Welfare restrictions and 'benefit tourists': Representations and evaluations of EU migrants in the UK

Deanna Demetriou (Saunders)

doi:10.1515/commun-2018-0015

Welfare restrictions and 'benefit tourists': Representations and evaluations of EU migrants in the UK

Deanna Demetriou (Saunders)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article investigates online representations and evaluations of EU migrants, focusing on the notion of ‘benefit tourism’ and discursive strategies used in the (de)legitimization of new welfare restrictions in the UK. Through the examination of online newspapers and corresponding public comment threads, this article adopts theoretical and methodological premises from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), drawing upon the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to provide both a politically motivated as well as reflexive account. Although new participatory structures allow for resistance to emerge, the openness, scalability and anonymity of the internet also allows for the spread of discrimination through the construction of EU migrants (in particular Bulgarians and Romanians) as the ‘Other’.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	379-401
Journal	Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research
Volume	43
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2018-0015
Publication status	Published - 2 Aug 2018

Keywords

Immigration discourse
Critical Discourse Studies
(social) media

Access to Document

10.1515/commun-2018-0015

Cite this

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title = "Welfare restrictions and 'benefit tourists': Representations and evaluations of EU migrants in the UK",

abstract = "This article investigates online representations and evaluations of EU migrants, focusing on the notion of {\textquoteleft}benefit tourism{\textquoteright} and discursive strategies used in the (de)legitimization of new welfare restrictions in the UK. Through the examination of online newspapers and corresponding public comment threads, this article adopts theoretical and methodological premises from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), drawing upon the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to provide both a politically motivated as well as reflexive account. Although new participatory structures allow for resistance to emerge, the openness, scalability and anonymity of the internet also allows for the spread of discrimination through the construction of EU migrants (in particular Bulgarians and Romanians) as the {\textquoteleft}Other{\textquoteright}.",

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