Media Discourse and the Migrant : Constructing Migrant Legality and Illegality in France

Abstract

This thesis addresses the question of how migrant legality and illegality are constructed and differentiated in mainstream French newspaper discourse. The distinction between legal and illegal migration is a particularly overt feature of the public debate on migration in France. The thesis argues that legality and illegality are not natural givens, but social constructs that are based on moral-political judgments of what constitutes legitimate grounds for moving. By investigating how migration is given meaning, the thesis offers a critical examination of a widely spoken about but often taken-for-granted concept. This is done by analyzing three aspects of the social construction of migrant legality and illegality. First, the thesis investigates spatial representations of migrant legality and illegality. Second, it discusses how migrant legality and illegality are defined. Third, the thesis examines the discursive strategies that are used in French newspaper discourse in order to represent migrant legality and illegality in particular ways.

In order to explore these questions the thesis is based on a discourse analysis of a corpus of newspaper articles taken from the 2007 and 2008 editions of two of the major national newspapers in France: Le Monde and Le Figaro. The value of a discourse analytical approach lies in its ability to analyze how we categorize and create boundaries through language and to deconstruct the often binary categorizations this engenders. The thesis project also reflects the central role of the media in shaping public action through its mediation and discussion of social phenomena.

The main finding of this thesis is the identification of two distinct sets of discursive strategies of which one set is used to represent migrant legality and the other is used in representations of migrant illegality. Understanding how migrant legality and illegality are constructed and differentiated is crucial in two regards. First, discourses on migrant legality and illegality inform judgments about mobile people and their practices. Second, these discourses are used to legitimize and enable particular policy responses.