Language, immigration, and identity
An analysis of the discourses of the Finns Party
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.
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
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