The meaning of welcome. Positive migration discourse

Abstract

Human e/migration across the Mediterranean increased significantly in the first part of the 21st century. At the mercy of people smugglers, migrants who succeed in crossing the seas face uncertain futures in Europe. Such immigration is at the heart of political debate in Europe, where right-wing populist parties have made significant gains because of their opposition to it. These parties tend to view human migration as a negative phenomenon, using familiar and by now even clichéd cultural and socio-political arguments against it. This study explores some of these discursive tropes. Rather than following studies that use a critical discourse paradigm, the paper’s main aim is to identify positive discourse and practice that might represent models for future behaviour in this context. It focuses on a discussion on recent migration involving Italy and, by applying tools of pragmatic analysis, united to knowledge of the socio-political background, traces some underlying trends in migrant reception. The data analysed were gathered by interviewing an Italian mayor who has attracted hostility from right-wing media for his novel approach to migrants, whose needs are met by finding them a place in the local social context. Findings suggest that, in certain circumstances, the migratory phenomenon may benefit not just the subjects involved but also the places concerned. The study thus foregrounds the degree to which welcoming the cultural other counters social discourses that currently appear triumphant in mainstream media and electoral processes.

Variety and functional diversity of modern discourse in cognitive perspective

“…Ecolinguistics as a subfield of discourse analysis and a framework has covered the way from purely CDA to PDA (e.g. Fill & Penz 2018, Ponton 2022, 2023a,b, Stibbe 2015, broadening its coverage and including into its focus "discourse that inspires, encourages, heartens; discourse we like, that cheers us along" (Martin 1999). Nowadays, the multidisciplinary paradigm views ecological discourse analysis as a framework aimed at identifying beneficial, destructive, and ambivalent 'stories' that human beings live by (Stibbe 2015).…”