Representation Of Immigrants Research Articles

The representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in British newspapers during the Balkan conflict (1999) and the British general election (2005)

This article is a CDA investigation into the representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants during two major events: the Balkan conflict in 1999 and the British general election in 2005 as reflected in British newspapers. The article is part of a larger project on the representation of these groups of people between 1996 and 2006 in British newspapers. The study shows that while there are major similarities in the micro-linguistic categories used in representations of these groups in these two periods, e.g. the metaphors, the overall communicated messages are not similar and the macro-structural contexts behind the processes of interpretation of these discourses play a determining role in transferring certain `meanings'. The research also shows that while newspapers have different strategies in their representations due to their political standpoints, in some important ways they all contribute to a similar construction of these people.

Clashes of Discourse: The Representations of Immigrants in Poland

The text presents the analysis of representations of immigrants published in the period 1993–2003 in the largest dailies in Poland. The analysed material allows the identification of four main discourses, which can be described as separate and relatively coherent systems of statements on immigrants, characterized by their argumentation structure and rhetorical figures, recurrent images and topics. These discourses may be linked with wider sets of beliefs as well as with ideological and political standpoints, and called multicultural, pro-state, ethno-nationalistic or sensation-seeking. These discourses clash in the public domain and their manifestations vary in the different types of newspapers and in the statements of different public actors.

Immigration and Urban Schools

The authors use a rich data set on New York City public elementary schools to explore how changes in immigrant representation have played out at the school level, providing a set of stylistic facts about the magnitude and nature of demographic changes in urban schools. They find that while the city experienced an overall increase in its immigrant representation over the 5 years studied, its elementary schools did not. Although the average school experienced little change during this period, a significant minority of schools saw sizable shifts. The change does not mirror the White flight and `tipping' associated with desegregation but rather suggests a tendency to stabilize, with declines in immigrant enrollments concentrated in schools with larger immigrant populations at the outset. The authors also find that changes in the immigrant shares influence the composition of the school's students, and that overall school demographic changes do not mirror grade-level changes within schools.

Talking the “Immigrant Talk”: Immigration Narratives and Identity Construction among Colombian Newcomers

In this paper I explore the role of popular Canadian immigration narratives in shaping the experiences and subjectivities of immigrants to Canada, and the ways in which immigrants negotiate these narratives to construct their experiences and identities. My research is based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with Colombian immigrants to Canada residing in London, Ontario. I identify two narratives that characterize Canadian discourse on immigration, and explore how Colombian newcomers both apply and challenge these two narratives in talking about everyday experiences and challenges. I show that i) hegemonic immigration narratives are a powerful lens through which Colombian newcomers construct their experiences and identities, and that ii) newcomers manipulate these narratives to negotiate between the representations of immigrants in mainstream discourse and their desired self-representations. Dans cet article, j’étudie d’une part en quoi les récits populaires canadiens de l’immigration ont mar-qué les immigrants au Canada sur le plan subjectif et dans leur expérience, et, d’autre part, la manière dont ils travaillent leurs histoires pour structurer celle-ci ainsi que leur identité. Ma recherche s’appuie sur un travail ethnographique de terrain et des entrevues d’immigrants colombi-ens résidant à London en Ontario. Elle me permet d’identifier deux sortes de discours pour carac-tériser l’immigration au Canada et d’étudier comment les nouveaux arrivants de Colombie ont recours à ces deux approches tout en les contestant, lorsqu’ils parlent de leur expérience quotidienne et de défis auxquels ils doivent faire face. Je montre donc 1) que les narrations dominantes d’immigration servent de loupe puissante à travers laquelle les nouveaux arrivants colombiens structurent leurs expériences et leur identité, et 2) que ceux-ci manipulent ces histoires pour louvoyer entre la représentation des immigrants dans le discours de monsieur Tout le monde et l’image d’eux-mêmes qu’ils voudraient mettre en avant.

