Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 18:5 (2019) ► pp.671–697

We can(’t) do this

A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of migration in Germany

| Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)
ORCID logo | Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Migration has been a defining topic in the discourse in Germany since the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015. This corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis systematically reconstructs the discourse about migration in two influential German newspapers, thereby emphasizing the construction of different subject positions for people migrating to Germany. Mass media are an important arena for the fight for hegemony between discursive coalitions of culturalization regimes that are based on openness and closure respectively. The discursive space of the German discourse about migration offers multiple opportunities in this regard. In the left-leaning taz, we detect a general trend to support an open society although some (but often contested) elements of closure are detected in this medium as well. Die Welt leans much more towards closure and the problematization of migration although it also offers a diverse array of interpellations that depend on the usefulness or threating character of people coming to Germany.

Keywords: migration, Germany, media discourse, corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, culturalization, subject positions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical considerations – migration and different culturalization regimes in the media
  • 3.Methodological considerations – combining corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis
  • 4.The constructions of subject positions in the German media discourse on migration
    • 4.1The discourse on migration in context
    • 4.2Publication patterns over time
    • 4.3Left-leaning newspaper taz
      • 4.3.1Promoter and defender of the Open Society – “Geflüchtete” (refugees) in the taz
      • 4.3.2Mostly open but sometimes closed – “Flüchtling” (refugees) in the taz
    • 4.4Centre-right newspaper Die Welt
      • 4.4.1From technical to criminal – asylum seeker(s) in Die Welt
      • 4.4.2To deserve or not to deserve – migrant(s) in Die Welt
      • 4.4.3Open for quality – immigrant(s) in Die Welt
  • 5.Conclusion – towards a cartography of discourse coalitions in the German migration discourse
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19006.gri
References
Althusser, Louis
2014 On Ideology. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Avramopoulos, Dimitris
2015 “Flüchtline umverteilen [Redistribute refugees].“ Die Welt (15.05.2015).Google Scholar
Baker, Paul
2004 “Querying Keywords: Questions of Difference, Frequency, and Sense in Keywords Analysis.” Journal of English Linguistics 32 (4): 346–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Paul, Costas Gabrielatos, Majid KhosraviNik, Michał Krzyżanowski, Tony McEnery, and Ruth Wodak
2008 “A Useful Methodological Synergy? Combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics to Examine Discourses of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK Press.” Discourse & Society 19 (3): 273–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bannerji, Himani
2000 The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.Google Scholar
Bax, Daniel
2016 “untitled.“ taz (09.01.2016).Google Scholar
Becker, Maria
2016 “Die Flüchtlingsdebatte in den Medien Deutschlands. Eine korpus- und diskurslinguistische Untersuchung der Konzeptualisierung von Angst [The refugee debate in the German media. A corpus and discourse linguistic analysis of the conceptualization of fear].” IDS Sprachreport (2/2016). [URL]. Accessed 22.05.2018.
Bojadžijev, Manuela
2018 “Migration as Social Seismograph: an Analysis of Germany’s ‘Refugee Crisis’ Controversy.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 31 (4): 335–356. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chouliaraki, Lilie, and Myria Georgiou
2017 “Hospitability: The Communicative Architecture of Humanitarian Securitization at Europe’s Borders.” Journal of Communication 67 (2): 159–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evert, Stefan
2009 “Corpora and Collocations.” In Corpus Linguistics. An International Handbook (Band 2), edited by Anke Lüdeling and Merja Kytö, 1212–1248. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Fauth, Lea
2015 “Antifaschismus. Kein Recht auf Nazipropaganda!“ [Anti-facism. No right to Nazi propaganda!].” taz (29.10.2015).Google Scholar
Fotopoulos, Stergios, and Margarita Kaimaklioti
2016 “Media Discourse on the Refugee Crisis. On What Have the Greek, German and British Press Focused?” European View 15 (2): 265–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgiou, Myria, and Rafal Zaborowski
2017 “Media Coverage of the ‘Refugee Crisis’: A Cross-European Perspective.” [URL] (date accessed: 12.05.2019).
