Spanish Discourse on Refugees

Teun A. van Dijk

Abstract

In the summer and autumn of 2015 hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly from Syria, arrived in Western Europe. With the slogan “Refugees Welcome”, they were welcomed and assisted by many volunteers at borders and train stations. After a review of the studies of this solidarity movement in Austria, German, the Scandinavian countries and the UK, and within a general project on social movement discourse, this paper examines parliamentary, municipal and movement discourses in Spain. After an analysis of a parliamentary debate urging the government to admit more refugees, the article analyzes texts of Amnesty International, the NGOs Refugees Welcome España, ACCEM and CEAR, the City of Barcelona ("City of Refuge") and the Catalan NGOs Casa Nostra Casa Vostra and Stop Mare Mortum. Among many other properties, all these texts show an ideological polarization between US (pro-refugee) and THEM (the EU and the State) at all levels of discourse (lexicon, metaphors, norms, values and arguments). The multidisciplinary theoretical framework of this analysis combines the study of discourse, social movements, politics, citizens, solidarity and empathy.

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).

References

AGARIN, T.; NANCHEVA, N. (Eds.). A European crisis. Perspectives on refugees, solidarity, and Europe. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2018.

ALCALDE, J.; PORTOS, M. Refugee Solidarity in a Multilevel Political Opportunity Structure. In: DELLA PORTA, D. (ed.), Solidarity Mobilizations in the ‘Refugee Crisis’. London: Palgrave, 2018. p. 155-182.

ATAC, I.; RYGIEL, K.; STIERL, M. The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements: Remaking Citizenship from the Margins. London: Routledge, 2018.

BENNETT, W. L.; BREUNIG, C.; GIVENS, T. Communication and political mobilization: Digital media and the organization of anti-Iraq war demonstrations in US. Political Communication, v. 25, n.3, p. 269-289, 2008. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584600802197434

BOCK, J. J.; MACDONALD, S. (Eds.). Refugees welcome? Difference and diversity in a changing Germany. New York: Berghahn Books, 2019.

BRANDLE, V.; EISELE, O.; TRENZ, H. Contesting European Solidarity during the “Refugee Crisis”: A Comparative Investigation of Media Claims in Denmark, Germany, Greece and Italy. Mass Communication and Society, v. 22, n.6, p. 708-732, 2019. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmcs20/22/6?nav=tocList

CHOULIARAKI, L. The Spectatorship of Suffering. London: Sage, 2006.

CHOULIARAKI, L. The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

CHOULIARAKI, L.; STOLIC, T. Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: a visual typology of European news. Media, Culture and Society, v. 39, n. 8, p. 1162-1177, 2017. Disponível em:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443717726163?journalCode=mcsa

CHOULIARAKI, L.; ZABOROWSKI, R. Voice and community in the 2015 refugee crisis: a content analysis of news coverage in eight European countries. International Communication Gazette, v. 79, n. 6-7, p. 613-635, 2017. Disponível em: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/84707/1/Zaborowski_Voice%20and%20community_2017.pdf

CONSTERDINE, E. State-of-the-art report on public attitudes, political discourses and media coverage on the arrival of refugees. Chemnitz: Technische Universität, Chemnitz Institut für Europäische Studien, 2018.

DAHLGREN, P. Moral Spectatorship and its Discourses: the "Mediapolis" in the Swedish Refugee Crisis. Javnost-the Public, v. 23, n. 4, p. 382-397, 2016. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13183222.2016.1247332?journalCode=rjav20

DAVIS, J. E. (Ed.). Stories of change. Narrative and social movements. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.

DE VREESE, C. H.; BOOMGAARDEN, H. News, political knowledge and participation: The differential effects of news media exposure on political knowledge and participation. Acta Politica, v. 41, n. 4, p. 317-341, 2006. Disponível em: https://link.springer.com/journal/41269/volumes-and-issues/41-4

DELLA PORTA, D. (Ed.). Solidarity Mobilizations in the 'Refugee Crisis'. Contentious Moves. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

DELLA PORTA, D.; DIANI, M. The Oxford handbook of social movements. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

DELLA PORTA, D.; TARROW, S. G. (Eds.). Transnational protest and global activism. Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield, 2004.

EISENBERG, N. Altruistic emotion, cognition, and behavior. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986.

ENJOLRAS, B.; EIMHJELLEN, I. Fra kollektiv til konnektiv handling? Nye former for samfunnsengasjement og kollektiv handling i Norge. Cappelen Damm Akademisk, 2018.

EVELAND, W. P. News information processing as mediator of the relationship between motivations and political knowledge. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, v. 79, n. 1, p. 26-40, 2002. Disponível em:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/107769900207900103

GARCÍA AGUSTÍN, Ó.; JØRGENSEN, M. B. Solidarity and the 'Refugee Crisis' in Europe. Cham (Switzerland): Palgrave MacMillan / Springer, 2019.

GIUGNI, M.; PASSY, F. (Eds.). Political altruism? Solidarity movements in international perspective. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.

