Telling the gendered story: the construction of migrant subjectivities in UNHCR’s animated information campaign

This article explores how the UNHCR exercises productive power through gendered knowledge in migration governance. Using multimodal semiotic analysis of twelve animated films from the Telling the Real Story campaign, we examine how public information campaigns (PICs) on irregular migration risks balance humanitarian protection and border control through gendered depictions. While PIC research is expanding, it often overlooks the role played by gender in the campaigns’ content. Our analysis shows that TRS’s animated films legitimize and reward female migrants’ agency only when aligned with UNHCR’s institutional goals, while pathologizing male mobility by consistently framing it as a threat or failure. These representations emerge across four themes: family (entrepreneurs vs caregivers), violence (aggressors vs victims), professional aspirations (money vs education) and autonomy (independent vs dependent). We argue that such discourse reinforces gender essentialisms, mainly through different renderings of migrant agency, legitimizing both humanitarian and securitizing migration governance while potentially undermining migrant empowerment.