Public and Political Discourses of Migration
Discourse, Power and Society
Series editors : Martin J. Power, Amanda Haynes, Eoin Devereux and Aileen Dillane
Discourse is understood as both an expression and a mechanism of power, by which means particular social realities are conceived, made manifest, legitimated, naturalized, challenged, resisted and reimagined. This series publishes edited collections, monographs and textbooks which problematize the relationship of discourse to inequality, exclusion, subjugation, dominance and privilege. In doing so, the linkages between discourse, modes of social organization, lived experience and strategies of resistance are addressed.
Public and Political Discourses of Migration: International Perspectives , edited by Amanda Haynes, Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and James Carr
The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Idea , Simon Springer (Forthcoming)
Public and Political Discourses of Migration
International Perspectives
Edited by
Amanda Haynes, Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and James Carr
London New York
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd
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Selection and editorial matter 2016 by Amanda Haynes, Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane and James Carr
Copyright in individual chapters is held by the respective chapter authors.
All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB 978-1-78348-327-3
PB 978-1-78348-328-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Haynes, Amanda, editor.
Title: Public and political discourses of migration : international perspectives / edited by Amanda Haynes, Martin J. Power, Eoin Devereux, Aileen Dillane, and James Carr.
Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. | Series: Discourse, power and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015042628 (print) | LCCN 2016002383 (ebook) | ISBN 9781783483273 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783483280 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783483297 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Emigration and immigrationPolitical aspects. | Emigration and immigrationSocial aspects. | Emigration and immigrationPublic opinon.
Classification: LCC JV6255 .P83 2016 (print) | LCC JV6255 (ebook) | DDC 325dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042628.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to the memories of Aylan, Galip and Rehan Kurdi, who together with thousands of others have lost their lives in desperate attempts to cross borders.
Contents
Aileen Dillane, Martin J. Power, Amanda Haynes, Eoin Devereux and James Carr
Nicholas De Genova
Marco Bruno
James Carr
Autumn M. Reed
Tuuli Lhdesmki and Tuija Saresma
Sara Hannafin
Elaine Burroughs
Martin J. Power, Amanda Haynes and Eoin Devereux
Aileen Marron, Ann Marie Joyce, James Carr, Eoin Devereux, Michael Breen, Martin J. Power and Amanda Haynes
Moshe Morad
Michalis Poupazis
Sheryl Lynch
Yannik Porsch
Emma Hill
Uta Helfrich and Ana Mancera Rueda
Amanda Haynes, Eoin Devereux, James Carr, Martin J. Power and Aileen Dillane
The editors wish to acknowledge the generous support and funding received from the University of Limerick for the initial conference which ultimately led to the production of this volume. We would like to thank Professor Don Barry, president of the University of Limerick, who officially launched the Power Discourse and Society Research Cluster in 2014, the Department of Sociology and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Limerick; all of the contributors to this volume, and the many others who have offered encouragement and assistance along the way.
Grateful thanks are given to those who gave their permission to reproduce original images in this collection.
Finally, we would like to thank Martina OSullivan and Sinad Murphy at Rowman & Littlefield International for all their assistance in putting this volume together.
An Introduction to the Volume
Aileen Dillane, Martin J. Power, Amanda Haynes, Eoin Devereux and James Carr
Migration the process of moving across symbolic or political borders (Scott and Marshall 2005, 410). Yet, such dictionary definitions belie the variety and scope of challenges faced by many migrants who, for whatever reason, have been compelled to begin a journey whose outcome cannot be easily predicted. In September 2015, as we finalised this book, migration was very starkly humanised by the circulation of pictures of the body of a young Syrian migrant/refugee, but above all, a child, washed up on the shore of a Turkish beach, having drowned whilst trying to make his way into Europe with his family. The pictures were shocking and were made all the more poignant by recast images of the young boy, which attempted to reframe his lifeless body by placing it on a warm and safe bed in a photo-shopped picture of an idyllic childs bedroom. He looked asleep, not dead. But the original picture has proven very difficult to erase from peoples minds and because of that, at least for a while, Aylan Kurdi humanised and individuated the swarms of migrants trying to make their way into Europe. Throughout history, countless migrants have traversed the globe, oftentimes in large collectives. The manner in which such efforts have been discursively framed in more recent times, and how that framing impacts on individual and collective lived experience, whether through formal policies or through more nebulous and often hostile public attitudes, is what concerns us in this volume.
Adopting a critical approach, this text seeks to explore and problematise the relationship of discourse to issues of representation, and as such, highlights inequality, exclusion, subjugation, dominance and privilege in the context of migration. Discourse here is understood as both an expression and a mechanism of power, by which particular social realities are conceived, made manifest, legitimated, naturalised, challenged, resisted and re-imagined.
Public and political discourses on the matter of outward and inward migration are of crucial importance, as they are responsible for framing the issue, and for how, when and where it arrives on the public/political spectrum (Schain 2008, 465). As a result, such discourses have substantial influence over the general publics attitudes towards migration (McLaren 2001; Hainmueller and Hopkins 2014) and over the policies and legislation, which frame and regulate both the act of migration itself, and migrant residents, while concomitantly feeding back into the prejudices that are evident in those public attitudes (Facchini et al. 2008).
