Infesting our country : discursive illusions in anti-immigration border talk

Abstract

This paper investigates how, despite the need to flee dangerous regions, online and print newspapers rely on negative portrayals of migrants and immigrants to forward nationalist positions, including the belief that so-called foreigners are a threat to the security and economic well-being of a nation. Specifically, using the Discourse of Illusion as our main analytic framework, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which dehumanization is central to forwarding ideological positions against migration. Our findings are then used to discuss larger issues of how media is transforming the ways in which political ideologies are constructed and circulated.