GOODMAN, S.; BURKE, S. 'Oh you don't want asylum seekers, oh you're just racist': A discursive analysis of discussions about whether it's racist to oppose asylum seeking. Discourse & Society, v. 21, n. 3, p. 325-340, 2010.

HADJ ABDOU, L.; ROSENBERGER, S. Contesting the deportation state? Political change aspirations in protests against forced returns. Ethnic and racial studies, v. 42, n. 16, p. 102-119, 2019. Disponível em: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6382283/

HEINKELMANN-WILD, T.; BECK, D.; Spencer, A. Heroes welcome: an exceptional story of ‘good’refugees in the German tabloid discourse. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, v. 14, n. 3, p. 220-239, 2019. Disponível em:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17447143.2019.1649412?journalCode=rmmd20

HÖIJER, B. The discourse of global compassion: the audience and media reporting of human suffering. Media Culture and Society, v. 26, n. 4, p. 513-+, 2004. Disponível em: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443704044215

ISIN, E. F.; NYERS, P. (Eds.). Routledge handbook of global citizenship studies. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014.

JOHANSSON, S. Universal Welfare State at Stake? The Changing Political Discourse Regarding Inclusive Welfare for Refugees in Sweden. 2017. Dissertação de Mestrado. Universidade de Gothenburg, Departmento de Ciências Políticas. Centro de Estudos Europeus. 2017. Disponível em: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/141542078.pdf

JOHNSON, H. L. Borders, asylum and global non-citizenship. The other side of the fence. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

JOHNSTON, H. Discourse Analysis and Social Movements. In: SNOW, D. A.; DELLA PORTA, D.; KLANDERMANS, B.; MCADAM, D. (Eds.). The Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Malden, MA: John Wiley e Sons, 2013. p. 364-367.

KARAKAYALI, S. The Welcomers: How Volunteers Frame Their Commitment for Refugees. In: FEISCHMIDT, M., PRIES, L., CANTAT, C. (Eds.) Refugee protection and civil society in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. p. 221-241.

KIRCHHOFF, M. Differential solidarity: protests against deportations as structured contestations over citizenship, Citizenship Studies, v. 24, n. 4, p. 568-586, 2020. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13621025.2020.1755178?journalCode=ccst20

KIRKWOOD, S. M. ‘Refugee’ is only a word: A discursive analysis of refugees’ and asylum seekers’ experiences in Scotland. 2012. Tese de Doutorado. Universidade de Edinburgo, 2012. Disponível em: https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/7594

KIRKWOOD, S. M. The humanisation of refugees: A discourse analysis of UK parliamentary debates on the European refugee ‘crisis’. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, v. 27, n. 2, p. 115-125, 2017. Disponível em: https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/29655249/Kirkwood_JCASP_2016_Humanisation_of_refugees.pdf

KIRKWOOD, S. M.; GOODMAN, S.; MCVITTIE, C.; MCKINLAY, A. The Language of Asylum: Refugees and Discourse. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2019.

KOLERS, A. A moral theory of solidarity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

KOOPMANS, R.; STATHAM, P.; GIUGNI, M.; PASSY, F. Contested citizenship: Immigration and cultural diversity in Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

KRZYŹANOWSKI, M. “We Are a Small Country That Has Done Enormously Lot”: The ‘Refugee Crisis’ and the Hybrid Discourse of Politicizing Immigration in Sweden. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, v. 16, n. 1-2, p. 97-117, 2018. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2017.1317895

KRZYŹANOWSKI, M.; TRIANDAFYLLIDOU, A.; WODAK, R. The mediatization and the politicization of the “refugee crisis” in Europe. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, v. 16, n. 1-2, p. 1-14, 2018. Disponível em:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2017.1353189

LARAÑA, E.; Johnston, H.; Gusfield, J. R. (Eds.). New social movements. From ideology to identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

LEEPER, T. J. Raising the Floor or Closing the Gap? How Media Choice and Media Content Impact Political Knowledge. Political Communication, v. 37, n. 5, p. 719-740, 2020. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2020.1753866

MÄKELÄ, F. “Jag var tvungen att göra någonting” Refugees Welcome to Malmö och volontärernas berättelser om flyktingkrisen hösten. 2015. Malmö Högskola. Freds-och konfliktvetenskap, FKV III, Kandidatuppsats, 2016. Disponível em: https://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/20897/Arkiv%20och%20uppladdningsversion%20%281%29.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

MÄKELÄ, F. Broken Solidarity. The Refugees Welcome Movement in Sweden 2015-2020. 2020. Dissertação de Mestrado. Malmö Högskola, Departamento de Estudos Políticos Globais, 2020. Disponível em: http://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/32058

MERHAUT, N.; STERN, V. Asylum policies and protests in Austria. In: ROSENBERGER, S.; STERN, V.; MERHAUT, N. (Eds.), Protest movements in asylum and deportation. New York: Springer, 2018.

MILLNER, N. Sanctuary sans frontiers. Social movements and solidarity in post-war Northern France. In: LIPERT, R. K.; REHAAG, S. (Eds.). Sanctuary Practices in International Perspectives: Migration, Citizenship. London: Routledge, 2013.

