Research Catalog

Title

Constructions of migrant integration in British public discourse : becoming British / Sam Bennett.

Author

Bennett, Sam T.

Publication

• London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 227 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

This is a study into how the public discourse on migrant integration in the UK changed from 2000-2010. The book shows that the discursive construction of integration in the British public sphere shifted from one of cultural pluralism to one of neo-assimilation, informed by a wider spread of neo-liberalism that necessitates self-sufficiency and discourages state assistance. Situated within the Critical Discourse Studies tradition, the book employs a Discourse Historical approach to the data and includes innovative analysis combining 'top-down' (policy documents and media texts) and 'bottom-up' (focus groups with migrants and new citizens) sites of discourse production. In doing so, it provides a broad and detailed perspective of public discourse on integration in the UK. The book shows that understandings of 'integration' are diachronically and synchronically fluid and as such, the term plays an important role as a 'consensus concept' that different actors can support whilst construing it in different ways. Analysis of the data further reveals that integration is interdiscursively linked to other social fields, such as the economy, terrorism and public spending. The book also argues that integration policy has become directed not just at new migrants, but also long-term British citizens and that this has the potential to have considerable impact on community cohesion.

Series Statement

Bloomsbury advances in critical discourse studies

Uniform Title

Bloomsbury advances in critical discourse studies.

Subjects

• Great Britain
• Critical discourse analysis
• Citizenship > Great Britain
• Great Britain > Emigration and immigration > Government policy
• Naturalization > Great Britain
• Emigration and immigration > Government policy
• Communication in politics
• Immigrants > Cultural assimilation > Great Britain
• Social integration > Great Britain

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-218) and index.

Contents

• 1. To Be or Not to Be (British): Discourse, Integration and the Public Sphere -- 1.1. Immigration and integration: Two sides of the same coin -- 1.2. Why critical discourse? -- 1.3. ̀Discourse', ̀text' and ̀context' -- 1.4. The public sphere: A space for discursive constructions and discursive practices -- 1.4.1. Models of the public sphere -- 1.4.2. A public sphere, but who are ̀the public'? -- 1.4.3. A discursive public sphere -- 1.5. Challenges of recent research -- 1.6. Problems, hypotheses and questions -- 1.7. The Discourse Historical Approach -- 1.8. Categories of analysis -- 1.9. Data triangulation -- 1.9.1. Governmental policy documents and media articles -- 1.9.2. Focus groups -- 1.10. Plan of the book -- 2. Discourse, Race and Migration -- 2.1. From biology to culture -- 2.2. Social constructions of race -- 2.3. Discursive constructions of race -- 2.4.
• Concluding remarks -- 3. (En)Acting Integration -- 3.1. Citizenship -- 3.1.1. Formulations of citizenship -- 3.1.2. A neoliberal discourse of citizenship -- 3.2. Integration -- 3.2.1. Theories of integration -- 3.2.2. Alternatives to multicultural ism -- 3.2.3. Practices of integration -- 3.3. Discursive practices of integration -- 3.4. Performing integration -- 3.5. Concluding remarks: Ideological performances -- 4. Historical and Socio-Political Contexts -- 4.1. Global and European socio-historical contexts -- 4.1.1. Historical global migration patterns -- 4.1.2. European immigration -- 4.1.3. European policy responses -- 4.2. The history of immigration and integration as political and politicized issues in the UK -- 4.2.1. The twentieth century: Shadows and forewarnings -- 4.2.2. Labour governments 1997 -- 2010 -- 4.3. The local context of Brighton and Hove -- 4.3.1.
• Inward migration and ethnic diversity -- 4.3.2. The local politics of immigration -- 4.4. Concluding remarks: Setting the scene -- 5. Analysis of Government Policy Texts -- 5.1. Integration and community cohesion in policy: A history of two concepts -- 5.2. The polysemy of ̀community' -- 5.2.1. Locating the community -- 5.2.2. Being inside and outside the community -- 5.2.3. The nation as a wider community -- 5.3. The evolution of integration discourse -- 5.3.1. Topoi: The framing of integration as a problem -- 5.3.2. Integration as a normative phenomenon -- 5.3.3. The Sisyphean nature of integration -- 5.3.4. The linguistic agency of integration -- 5.4. Integration as performance -- 5.4.1. A neoliberal construction of integration -- 5.4.2. Discursive expectations of performative integration -- 5.5. Interdiscursive and intertextual links between integration and other policy areas -- 5.6. Concluding remarks
• 6. Analysis of Media Texts -- 6.1. A corpus analysis of media discourse -- 6.1.1. Word frequency -- 6.1.2. Concordance -- 6.2. Integration by any other name -- 6.3. Constructions of community -- 6.3.1. What is a community? -- 6.3.2. Exclusion and inclusion of migrants -- 6.4. The ̀perfect' (British) citizen -- 6.4.1. British values -- 6.4.2. ̀Good' and ̀bad' migrants -- 6.5. Examples of journalistic bad practice -- 6.6. Concluding remarks -- 7. Analysis of Focus Groups with Incoming Non-Nationals -- 7.1. Discourse topics -- 7.1.1. Primary and secondary discourse topics -- 7.1.2. Mapping thematic links -- 7.2. Doing integration: Patterns and links in discourse -- 7.2.1. Language -- 7.2.2. Sites of integration -- 7.2.3. The uniqueness of Brighton -- 7.3. Feeling integrated: (Dis)attachments, (non-)belongings and (multiple) memberships -- 7.3.1. Contradicting and confirming the ̀Cricket test'
• 7.3.2. Part of something: Belonging and membership -- 7.3.3. Multiple memberships -- 7.4. Perspectives on the public sphere -- 7.4.1. Knowledge of public discourse -- 7.4.2. Understandings of ìntegration' -- 7.5. Concluding remarks -- 8. Discussion and Conclusion: The Discursive Construction of Integration in the Public Sphere -- 8.1. Revisiting the discursive public sphere -- 8.2. Discourses of integration: From theory to practice, and back again -- 8.3. Final remarks -- 8.3.1. The consequences of an exclusionary discourse of integration -- 8.3.2. Reframing integration: Towards tentative solutions -- Appendices -- Appendix A List of Policies and Reports Analysed -- Appendix B List of Articles Used as Examples in the Analysis -- Appendix C. Discussion Topics and Question Prompts Used for Focus Groups -- Appendix D. Focus Group Participants.

Call Number

JFE 18-5930

ISBN

• 9781350029200
• 1350029203

OCLC

979564166

Author

Bennett, Sam T., author.

Title

Constructions of migrant integration in British public discourse : becoming British / Sam Bennett.

Publisher

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Bloomsbury advances in critical discourse studies

Bloomsbury advances in critical discourse studies.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-218) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-5930