Gerring, John
2007 Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hajer, Maarten
2006 “Doing Discourse Analysis: Coalitions, Practices, Meaning.” In Words Matter in Policy and Planning: Discourse Theory and Method in the Social Sciences, edited by Margo van den Brink and Tamara Metze, 65–76. Utrecht: Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart
1996 “Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?” In Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay, 1–17. London: Sage.Google Scholar
1982 “The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’; Return of the Repressed in Media Studies.” In Culture, Society and the Media, edited by Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran and Janet Wollacott, 56–90. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hardie, Andrew
2012 “CQPweb – Combining Power, Flexibility and Usability in a Corpus Analysis Tool.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 17 (3): 380–409. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Seth M., and Heide Castañeda
2016 “Representing the ‘European Refugee Crisis’ in Germany and Beyond. Deservingness and Difference, Life and Death.” American Ethnologist 43 (1):12–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holzberg, Billy, Kristina Kolbe, and Rafal Zaborowski
2018 “Figures of Crisis: The Delineation of (Un)Deserving Refugees in the German Media.” Sociology 52 (3): 534–550. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hübsch, Khola Maryam
2016 “In der Debatte über Köln trüben antimuslimische Ressentiments den Blick auf ein globales Problem. [In the debate about Cologne, anti-muslim ressentiments blur the focus on a global problem]” taz (09.01.2016).Google Scholar
Huysmans, Jef
2000 “The European Union and the Securitization of Migration.” Journal of Common Market Studies 38 (5): 751–777. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jung, Matthias, Thomas Niehr, and Karin Böke
2000 Ausländer und Migranten im Spiegel der Presse: Ein diskurshistorisches Wörterbuch zur Einwanderung seit 1945 [Foreigners and migrants in the mirror of the media: A dicourse historical dictionary on immigration since 1945]. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.Google Scholar
Kamann, Matthias
2016 “Was gegen Terror hilft. [What works against terror]“ Die Welt (11.08.2016).Google Scholar
Krämer, Benjamin
2017 “Populist and Non-Populist Media: Their Paradoxical Role in the Development and Diffusion of a Rightwing Ideology.” In Political Populism: A Handbook, edited by Reinhard C. Heinisch, Christina Holtz-Bacha and Oscar Mazzoleni, 405–420. Baden-Baden: Nomos. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał and Ruth Wodak
2009 The Politics of Exclusion. Debating Migration in Austria. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Kitchin, Rob
2014 “Big Data, New Epistemologies and Paradigm Shifts.” Big Data & Society 1 (1): 1–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kurasawa, Fuyuki
2013 “The Sentimentalist Paradox: On the Normative and Visual Foundations of Humanitarianism.” Journal of Global Ethics 9 (2): 201–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto
1997 “The Death and Resurrection of the Theory of Ideology.” MLN 112 (3): 297–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehr, Sabine
2015 Germany as Host: Examining Ongoing Anti-Immigration Discourse and Policy in a Country with a High Level of Non-National Residents. [URL]. Accessed 20.07.2018.
Leubecher, Marcel
2015a “Bei Flüchtlingsaufnahme gibt es keine Obergrenze [There is no upper limit for the admisison of refugees].“ Die Welt (09.07.2015): 71.Google Scholar
2015b “ ‘Merkel hat die moralische Führungsrolle bewiesen‘ [Merkel has proved a moral leadership role].“ Die Welt (16.12.2015): 41.Google Scholar
2017 “Wer arbeitet, darf bleiben. [Who works can stay]“ Die Welt (29.06.2017).Google Scholar
LexisNexis
2018 News data base. Accessed 03.06.2018.Google Scholar
Mattissek, Annika, and Tobias Schopper
2019 “ ‘Culture’ in German Media Discourses on Refugees: A Political Geography Perspective.” In Discourse, Culture and Organization: Inquiries into Relational Structures of Power, edited by Tomas Marttila, 245–266. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McEnery, Tony, and Andrew Hardie
2012 Corpus Linguistics. Method, Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Partington, Alan, Alison Duguid, and Charlotte Taylor
2013 Patterns and Meanings in Discourse. Theory and practice in corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), Studies in Corpus Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pautz, Hartwig
2018 “Constructing the ‘Immigrant’: Germany’s Radical Left in the Refugee Crisis.” German Politics 27 (3):424–441. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pons
2019 Online-Wörterbuch. [URL]. Accessed 07.06.2019.
Rada, Roberta V.