“The Shadow Class”: Immigration and Class in Contemporary South Asian/American Fiction

This article explores the representation of non-elite immigrants from South Asia to the United States in the fiction of Kiran Desai and Ameena Hussein. The works of these two writers shift the conventional representation of South Asian immigration to the United States as a middle and upper class phenomenon to a representation of the ways that non-elite South Asian immigrant experiences connect with the experiences of immigrants from around the world whose mobility is limited and whose imagined version of their prospective host country is shaped by incomplete and even illusory information.

Contaminated Communities: The Metaphor of "Immigrant as Pollutant" in Media Representations of Immigration

Popular rhetoric about immigration often operates by constructing metaphoric representations of immigrants that concretize the social "problem" and connote particular solutions. Scholars have identified discursive connections between the rhetoric of immigration and representations of other human problems such as crime or war. This essay identifies another metaphor present in popular media coverage of immigration, particularly visual images of immigrants. The metaphor of "immigrant as pollutant" present in news media discourse on immigration can have serious consequences for societal treatment of immigrants as well as the policies designed to respond to immigration.

Immigrants in the Portuguese media

In this article, an assessment is made of media images and representations of immigration and ethnic minorities in Portugal, focusing on the late-1990s and the early years of the 21st century. Globalisation factors and the European context are considered, as well as the specifics of Portugal, with the major representation/construction and presentation cycles being introduced. The role of the press is underlined, although the main focus is on Portuguese television's role in the creation of stereotypes of immigrant communities. The coverage of these themes is being analysed by Portuguese and European regulators through the implementation of scientific studies and training programmes for journalists.

New Immigrant, Old Story: Framing Russians on the Israeli Screen

New Immigrant, Old Story:Framing Russians on the Israeli Screen Olga Gershenson (bio) and Dale Hudson (bio) Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearly two million people escaped the former empire to pursue new lives in Israel, the United States, Germany, and other countries. By the mid-1990s, the "new Russian immigrant" had begun to emerge as a character in both commercial and art-house cinema in these countries.1 Because cinematic representations of immigrants often reveal more about the cultures producing and consuming such images and narratives than they do about actual immigrant experiences, the Russian immigrant character points to particular national responses to new waves of immigration at the onset of post–Cold War globalization, reflecting gendered, ethnic, and religious contradictions and inconsistencies within popular conceptions of national identity. In this article, we examine films about female Russian immigrants to Israel as sites of debates over nation and integration in the Israeli context, as well as sites of larger debates over accommodations and adjustments necessary for participation within the international community, particularly the international art-house film market. The new Russian immigrant character marked an important departure from representations of Russian characters outside Soviet-bloc cinemas prior to the collapse of the USSR. Previously, spies and defectors had embodied the majority of representations of Soviet citizens, particularly in Hollywood Cold War action-adventure films and spy thrillers. Since the fall of Soviet communism, Russian immigrants have appeared most visibly in films that, either directly or indirectly, are concerned with the Russian Mafia. These new Russian immigrant characters are typically male, such as the Russian mafiosi in Karma Local (US 1998; dir. Darshan Bhagat) and The Quickie (France/UK/Germany 2001; dir. Sergei Bodrov), as well as in the acclaimed television series The Sopranos (US 1999–2006; prod. David Chase). Although a female counterpart to the Russian mafiosi also appears in thrillers and action-adventure films, such as Birthday Girl (UK/US 2001; dir. Jez Butterworth), the figure of the Russian woman generally holds a different significance. Russian males are confined largely to the self-contained, predominantly homosocial, diasporic world of the Russian Mafia that evades assimilation into its host country. By contrast, Russian women more often assimilate into their host countries through heterosexual coupling, whether via prostitution, romance, or marriage. Recent international art films [End Page 25] featuring such characters include Black and White (US/Russia 1992; dir. Boris Frumin), Postmark Paradise (US 2000; dir. Thompson E. Clay), Russian Doll (Australia 2001; dir. Stavros Kazantzidis), and Balalaika (Turkey 2001; dir. Ali Özgentürk). Israeli cinema has also produced several similar films, including the television film Kalinka Maya (Israel 1997; dir. Eitan Londner), the absurdist satire Circus Palestina (Israel 1998; dir. Eyal Halfon), the sensationalist drama The Holy Land (Israel 2001; dir. Eitan Gorlin), the postmodern pastiche What a Wonderful Place (Israel 2005; dir. Eyal Halfon), and two romantic comedies: Saint Clara (Israel 1995; dir. Ari Folman and Ori Sivan) and Yana's Friends (Israel 1999; dir. Arik Kaplun). We choose to focus our analysis on Saint Clara and Yana's Friends because both films address questions about Israeli immigration, particularly shifts in immigration policy in response to national identity, and both enjoyed considerable visibility on the national and international film circuits. We read Saint Clara and Yana's Friends as immigration narratives that posit assimilation of female immigrants into Israeli society as amenable, indeed possible, only through romance with a sabra (native-born Israeli) man. Alone, Clara and Yana represent inassimilable immigrants, ones whose very identities embody indifference to, or disengagement from, Israeli-Zionist ideologies. Because these immigration narratives are told through the generic formulas of romantic comedy, they feature representations of women, who, invariably, mobilize their youth, beauty, and sexuality for survival within narrative structures of the relative powerlessness of immigrants. Saint Clara and Yana's Friends thus converge and depart from stereotypes of Russian women as femmes fatales, mail-order brides, or prostitutes on the international film circuit. By exploring the new character of the Russian immigrant woman within the specific context of Israeli cinema, we contribute to the study of the politics of Israeli cinematic representations of ethnicity, pioneered by Ella Shohat and continued...

