Hate groups targeting unauthorized immigrants in the US: discourses, narratives and subjectivation practices on their websites

Abstract

The narratives and images on websites of US hate groups that oppose undocumented immigrants represent and reproduce discourses that contribute to the subject formation of group members, who feel ethically obliged to counter unauthorized immigration. Left alone by the government, which is seen as unreliable and uncaring of patriotic values, they position themselves as heroic saviours of the nation. We argue that these hate groups’ ‘games of truth’ develop in response to the perception that irregular immigration threatens specific social orders and values, for instance about citizenship, national identity and otherness. This article helps to understand the ways in which anti-immigrant narratives serve the functions of countering these threats and of asserting the group members’ ethical obligation as a form of care of the self. In other words, from a Foucaultian viewpoint, we interpret the problematizations of ‘illegal’ immigration as discursive practices for the subject formation of hate group members.

Keywords:

• hate groups
• undocumented immigrants
• narratives
• discourses
• subjectivities
• Foucault

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Ms Stephanie Confer for her early contribution to data collection and Mr Daniel Gruner (Psychology Department, Duquesne University) for his reflections on Foucault’s concept of biopolitics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For the sake of brevity, in this manuscript, we use ‘hate group members’, ‘hate groups’, ‘group members’, or ‘haters’ to refer to individuals who belong to or identify with US-based groups or associations that actively oppose undocumented immigrants.

2. In this manuscript, we will refer to immigrants who entered the USA without inspection as unauthorized, undocumented, or irregular immigrants. While these expressions are not free from prejudices and misconceptions, they are preferable to the label ‘illegal’. We use the terms ‘illegality’ and ‘illegal immigrant’ only to refer to the positions, constructions and political discourses made by the hate groups that are discussed in the paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marco Gemignani

MARCO GEMIGNANI is Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Duquesne University.

Yolanda Hernandez-Albujar

YOLANDA HERNANDEZ-ALBUJAR is Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.