2016 “Zur Bedeutung des Wortes Willkommenskultur im deutschen Mediendiskurs [On the meaning of the term welcome culture in the German media discourse].“ Sprachtheorie und germanistische Linguistik 26 (1): 17–43.Google Scholar
Reckwitz, Andreas
2016 Zwischen Hyperkultur und Kulturessenzialismus [Between hyperculture and cultural essentialism]. [URL]. Accessed 01.06.2018.
2017 Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten: Zum Strukturwandel der Moderne [The Society of Singularities – On the Structural Transformation of Modernity]. Berlin: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Reiners, Wulf, and Funda Tekin
2019 “Taking Refuge in Leadership? Facilitators and Constraints of Germany’s Influence in EU Migration Policy and EU-Turkey Affairs during the Refugee Crisis (2015–2016).” German Politics. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reisigl, Martin
2013 “Critical Discourse Analysis.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, edited by Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron and Ceil Lucas, 68–90. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak
2001 Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schmidtke, Oliver
2017 “Reinventing the Nation: Germany’s Post-Unification Drive Towards Becoming a ‘Country of Immigration’.” German Politics 26 (4): 498–515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schnörch, Ulrich
2014 “Überlegungen zur (adäquaten) lexikografischen Beschreibung des (‘politisch korrekten‘) Gebrauchs von Wörtern wie Ausländer, Migrant, Flüchtling, Asylbewerber [Thoughts on a (adequate) lexicographical description of the (“politically correct”) use of words like foreigner, migrant, refugee, asylum seeker].“ Deutsche Sprache 42 (4): 347–361.Google Scholar
Schulte, Ulrich
2017 “untitled.” taz (17.09.2017).Google Scholar
Stubbs, Michael
2010 “Three Concepts of Keywords.” In Keyness in Texts, edited by Marina Bondi and Mike Scott, 21–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Triandafyllidou, Anna
2018 “A ‘Refugee Crisis’ Unfolding: ‘Real’ Events and Their Interpretation in Media and Political Debates.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 16 (1–2): 198–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ulbricht, Christian
2017 Ein- und Ausgrenzungen von Migranten: Zur sozialen Konstruktion (un-)erwünschter Zuwanderung [Inclusion and exclusion of migrants. On the social construction of (un)desirable immigration]. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun
2015 “Critical Discourse Analysis.” In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Volume I, edited by Deborah Tannen, Heidi Ehernberger Hamilton and Deborah Schiffrin, 352–371. Chichester; Malden: Wiley-Backwell.Google Scholar
Völker, Hanna
2017 “Is the German Immigration Debate Changing? A Discourse Linguistic Approach to the German Immigration Debate. On Changes since the 1970s.” Living Linguistics (3): 87–108.Google Scholar
Vollmann, Erik
2017 “Angela Merkel et la politique des réfugiés 2015–2017. [Angela Merkel and the refugee policy of 2015–2017].“ Outre Terre 52 (3): 117–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vollmer, Bastian, and Serhat Karakayali
2018 “The Volatility of the Discourse on Refugees in Germany.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 16 (1–2): 118–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Von Borstel, Stefan, Martin Greive, and Benno Müchler
2015 “Erst Flüchtling, dann deutscher Handwerker [first a refugee, then German craftsman].“ Die Welt (30.09.2015).Google Scholar
Weicht, Bernhard
2017 “Old and Dependent: The Construction of a Subject Position for Politics and Care.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics, 500–513. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
2002 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth
2015 The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: SAGE. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Benczes, Réka & Bence Ságvári
2021. Migrants are not welcome. Journal of Language and Politics DOI logo
Marko, Karoline
2021. Serving the Public Good?—A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Private Prisons and For-Profit Incarceration in the United States. Frontiers in Communication 6 DOI logo
Salamurović, Aleksandra
2020. Viola, Lorella, and Andreas Musolff (eds.). 2019. Migration and Media. Discourses about identities in crisis. Journal of Language and Politics 19:4 ► pp. 720 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.