scholarly journals Is your marriage “legitimate?”: a critical discourse analysis of Canada's policy on marriage fraud

Author(s):  
Vanessa Dullabh

As of 2012, Canada has implemented a “conditional probationary period” for sponsored spouses or partners through immigration, influenced by a similar policy in the United Kingdom, geared to prevent fraudulent marriage. I will present a critical discourse analysis of the current policies in both the UK and Canada by reviewing the policies, parliamentary debates, media representations, and official statistics. A major finding is that defining a “genuine” or “legitimate” relationship requires such extensive knowledge of all cultures and traditions by immigration officials, that it can become problematic. I use the theoretical frameworks of biopower by Foucault (1978) and orientalism and othering by Said (1978), to explain government control on immigration as well as the control of relationships between spouses and partners, aimed at creating a specific desired population for Canada and the UK.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Dullabh

As of 2012, Canada has implemented a “conditional probationary period” for sponsored spouses or partners through immigration, influenced by a similar policy in the United Kingdom, geared to prevent fraudulent marriage. I will present a critical discourse analysis of the current policies in both the UK and Canada by reviewing the policies, parliamentary debates, media representations, and official statistics. A major finding is that defining a “genuine” or “legitimate” relationship requires such extensive knowledge of all cultures and traditions by immigration officials, that it can become problematic. I use the theoretical frameworks of biopower by Foucault (1978) and orientalism and othering by Said (1978), to explain government control on immigration as well as the control of relationships between spouses and partners, aimed at creating a specific desired population for Canada and the UK.


Journalism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 1648-1664
Author(s):  
Paul Solman ◽  
Lesley Henderson

Reports of flooding are becoming more frequent in the UK media, and evidence from the UK Environment Agency indicates that ‘living with flooding’ will become commonplace rather than exceptional. This study is the first to adopt a critical discourse analysis approach to compare UK newspaper reporting of floods in the developed and developing world. We present our analysis of major flood incidents in Northern England and Chennai, India, in 2015. Our findings identify that UK newspapers not only give greater prominence to flooding events that are local but also frame differently those affected. Reports of floods in Northern England reinforced similarities and shared values between victims and assumed readers by drawing upon personal stories, emotions and suffering. By contrast, reports about floods in Chennai portrayed victims as anonymous ‘distant Others’, emphasising the drama of the incident rather than the plight of individuals. We argue that the newspapers’ approach to covering flooding reveals how the Western-dominated global media continue to emphasise difference rather than similarity between people in the developed and developing world, presenting flooding in the United Kingdom as exceptional and flooding in India as normalised. We believe these findings have important implications in the context of globalisation and increasing migration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852098744
Author(s):  
Ke Li ◽  
Qiang Zhang

Media representations have significant power to shape opinions and influence public response to communities or groups around the world. This study investigates media representations of Islam and Muslims in the American media, drawing upon an analysis of reports in the New York Times over a 17-year period (from Jan.1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2016) within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. It examines how Islam and Muslims are represented in media coverage and how discursive power is penetrated step by step through such media representations. Most important, it investigates whether Islam and Muslims have been stigmatized through stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. The findings reveal that the New York Times’ representations of Islam and Muslims are negative and stereotypical: Islam is stereotyped as the unacclimatized outsider and the turmoil maker and Muslims as the negative receiver. The stereotypes contribute to people’s prejudice, such as Islamophobia from the “us” group and fear of the “them” group but do not support a strong conclusion of discrimination.


Author(s):  
Julio Renato SÁEZ GALLARDO

El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un Modelo holístico multimodal para una lectura crítica del racismo en la prensa escrita. Para ello, desde el Análisis Crítico del Discurso Multimodal (ACDM), usaremos como estrategia teórico-metodológica integradora las aportaciones de Teresa Velázquez (2011) y su modelo semiótico-discursivo; el modelo sociocognitivo de van Dijk (1990, 1997, 2003a, 2003b); el modelo de la semiótica visual de Kress y van Leeuwen (1996) y el modelo intersemiótico de Nikolajeva y Scott (2001). Se validarán las matrices de análisis aplicándolas al llamado conflicto mapuche en Chile para extraer resultados y conclusiones valederas en torno a la representación periodística de las minorías étnicas. Abstract: This work aims to propose a holistic multimodal approach for making critical reading about racism in the written press. In order to achieve this, and taking account the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, we use as theoretical and methodological integrative strategies the contributions of Teresa Velázquez and her discursive-semiotic approach (2011), van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach (1990, 1997a, 2003a, 2003b), Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual semiotics approach (1996), and Nikolakeva and Scott’s intersemiotic approach (2001). The analysis matrices are validated using the so-called mapuche conflict in Chile in order to be able to draw conclusive results and conclusions about media representations of ethnic minorities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Hafez

