Metaphors of migration over time

Abstract

This paper aims to cast light on contemporary migration rhetoric by integrating historical discourse analysis. I focus on continuity and change in conventionalised metaphorical framings of emigration and immigration in the UK-based Times newspaper from 1800 to 2018. The findings show that some metaphors persist throughout the 200-year time period (liquid, object), some are more recent in conventionalised form (animals, invader, weight) while others dropped out of conventionalised use before returning (commodity, guest). Furthermore, we see that the spread of metaphor use goes beyond correlation with migrant naming choices with both emigrants and immigrants occupying similar metaphorical frames historically. However, the analysis also shows that continuity in metaphor use cannot be assumed to correspond to stasis in framing and evaluation as the liquid metaphor is shown to have been more favourable in the past. A dominant frame throughout the period is migrants as an economic resource and the evaluation is determined by the speaker’s perception of control of this resource.

Flu-like pandemics and metaphor pre-covid: A corpus investigation

“…Thus, the selection of the metaphor promotes particular readings of a situation, or, in discourse terms, it may activate a particular frame or scenario ( Musolff 2006 ). Within the same conceptual metaphor, we may have different frames, for instance migrants are water might suggest “migrants are a natural resource” or “migrants are a natural disaster” ( Taylor 2021 ) and each of these can function to ‘logically’ suggest different reactions (e.g. exploit or stop).…”

“Refugee” as Metaphor in TripAdvisor Reviews

“…What do we make of this publicly circulated metaphorical use of the term refugee? While some scholarly attention has been paid to what has been referred to as "dehumanizing" and "inundation" metaphors of "floods" of refugees coming in "swarms," etc., (Taylor, 2021;Frouws, 2021), I believe that the metaphors I draw attention to here are operating at a more banal and therefore insidious level. According to Sharma (2009), these metaphors reveal how the notion of relegating some to bare life in order to maintain the lifestyles of others has become commonplace.…”

National Myth in UK–EU Representations by British Conservative Prime Ministers from Churchill to Johnson

“…The Conservatives and the right-wing press consistently emphasised that the number of EU migrants coming to the UK under the Labour government was excessive [34,35], using linguistic patterns like open borders to a huge influx of migrant workers, let in too many-a technique known as quantification [36,37]. The related metaphor in reference to excessive migration is that of a flood, an uncontrollable natural disaster wreaking havoc on the nation [14,38,39]. "The metaphorical transfer from the source domain of natural disasters onto the target domain of migratory movements can [ .…”

“…This difficulty causes anxiety, as "the possibility that we may not be able to tell the difference swiftly converts into the possibility that any of those incoming bodies may be bogus" [6] (p. 47). Citizens with the right to live and work in the UK thus become subject to dehumanising rhetoric that posits them as invading alien forces over which Britain must regain control [14,34,35,39]. Additionally, in the speeches of May and Johnson, a clear distinction is drawn between high-skilled and lower-skilled migrants; a similar discursive trend is reproduced in the right-wing press [35] (p. 103).…”