Argumentative dynamics in representations of migrants and refugees: Evidence from the Italian press during the ‘refugee crisis’

Abstract

The present paper analyses discursive representations and standpoint-arguments pairs, realized in articles of four mainstream Italian newspapers that report on migrants’ and refugees’ mobilization at the perceived peak of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ (2015–2017). We draw on the scholarly agenda of Critical Discourse Studies, employing tools from corpus linguistic perspectives, which allow us to generalize over the way in which the relevant minorities are represented in our corpus. Then, focusing on a smaller sample of negative representations, we outline a methodological synthesis in order to scrutinize instances of representational meaning in newspapers articles and trace what is argumentatively inferred in discursive representations. To that end we exploit tools from systemic functional and cognitive linguistics as well as the Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT) for the analysis of inference. In this sense, we demonstrate how discriminatory representations do not only portray migrants and refugees in a negative light but also justify discrimination through the argumentative dynamic they develop.

The Institutionalization of Hatred Politics in the Mediterranean: Studying Corpora of Online News Portals During the European ‘Refugee Crisis’

“…Following the premises of the DHA and relevant recent studies, we argue that specific claim-argument(s) couplings can emerge on the basis of this discursive construction and evaluation (i.e., nomination- and predication strategies) of migrant populations in online news, instantiating certain argumentative topoi/loci (see Serafis et al 2021a , b ; see also below for the relevant discussion). These in turn implicitly justify the prevention of migration and the exclusion of minorities from the host societies based on denigrating, discriminatory portrayals of the relevant populations, which, however, do not directly incite to hatred or violence against them, and thus constitute soft rather than hard hate speech (see Assimakopoulos et al 2017 ).…”

“…Our analysis, following a CL and DHA perspective, contributed to this direction by mapping the main meaningful attitudes in our corpora and discursive-argumentation strategies on the basis of which denigrating attitudes against migrants can be established by specific textual choices that online news portals employ to construe migration, all the while legitimising an anti-immigrant, discriminatory stance against migrant populations. Future research could follow these lines of research to delve into an analysis of argumentative inferences that stem from specific topoi (see Serafis et al 2021a , b ; Serafis and Assimakopoulos in press) or, perhaps even identify the weak and/or fallacious nature of such claims (Boukala 2021 ). The pragma-dialectical rules for critical discussion (e.g., van Eemeren and Grootendorst 2003 , 2004 ) could fulfil this endeavour (see also Forchtner and Tominc 2012 ).…”

“…The centre-right Corriere problematises refugees mobilisation by employing terms such as refugee emergency or refugee problem (see The refugee emergency continues, […] that all the so-called refugees would remain six months [doc#39], on the refugee problem [doc#91]). On top of that, dehumanising metaphors are used also in this case (see because of the flux of refugees [doc#105]), “fram[ing] migration as a threat and thus assign[ing] a special sense of urgency to the situation, indirectly calling for mobilization on the part of the in-group to defend itself” (Serafis et al 2021b , 570). While portraying migrant populations, the picture does not change much.…”

Framing migration in the Greek press; An analysis of the ‘Evros events’ in left, liberal, and far-right newspapers

“…Migration has received extended publicity by media across the world (Berry et al, 2015; Musolff, 2017; Viola and Musolff, 2019 Serafis et al, 2021a; Serafis et al, 2021b). The mainstream publicity over migration in the EU has ranged between debates related to policies to address this issue as a “crisis”, and the allocation of responsibility among different states, to the culminating of moral panics over the threats that presumably the refugees pose to the EU (Serafis et al, 2021b; Avraamidou et al, 2021; Taylor, 2014). The causes of migration have been largely misrepresented, by the media and different institutional voices (Webber, 2018: 103).…”

“…The causes of migration have been largely misrepresented, by the media and different institutional voices (Webber, 2018: 103). A largely negative coverage of this “crisis” has been noted by various scholars (Titley, 2019; Galantino, 2020; Krzyżanowski, 2020; Serafis et al, 2021b), silencing the migrants and representing them as a threat (Eberl et al, 2018), publicly normalizing racist discourses, and legitimizing discriminating policies against the refugees. The media generally approach the refugee/migration issue through a Europeanist lens, both from progressive/liberal and conservative dimensions (Avraamidou, 2020).…”