MONFORTE, P. From ‘Fortress Europe’to ‘Refugees Welcome’. In: FOMINAYA, C. F.; FEENSTRA, R. A. (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary European Social Movements Protest in Turbulent Times. London: Routledge, 2019. p. 46-58.

MONTAGUT, M.; MORAGAS-FERNANDEZ, C. The European Refugee Crisis Discourse in the Spanish Press: Mapping Humanization and Dehumanization Frames Through Metaphors. International Journal of Communication, v. 14, p. 69-91, 2020. Disponível em: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10626

NETHERLAND, W. Catalonia and the “culture of welcome”: grassroots approaches to refugee integration. 2017. Dissertação de Metrado. Barcelona: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. 2017.

OLESEN, T. Memetic protest and the dramatic diffusion of Alan Kurdi. Media Culture & Society, v. 40, n. 5, p. 656-672, 2018. Disponível em:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443717729212

PARKER, S. "It's ok if it's hidden": the discursive construction of everyday racism for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, v. 28, n. 3, p. 111-122, 2018. Disponível em:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.2344

PARKER, S.; NAPER, A.; GOODMAN, S. How a photograph of a drowned refugee child turned a migrant crisis into a refugee crisis: A comparative discourse analysis. For (e)dialogue, v. 2, n.1, p. 12-28, 2018. Disponível em:

https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/4edialog/article/view/601

PASSY, F.; MONSCH, G. Contentious Minds. How Talk and Ties Sustain Activism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

PENSKY, M. The ends of solidarity. Discourse theory in ethics and politics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.

POVRZANOVIC FRYKMAN, M.; MÄKELÄ, F. Post-2015 Refugees Welcome Initiatives in Sweden: Cosmopolitan Underpinnings. In: HEMER, O.; POVRZANOVIĆ FRYKMAN, M.; RISTILAMMI, P-M. (Eds.) Conviviality at the Crossroads: The poetics and politics of everyday encounters, 2020. p. 165-188.

POWER, M. The US Movement in Solidarity with Chile in the 1970s. Latin American Perspectives, v. 36, n. 6, p. 46-66, 2009. Disponível em: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20684685

PRIES, L. Refugees, civil society and the state: European experiences and global challenges. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018.

RHEINDORF, M.; WODAK, R. Borders, fences, and limits - Protecting Austria from refugees: Metadiscursive negotiation of meaning in the current refugee crisis. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, v. 16, n. 1-2, p. 15-38, 2018. Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2017.1302032

ROSENBERGER, S.; STERN, V.; MERHAUT, N. (Eds.). Protest movements in asylum and deportation. New York: Springer, 2018.

RYGIEL, K. Bordering solidarities: migrant activism and the politics of movement and camps at Calais. Citizenship Studies, v. 15, n. 1, p. 1-19, 2011. Disponível em:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13621025.2011.534911

SCHOLZ, S. J. Political solidarity. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008.

SCHROEDER, D. A.; GRAZIANO, W. G. (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of prosocial behavior. Oxford NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2015.

SEGAL, E. A. Social empathy. The art of understanding others. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.

SIAPERA, E. Refugee solidarity in Europe: Shifting the discourse. European Journal of Cultural Studies, v. 22, p. 2, p. 245-266, 2019. Disponível em: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367549418823068?journalCode=ecsa

STOCK, I. Buddy Schemes between Refugees and Volunteers in Germany: Transformative Potential in an Unequal Relationship? Social Inclusion, v. 7, n. 2, p. 128-138, 2019. Disponível em: https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v7y2019i2p128-138.html

TOUBØL, J. Differential recruitment to and outcomes of solidarity activism: Ethics, values and group style in the Danish refugee solidarity movement. 2017. Tese de Doutorado. Sociologisk Institut, Københavns Universitet, 2017.

TOUBØL, J. From democratic participation to civic resistance: the loss of institutional trust as an outcome of activism in the refugee solidarity movement. British Journal of Sociology, v. 70, n. 4, p. 1198-1224, 2019. Disponível em: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30548471/

TRIANDAFYLLIDOU, A. A "Refugee Crisis" Unfolding: "Real" Events and Their Interpretation in Media and Political Debates. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, v. 16, n. 1-2, p. 198-216, 2018. Disponível em:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15562948.2017.1309089?journalCode=wimm20

VAN DIJK, T. A. Discourse and knowledge. A sociocognitive approach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

VAN DIJK, T. A. Antiracist Discourse. Theory and History of a Macromovement. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2021 (no prelo).

WITKOWSKI, J.; PRIES, L.; MRATSCHKOWSKI, A. Networks of Refugee and Asylum Related Organizations in the Mediterranean Area of the European Union. In: FEISCHMIDT, M., PRIES, L., CANTAT, C. (Eds.). Refugee Protection and Civil Society in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. p. 25-57.

WOODLY, D. R. The Politics of Common Sense: How Social Movements Use Public Discourse to Change Politics and Win Acceptance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.