe (ESPON, 2017), have played a significant role in the last decade in hosting voluntary and forced migrations (Membretti et al., 2017). Meanwhile, despite the fact that statistics describe this phenomenon as structural, with both positive and negative effects on territories and their inhabitants (Kordel et al., 2018), in media narratives and political discourses an emergency frame usually prevails (Musarò and Parmiggiani, 2022), portraying migrants as marginalised people and shrinking areas as marginalised (Moralli et al., 2023). Aiming to provide a deeper analysis of the nexus between migration and shrinking areas in the European social imaginary, the article focuses on the representation of shrinking areas and migration in mainstream media, the types of discourses produced by these contexts and the effects of these representations at the local scale. The analysis will be based on qualitative data collected within the framework of the European Horizon 2020 project "Welcoming Spaces" and regarding the role of discourses and representations in the creation of welcoming spaces in shrinking areas. The analysis of the data reveals that both the phenomena of reception and welcoming in shrinking areas are "marginal" topics in the media and public debate compared to the preponderant topic of migration as a security or humanitarian problem, often related to borders and frontiers. Furthermore, the media often reproduce a utilitarian framing of the migration phenomenon in contexts focused on repopulation and socio-territorial regeneration. At the same time, shifting the analysis beyond the general perception of 'remoteness' and 'closeness' of this nexus, it also emerges how a representation of the phenomenon produced by the communities that inhabit it is more effective in positively influencing ongoing local initiatives and processes and deconstructing superficial and stereotypical territorial and social imaginaries.