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- Volume 12, Issue, 2013
Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 12, Issue 2, 2013
Volume 12, Issue 2, 2013
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Discourse and politics of migration in Italy: The production and reproduction of ethnic dominance and exclusion
Author(s): Monica Colombopp.: 157–179 (23)More LessThis introductory essay aims at offering an overview of the historical, demographic and economic dimensions of migration in Italy – as well as of Italian politics and migration-related legislation. Based on statistics, research reports, and existing Italian and international literature on immigration-related issues, the paper highlights the profile of Italy’s migrant groups as well as the role they have been playing in the country’s labour market over time. The paper analyses key migration-related legislation showing that Italian immigration policies have been basically focused on ex post regularizations, control of new legal entries and repression of irregular ones. The increasing criminalization and securitization of immigration supported by right-wing parties and the most relevant features of public debate on immigration in Italy are highlighted. Keywords: Migration; public discourse; politics; legislation; exclusion
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Continuity and change in anti-immigrant discourse in Italy: An analysis of the visual propaganda of the Lega Nord
Author(s): John E. Richardson and Monica Colombopp.: 180–202 (23)More LessAnti-immigrant political arguments have long been at the centre of the campaigning of the Lega Nord (the Northern League), the Italian extreme-right secessionist party. The paper analyses posters from political campaigns between 2001 and 2008 in order to detect similarities and differences emerging over time, and to show how continuity and change intertwine in the Lega Nord’s anti-immigrant discourse. The analysis is presented across two axes: first, the visual dimensions of the texts are examined, concentrating predominantly on the use of images; and second, we analyse the linguistic content of the leaflets, paying particular attention to referential strategies and argumentative structure. The sampled posters show that although the Lega Nord’s immigration policies have long been driven by an enduring basic antipathy towards foreigners, in the 2008 campaign the strategy shifted to one stressing arguments reminiscent of the Nouvelle Droite’s ethnopluralism. Accordingly, in the interest of respecting cultural diversity, the Lega Nord argues that different national communities need to be kept separate, thereby inverting liberal values for the purpose of countering multiculturalism. Keywords: Lega Nord; extreme-right politics; political posters; anti-immigrant discourse; Critical Discourse Analysis; Multimodal discourse; visual rhetoric
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“Clandestino”: Institutional discourses and practices for the control and exclusion of migrants in contemporary Italy
Author(s): Fabio Quassolipp.: 203–225 (23)More LessOver the last twenty years, the management of a series of complex questions raised by the growing presence of foreign immigrants in Italy has been carried out via the “invention” of specific social problems and their accompanying discourse categories. From its first appearance the term “clandestino” (or irregular immigrant) has assumed a dual significance as a concept widely adopted in public discourse and as the pillar of an ideology that comprises a very specific set of political positions regarding the management of immigration. Moreover, to the extent that the clandestino was interpreted as a threat or problem to be eliminated or solved, it very rapidly became a discursive and practical focal point for the institutions that play a crucial role in immigration management and control. Drawing on my research from late 1990s on immigration policies and control in Italy, I show how and to what extent some institutional everyday activities of the police have been reshaped by discourses and practice that focus on dealing with irregular immigrants. This reorganization contributed to generating a complex web of knowledge, discourses and practices that produced the essential vocabulary and the hegemonic frameworks for public debates about immigration in Italy. It also makes the need and urgency to cope with irregular immigration both a political centre of gravity and a basic strategy to reproduce social order. Keywords: Immigration discourse; immigration policies; immigrants’ criminalisation; police practices; Italy
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The representation of migrants in the Italian press: A study on the Corriere della Sera (1992–2009)
Author(s): Lorenzo Montali, Paolo Riva, Alessandra Frigerio and Silvia Melepp.: 226–250 (25)More LessThe research analyses media discourse on migration in Italy, regarded as a means of reproducing and maintaining a racist interpretation of inter-group relations. The theoretical framework is the Critical Discourse Analysis approach. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on data consisting of headlines and articles from the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, published between 1992 and 2009. Overall, it emerged that discourse is built according to themes and discursive strategies already identified by similar research based on European media, indicating how this system of representations defines a common sense of cultural belonging and a shared construction of ethnic relations. The rather long time span considered in the study allowed us to focus on how the discourse on migration in Italy might have evolved over time, but also to identify any elements that may have remained unchanged. Key words: Racism; prejudice; migration; mass media; Critical Discourse Analysis; Corriere della Sera; Italy
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Imagined communities and othering processes: The discursive strategies of established Italian residents in a Milan city neighbourhood
Author(s): Roberta Marzoratipp.: 251–271 (21)More LessThe article explores discourses, which, strongly marked by the association between immigration and security/safety issues, shape conflicts between groups in the urban spaces. More specifically, the article analyses daily interactions in a neighbourhood located in a semi-central area of the city of Milan and the discursive strategies of established Italian residents in dealing with neighbours, shopkeepers and public space users of immigrant origin. It focuses on the specific case of a small park which, claimed by the Italian residents in the neighbourhood, is currently a space of different activities by different groups and constitutes a core of an intergroup conflict. Referring to the existent Italian literature on the social construction of immigration as a problem related to security and urban safety issues, the article focuses on how such a discourse is produced and reproduced at the local level in established residents’ discourses and practices and their imagination/s of the community of ‘us’. While the article analyses how established residents account for the changes that have occurred in their area, discursive strategies about the nature of the place and its ‘legitimate’ users as well as social practices of appropriation and control are examined in order to show the interrelation between the processes of othering and place-identity making. Keywords: Neighbourhood; migrants; established residents; othering; community; place identity; Milan
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The looking glass: From the citizen to the migrant in Italians’ naïve imagery
Author(s): Silvia Gattino and Anna Migliettapp.: 272–294 (23)More LessThe paper discusses the concept of citizenship both from a critical-theoretical point of view and in the light of the findings of a research conducted in Italy on the social representation of citizens and migrants. The research aims to analyze how the thêma of social recognition is objectified in everyday language and to explore the characteristics attributed to the other in a plural society. We show how the contemporary foreigner figure that we have come to know as ‘the migrant’ is a political and legal figure, but is also the result of a symbolic construction which is shaped through a social comparison process between citizens and non-citizens. Keywords: Citizenship; social representations; thêmata; social recognition
Volumes & issues
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Volume 24 (2025)
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Volume 23 (2024)
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Volume 22 (2023)
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Volume 21 (2022)
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2015)
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Volume 13 (2014)
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Volume 12 (2013)
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Volume 11 (2012)
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Volume 10 (2011)
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Volume 9 (2010)
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Volume 8 (2009)
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Volume 7 (2008)
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Volume 6 (2007)
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Volume 5 (2006)
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Volume 4 (2005)
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Volume 3 (2004)
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Volume 2 (2003)
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Volume 1 (2002)
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