ABSTRACT

This article argues that when integration discourses are used in newspaper articles to discuss social policy issues, the issues are framed as being “about migrants” and not as issues that impact the population at large; through this migratization of policy issues, integration discourses are weaponized and may be used to justify welfare retrenchment. Integration discourses have received growing attention from critical migration scholars, who often focus on how the concept of integration reinforces ideas related to the nation-state and issues explicitly related to migrants and migration; however, more general social policy issues also use integration discourses. Against this background, the current study questions what integration discourses “do,” particularly referring to two cases published in local newspapers in Nordland County, Norway: the cash-for-care benefit (kontantstøtte) and adults’ right to upper secondary education. The results show (1) the gendered process of migratization that ascribes general policy issues as “migrant” issues and (2) how integration discourses are used to delegitimize these policies and, ultimately, to justify welfare retrenchment. The findings demonstrate that integration discourses transform the discussion of general policy issues into being “about migrants” with implications for the welfare state at large.

摘要

本文认为，当报纸文章中使用融合话语来讨论社会政策问题时，这些问题被界定为“关于移民”，而不是影响广大人口的问题；通过政策问题的转移，一体化话语被武器化，并可能被用来为福利紧缩辩护。融合话语越来越受到批判移民学者的关注，他们经常关注融合概念如何强化与民族国家相关的观念以及与移民和移民明确相关的问题；然而，更普遍的社会政策问题也使用融合话语。在此背景下，当前的研究质疑融合话语的“作用”，特别提到挪威诺德兰郡当地报纸上发表的两个案例：kontantstøtte）和成人接受高中教育的权利。结果表明：（1）性别化的移民过程将一般政策问题归结为“移民”问题；（2）融合话语如何被用来使这些政策失去合法性，并最终为福利紧缩辩护。研究结果表明，融合话语将一般政策问题的讨论转变为“关于移民”，并对整个福利国家产生影响。