A Note on Immigrant Representation in Temporary Agency Work and Self‐employment in Sweden

Abstract. This is a note on the immigrant representation in two forms of atypical employment in Sweden: self‐employment and temporary agency work. The employment rate among non‐western immigrants is substantially lower than among natives and using register data for the population in Sweden who were employed in 1999, we find that immigrants are over‐represented in both these forms of atypical employment. Immigrants from Asia are over‐represented in both forms of employment, whereas immigrants from South America are over‐represented among temporary agency workers but underrepresented among the self‐employed. These findings can be interpreted as an indication of that temporary agency work and self‐employment are used as alternatives to regular employment by groups in which unemployment is high.

Neoliberalism and the Economic Utility of Immigration: Media Perspectives of Germany's Immigration Law

Abstract: Germany's new immigration law, which took effect in 2005, was hotly debated over a period of four years. This paper follows the debate on the law through the newsprint media, examines the representation of immigration as an economic utility, and investigates the contents of this economic‐utility perspective of immigration in light of neoliberal restructuring in Germany. The analysis focuses on 609 articles sampled from five major German daily newspapers published between July 2001 and August 2005. A discourse analysis suggests that the newsprint media represented immigration on the one hand as an economic necessity to replenish the labor market and ensure the international competitiveness of key industrial sectors. On the other hand, immigration was depicted as an economic liability that raises unemployment rates and burdens the public welfare system. Although the media emphasized the economic necessity of immigration, the final law does not permit any significant immigration of labor. The paper resolves this contradiction by situating media discourse in a wider context of neoliberal reforms and European Union expansion.

The “Slut” and the “Mistress”, Gender and Ethnic Stereotypes: The Female Immigrant Representation in Two Selected Israeli Plays

The “Slut” and the “Mistress”, Gender and Ethnic Stereotypes: The Female Immigrant Representation in Two Selected Israeli Plays

Between Hostility and Hospitality: Immigration in Contemporary Spain

Not unlike the traumatic memorization of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, current literary representations of immigration in Spain are often discussed in relation to those in cinema as well as other forms of mass media.1 Film certainly has received far more critical attention than literature in studies of immigration, and the reasons for this may be obvious: in spite of the unequivocal control that the camera’s gaze may have, the particular language of film may be more suitable in order to address the crucial question that also informs this essay, namely, who has the right and the responsibility to narrate the becoming of post-national Spain?