This article analyses the two national parliamentary debates on the new Islam law of 2015 using a Viennese School of Critical Discourse Analysis. It asks how the new Islam law was framed from the perspectives of the political parties in power and of those in opposition. It also shows in detail which arguments were raised to defend, alter or support the proposed law by identifying the list of topoi used. It asks especially how racist arguments were debated between on one side a comparably tolerant Austrian system of laws on religion, and on the other, the dominant right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria, which aimed to foster Islamophobia.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaul R. Shenhav ◽  
Gideon Rahat ◽  
Tamir Sheafer

Abstract. The growing interest in the relation between language and politics brings new assumptions and theoretical frameworks to the study of politics. This study presents a simple empirical test of a major assumption of the critical discourse analysis school: that power is a major factor in political discourse. It examines whether the discourse of Israeli members of parliament (Knesset) represents a view of the world through the prism of power or whether parliament members refer to the experience of similar democracies. We demonstrate that power is a strong and significant factor in Israeli legislative discourse through time and across issues while relevance plays no role.Résumé. L'intérêt grandissant que suscite le lien entre langage et politique, génère de nouvelles hypothèses et de nouvelles théories de l'étude du politique. Cette étude propose de tester l'une des principales hypothèses de l'analyse critique de discours, à savoir que le pouvoir serait un facteur essentiel du discours politique. Le discours des membres du parlement israélien (la Knesset) est analysé afin de déterminer s'il reflète une vision du monde à travers le prisme du pouvoir, ou si au contraire les membres du parlements se réfèrent plutôt à l'expérience d'autres démocraties sous différents angles, en particulier celui de la similaritê de leur travail parlementaire. Cette étude démontre que le pouvoir constitue un facteur important et significatif du discours législatif israélien, à la fois sur la longue durée et concernant une variété de sujets, alors que le facteur de la pertinence ne joue aucun rôle.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-302
Author(s):  
Emel Ozdora-Aksak ◽  
Colleen Connolly-Ahern ◽  
Daniela Dimitrova

News shapes audiences’ views of people and events beyond their immediate physical environment. Since the mass migration of refugees from Syria represents one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history, its news coverage necessarily shaped the way global audiences understood the crisis. This qualitative study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA), specifically Van Leeuwen’s Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis (2008) as a social practice approach, to reveal and compare the discursive strategies used in the print media coverage of the Syrian refugees in three European countries: Turkey, Bulgaria and the UK. The findings show significant differences in the discourse used to describe the refugees and different approaches in terms of contextualization, spaces and actions depicted in the media coverage in each country. The study reveals the ongoing dialogue between journalistic practice and political decision making in three countries impacted to varying extents by the ongoing crisis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elyse Methven

This article interrogates a commonly articulated idea in relation to the criminalisation of offensive language: namely, that swearing at police challenges their authority and thereby deserves criminal punishment. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the article examines representations of swearing at police officers in offensive language cases and parliamentary debates, including constructions of power, authority and order. It contributes to—but also denaturalises—conceptions about police power and authority in the context of public order policing. The article argues that criminal justice discourse plays a significant and often under-acknowledged role in naturalising the punishment of swearing at, or in the presence of, police officers.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gosson

This study examines the way in which Early Childhood Educators trained in Ontario college programs are prepared to work with queer populations upon entering the field. This study used post-structuralist, queer feminist, and critical disability theoretical frameworks while analysing the data. A content analysis, informed by critical discourse analysis, was used to assess program documents. Course descriptions from ECE program websites were collected, as well as a total of 33 course outlines from 11 different Ontario college ECE programs, and 9 textbooks identified through the course outlines. Queer content was found to be absent from all but 5 course outlines and 4 textbooks. The need to have queer issues included formally in Ontario ECE curriculum, the othering of queer populations, and the erasure of queer identities are discussed. Key


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