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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 19:2 (2020) ► pp.270–289

Language, immigration, and identity

An analysis of the discourses of the Finns Party

ORCID logo | The Pennsylvania State University

Populism has been on the rise in Europe, especially in the last decade. Finland is no exception, and a populist party ‘The Finns Party’ has gained momentum since the 2011 parliamentary election. The purpose of this paper is to examine the discourses of the Finns Party in their official releases on immigration and language in the 2015 parliamentary election. The socio-politically situated examination draws from Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, especially the concepts of biopower, biopolitics, racism, governmentality and subject position. In addition, language identity, language ideologies, and populism are used to discuss how linguistic identity and ideology are perceived and constructed in the data, especially in terms of discourses of inclusion and exclusion of ethnically Finnish but linguistically non-dominant groups, and immigrants.

Keywords: language in politics, language policy, populism, immigration, discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1A brief overview of Finland: Population, history, languages, and political system
    • 2.2The Finns Party
    • 2.3Populism and the Finns Party
    • 2.4Foucauldian discourse analysis
    • 2.5Language ideology and identity
  • 3.Data
    • 3.1The immigration policy
    • 3.2The language policy
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19044.cri
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