The Framing of Immigration

Aninteresting article by George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson

Framing is at the center of the recent immigration debate.Simply framing it as about “immigration” has shaped its politics, defining whatcount as “problems” and constraining the debate to a narrow set of issues. Thelanguage is telling. The linguistic framing is remarkable: frames for illegalimmigrant, illegal alien, illegals, undocumented workers, undocumentedimmigrants, guest workers, temporary workers, amnesty, and border security.These linguistic expressions are anything but neutral. Each framing defines theproblem in its own way, and hence constrains the solutions needed to addressthat problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we will analyze theframing used in the public debate. Second, we suggest some alternative framingto highlight important concerns left out of the current debate. Our point is toshow that the relevant issues go far beyond what is being discussed, and thatacceptance of the current framing impoverishes the discussion. Click here.for the full article.

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