Covering Multiculturalism: Popular Images and the Politics of a Nation as Reflected on the Covers of Maclean’s and L’Actualité

How have images of immigration and multiculturalism been depicted on Canadian magazine covers and what do they say about the national politics of immigration and multiculturalism? A discursive and visual analysis of the covers and articles in Maclean’s (from January, 1960 to May, 2006), and to a lesser extent in L’Actualité (from 1976 to May 2006), reveals a dualistic pattern depicting multicultural and immigrant representations as either the successful, contributing, and model “other” or the threatening, oppositional, and problematic “other.” Our analysis goes beyond this binarism and exposes the intersections of age, class, status, sexuality, and racialization as integral to the multicultural context. Yet, as a concept, multiculturalism has not necessarily been evident in the public and media imaginary of Canada. Quelles sont les images véhiculées par les couvertures de revues canadiennes sur l’immigration et le multiculturalisme et que disentelles à propos des politiques nationales sur ces questions? Une analyse discursive et visuelle des couvertures et des textes de Maclean’s (de janvier 1960 à mai 2006) et, à un moindre degré, de L’Actualité (de 1976 à mai 2006) révèlent un motif dualistique des représentations multiculturelles et immigrantes en tant qu’un «autre» présenté soit comme un modèle de contribution sociale et de succès, soit comme une menace, une opposition et un prob-lème. Notre analyse va au-delà de ce binarisme et met en lumière l’interconnection de la classe, du statut social, de la sexualité et de la racialisation comme faisant partie intégrante du contexte multiculturel. Cependant, au Canada, le multiculturalisme n’est pas un concept évident dans l’imaginaire public ni dans celui des médias.

A MAY TO REMEMBER

AbstractWe examine mainstream U.S. print news depictions of the 2006 immigration policy debate. Using critical discourse analysis informed by cognitive metaphor theory, we analyze a substantial sample of mainstream U.S. print news reports in May 2006, at the height of national attention on the “Great May Day” demonstrations across the country. We compare it to a second sample of print news media articles from October 2006, at the time of the passage of the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Mainstream print media represented immigrants with a noteworthy balance between human and nonhuman language during the time of the Great May Day marches. However, the media did not sustain a balanced representation of immigrants in the ensuing months. The conceptual metaphorimmigrant as criminalis predominant during both periods. We explore the implication of the language used to frame the immigration policy debate.

“Little Alien Colonies”: Representations of Immigrants and Their Neighborhoods in Social Work Discourse, 1875–1924

The “vexed problem of immigration,” as Jane Addams (1909, 214) termed it, became a central issue for the emerging social work profession. Through a close reading of social work’s public documents in the period from 1875 to 1924, this article analyzes the complex discursive mechanisms by which early social workers made immigrants and their environments legible as objects of intervention and advocacy. In particular, it examines the parallel social and moral calculi employed in social work’s analysis of immigrants and their “little alien colonies” (e.g., Greenleigh 1941, 208). Despite good intentions, social workers often viewed immigrants as dependent, abject, and exotic subjects; at a deeper register than their expressed interest in “the needs and possibilities of the immigrant” (Abbott 1917, 282), social work representations underscored and supported the problematization of immigrants in the public discourse. Contemporary social work faces many of the same dilemmas in fashioning a response to immigration.

Self‐Regulated Learning and New Literacies: an experience at the University of Barcelona

This article summarises the findings from an evaluation of a Media Literacy course at the University of Barcelona. It focuses on some aspects of Self‐Regulation and on the learning environment used by students. The students’ learning processes were embedded in an eLearning project, in which students analysed the representation of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the media.Key findings are the usefulness of this particular Technology‐Enhanced Learning Environment (TELE), and its specific settings regarding Self‐Regulated Learning (SRL). Students self‐regulated their learning processes, in that they were working in a blended learning environment. However, their acquired media literacy skills seem to be fostered by the TELE rather than by the self‐regulation mechanisms.Throughout the article, special attention is paid to the conceptual framework of digital and media literacy, and the specific competences related to them.

