Who drives migration discourse and in what direction? claims-making and political mobilisation analyses of labor migration in Israel

Adriana Kemp*, Rebeca Raijman, Rona Geffen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

As labor migration policies increasingly operate at the crossroads of neoliberal political economies, nativist nationalisms and assertive human rights activism, serious debates have emerged about whose logic is setting the discourse on migration issues, in what direction and with what justifications. Yet, while the actors driving the public discourse have been a central concern for scholars interested in the institutional transformation of migration politics, research on the migration discourse and claims-making has largely overlooked them. Drawing on an original data set of 1,300 collective claims on labor migration reported in Israeli print media during 2000–2012, we investigate two aspects of claims-making: the public claims mobilised by state and non-state actors, and the discursive opportunity structure in which they evolve. Our analysis of the claims mobilised by actors situated in different institutional positions and their political framings regarding the control and integration of legal and undocumented labor migrants seeks to fill the gap in the migration discourse literature. We also contribute to recent claims-making and political mobilisation analyses by bringing the actor-driven logic to bear on major debates regarding the institutional politics of migration and examining them empirically in relation to each other.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3323-3343
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Volume48
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Funding

FundersFunder number
State of Israel
Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel3-8782

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