Discourses on immigration in times of economic crisis: a critical perspective

Abstract

The press is generally regarded as a reliable source of information with however the capacity to propagate ideologies, social conceptions and beliefs. In this regard, it seems evident that the social role of the press can by no means be underestimated: it can influence our knowledge, values and social codes through linguistic and other semiotic means, sometimes hidden under a euphemistic lexical disguise holding up a liberal and apparently respectful discourse. The relationship between the press and society is a very complex one that requires careful conceptualisation so that it is possible to understand why texts in general and texts related to immigration in particular are created in the ways they are and not in other ways. The press offers access to all sorts of information but also has the power to create or modify attitudes. Each image and each linguistic component used to transmit a message is not predetermined or chosen at random but, on the contrary, is the outcome of a complex process, involving many phenomena, in which there is nevertheless discernable a clear purpose. The following book pays attention to the discursive and visual elements that are involved in reproducing ethnic and racial prejudices in contemporary press discourse. Our present reality is characterised by a moment of economic crisis, and it is a contention of the book that this affects the treatment of immigration, particularly in the press, which tends to refer to immigrants as a people-problem of some description or other. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to describe major aspects of discourse related to immigration within the present social context of economic crisis.