The Canadian Hispanic Day Parade, or How Latin American Immigrants Practise (Sub)Urban Citizenship in Toronto

In this paper I explore immigrants' notions and practices of citizenship, and how these contribute to the citizenship debate. In order to achieve this, I examine Latin American immigrants' struggle for belonging in Toronto by looking at the Canadian Hispanic Day Parade. This multicultural celebration of ethnic diversity takes place in a marginalized suburban neighbourhood of the city, and I argue that Latin Americans use it to affirm the existence of a Latin American identity and community in Toronto. But, while the parade serves to contest dominant representations of immigrants, visible minorities, and the disadvantaged, it also reveals how forms of community mobilization can internalize neoliberal social relations and even promote a neoliberal agenda. The aim of the paper is to reflect upon the political potential of ethnic celebrations, as well as the constraints and complexities of immigrant citizenship practice within the contemporary context of Canadian multiculturalism and neoliberalism.

‘Foreigners’, Nationalism and the ‘Colonial Fracture’

The riots that shook the French banlieues in 2005, while unique in their geographic extension and political resonance, are but the most recent manifestation of an ongoing escalation of violence and repression that has periodically rocked the economically devastated, socially fractured and highly cosmopolitan cityscape of post-industrial France. The stigmatization of unemployed youths and outcast working-class families as ‘foreign’ is a complex and multi-layered phenomenon. This article traces the history of the so-called ‘immigrant problem’, and of policy responses to it, from the time of the Algerian war to the republican nationalist backlash against multiculturalism over the past two decades. The trauma of decolonization, increased visibility of Maghrebi, West African, Antillian and other communities with origins outside of Europe, fears of ‘islamicization’, and political/ideological controversies over how the nation's history should be remembered and taught to future generations, have weighed heavily on the representation of immigrants and their descendants as unassimilated threats to national cohesion. Far from limiting their agency to criminality and random social violence, the youths of the banlieues have played an active role in redefining the terms in which citizenship and national identity, as well as the colonial heritage of France, are cast in the arena of public debate, challenging state policies and well-entrenched historical myths in the process.

Constructing Immigrants

Summary: This study analyzes the representations of immigrants found in three US social work periodicals published between 1882 and 1952. Beginning from Foucault’s notion of the ‘history of the present’, an approach to history which examines the past in order to illuminate a present-day problematic, and using textual analysis techniques provided by Jacques Derrida, this work of historical discourse analysis traces the discursive constructions of identity through which immigrants were problematized as particular kinds of subjects in social work discourse. Findings: The immigrant objects of social work attention - subjects subjugated through the discourse of problematization - were discursive inventions. But the differential valuations which constructed individual immigrants or whole ‘races’ of immigrants as ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’ were consequential markers invoking vastly unequal material consequences for those so categorized. Social workers, as significant producers of discourses of immigrants, had and do have a much greater range of influence and responsibility than that with which we were and still are wont to credit ourselves. Application: In making visible the discursive practices of the past, this paper seeks to clarify the task of present-day social workers: to uncover the margins and the limits of the discourses that construct our troubled times.

Ecuadorian Immigrants And Symbolic Nationalism In Chicago

Focusing on the activities of social and civic organizations of Ecuadorian immigrants in Chicago, this paper argues that immigrants use symbolic nationalism mainly to negotiate their adaptation and integration into the host country. Distinct and diverging modes of nationalism articulated among immigrant communities of a common national origin reveal underlying class, race, ethnic, and regional divisions that are both reproduced and reinvented in a new setting. This coexistence of multiple and fragmented national identities complicates existing representations of immigrants as being “focused on the sending country” or “caught between two worlds.”