Life in the ghetto: How the media represent British lifestyle migration to France

Lawson, Michelle 2015. Life in the ghetto: How the media represent British lifestyle migration to France. JOMEC Journal 7 , pp. 1-17. 10.18573/j.2015.10003

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Abstract

This study is part of a wider analysis of migrant identity within the context of British lifestyle migration to south-west France. The study uses an integrated methodology of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis (Social Actor Analysis) to examine how British migration to France is discursively represented within the UK media. The analysis reveals common keywords and patterns of language use that carry negative evaluation; distinctions are made between the existing British residents and a recent and more generalised phenomenon of migration, where the latter is portrayed in terms of a threatening invasion of ghetto-dwellers. Lifestyle migration is thus presented on different levels, with an overall sense that one kind of lifestyle migration is portrayed as more acceptable, or legitimate, than another. Such stereotypical positioning can be taken up as a resource by writers to self-identify against what they are not, at the same time reproducing ideologies of lifestyle migration. The study also concludes that although the British do not constitute a marginalised and vulnerable group, they are represented in the media using similar linguistic strategies to those seen in the representations of immigrants and asylum seekers.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Uncontrolled Keywords:	lifestyle migration; British migration to France; corpus linguistics; social actor analysis; recontextualisation
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	2049-2340
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 November 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 03:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/95987

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