MIRROR · Migration-Related Risks caused by misconceptions of Opportunities and Requirement

The perception of Europe and individual European countries has a high impact on expectations and decisions of citizens from outside Europe (considering) coming to Europe, especially from countries of origin (COO) for migration. Misperceptions and targeted misinformation campaigns can lead to security threats. It is therefore crucial for border control and other relevant security agencies and policy makers to better understand how Europe is perceived abroad, detect discrepancies between image and reality, spot instances of media manipulation, and develop their abilities for counteracting such misconceptions and the security threats resulting from them.The goal of the MIRROR project is to develop an integrated platform, a set of tools on top of this platform, as well as a systematic methodology for the comprehensive intermedia analysis of the perception of Europe, the detection of discrepancies between perception of and reality in Europe, and the creation of awareness for the impact of such misconceptions and the resulting threats, including hybrid threats. In a process driven by perception-specific threat analysis, the MIRROR project will combine methods of automated text, multimedia and social network analysis for various types of media (including social media) with empirical studies for creating a substantiated picture of the perception of Europe and for combining evidences from different sources. Solutions developed in the project, including technology and actionable insights, will be thoroughly validated with border agencies and policy makers, e.g. via pilots. For achieving its goals, MIRROR brings together a strong multidisciplinary consortium combining research excellence experts in text and multimedia analysis, social network analysis, security research, social science, in particular communication science, law and ethics, gender research with commercial partners and border agencies as well as civil society organizations.