Articulo_5_EN_Doxa_31_European_migrants

ecosystems each have their shortcomings. The main one is that they address general topics and do not focus on issues of interest to European residents.

The Spanish media are only consumed by those who have learned Spanish, and not knowing this language is their main barrier to integration. However, other factors that affect integration are living in communities made up mostly of Ger-mans, having a partner of the same nationality, having a job that only allows them to establish relationships with Germans or other foreign nationalities, or certain customs of the Spanish population. The media can only help overcome these problems to a limited extent, but efforts should be made to put forward proposals that help improve integration or con-tact with Spanish society. Thus, the initial hypothesis has been fulfilled.

In this context, it is considered that perhaps these media should be configured as the spearhead of these groups in their integration, now that they have access to data that help this, while at the same time they can improve their business. The current configuration of these media, as indicated by Rosell (2008), is that the managers of these companies work with the idea that the future of the “ethnic media” is conditioned by the group itself and, consequently, limited to the time that their integration process lasts until there are no differences with the rest of the Spaniards. That is to say, rather than responding to the needs and requirements of their audience, these media seem to follow in the wake of these citizens. However, per-haps it is only a matter of time before foreign media, once they become aware of the important role they play as a thread guiding the integration of the German population on the Costa del Sol, actually help to increase that integration.

In this study we have seen the importance of listening to the audience and, in the case of the Germans who live on the Costa del Sol, they show that they are a population that is firmly convinced about continuing to live in this area. This rein-forces our proposal that the media for foreigners should introduce important changes to meet the needs of these popula-tions and improve their integration process, since, after all, the Costa del Sol has become their home.

Finally, we would like to note some future research arising from this work. These lines will analyse the process of construc-tion of the journalistic message and the themes offered in the foreign press considered in this study. To do so, they will make use of interviews with the editors-in-chief of the media analysed in order to alleviate the deficiencies and optimise the demands for European integration of the German resident population on the Costa del Sol.

6. Funding

This paper has been financed within the project “Medios de comunicación y construcción europea: estudio sociocomu-nicativo de los residentes comunitarios en el sur de España y de Portugal” (2016-2018), reference: CSO2015-65837-R, with funding by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.