‘We need the money’: how welfare anxiety justifies penal and social reforms in immigration debate
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‘We need the money’ : how welfare anxiety justifies penal and social reforms in immigration debate. / Milman, Noa.
I: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Bind 49, Nr. 15, 2023, s. 3996-4013.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘We need the money’
T2 - how welfare anxiety justifies penal and social reforms in immigration debate
AU - Milman, Noa
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The response of welfare states to immigration is a topic of concern for scholars of welfare and scholars of crime and society. Yet, debates about immigration, crime and welfare in academic literature often take place in isolation. This paper advances both literatures by studying the mechanisms that drive both welfare chauvinism and penal nationalism in relationship to each other. Rather than assuming an a priori and abstract negative construction of immigration in political debates, this study draws on a large-scale Critical Discourse Analysis of political and media debates in Denmark to show how immigration is constructed in ways that justify welfare and penal policy reforms. The analysis shows that both policy shifts–towards a two-tier exclusionary welfare system, and towards penal nationalism that reserves harsher punishment for immigrants–are driven by a discourse that constructs immigrants as threatening welfare first, and only secondarily as threatening personal safety. Based on the empirical data, the article argues that anxieties about the impact of immigration on the integrity of the welfare state is what drives and justifies the construction of a two-tiered welfare and criminal justice system.
AB - The response of welfare states to immigration is a topic of concern for scholars of welfare and scholars of crime and society. Yet, debates about immigration, crime and welfare in academic literature often take place in isolation. This paper advances both literatures by studying the mechanisms that drive both welfare chauvinism and penal nationalism in relationship to each other. Rather than assuming an a priori and abstract negative construction of immigration in political debates, this study draws on a large-scale Critical Discourse Analysis of political and media debates in Denmark to show how immigration is constructed in ways that justify welfare and penal policy reforms. The analysis shows that both policy shifts–towards a two-tier exclusionary welfare system, and towards penal nationalism that reserves harsher punishment for immigrants–are driven by a discourse that constructs immigrants as threatening welfare first, and only secondarily as threatening personal safety. Based on the empirical data, the article argues that anxieties about the impact of immigration on the integrity of the welfare state is what drives and justifies the construction of a two-tiered welfare and criminal justice system.
KW - criminal justice
KW - discourse analysis
KW - Immigration
KW - policy
KW - welfare
KW - Immigration
KW - welfare
KW - criminal justice
KW - discourse analysis
KW - policy
U2 - 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2124403
DO - 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2124403
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85138352487
VL - 49
SP - 3996
EP - 4013
JO - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
JF - Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
SN - 1369-183X
IS - 15
ER -
ID: 327145163