Immigrants and refugees: two sides of the same problem. A linguistic analysis through newspapers and social network in Spain 2006 and 2015

ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of immigration has been studied from diverse perspectives. It is important to note that immigration is common during times of crisis. The reason for the avalanche of immigrants to the Canary Islands (Spain) is because it is the gateway to Europe, and therefore, immigrants wanted to enter from this point. This research is based on the need to linguistically determine the treatment of the phenomenon of immigration in the Spanish press. This analysis is relevant given the arrival of thousands of foreign citizens to the coast of the Canary Islands, first in 2006 and almost a decade later, in 2015 to the south of Europe in another great population movement. This research attempts to study four Spanish newspapers, two from the Canary Islands (El Día and Canarias 7) and two Spanish mainland national newspapers (El País and ABC), the online version of the newspapers and their websites were analyzed beside one of the most important social networks, Twitter. The role of incorporating social networks to immigration discourse is also analyzed. To support the data analysis of this research, the Iramuteq software was used.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• immigrant
• refugee
• social networks
• linguistic analysis

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Notes on contributors

Juan Martinez Torvisco is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of La Laguna. He teaches at Law Faculty and Health Faculty. He was Director of the University Master’s in Social and Community Intervention from 2013 to 2018 and from 2014 to 2016 was Chair of the Department of Cognitive, Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of La Laguna. Currently, his research interests are focused on Environmental Psychology and Risk Perception. He has published more than 20 research articles and authored at least 10 book chapters. Among others: with Carmen Rodriguez-Wanguemert (2017), ‘Human rights through the paradigm changes of the social communication theories’ International Review of Sociology 27-2, pp. 230-240; Martinez Torvisco, J. (2010). ‘Espacio personal y Ecología del Pequeño Grupo’ in J.I. Aragonés & M. Amérigo (eds.), Psicología Ambiental. Madrid: Pirámide Ed. He has also published a book with professor Gevisa La Rocca, Martinez Torvisco, J. and La Rocca, G. (2018). En torno al Riesgo. ISBN 978-84-88429-35-3 (Pasos Edita 19).

Sonnia Chinea is a PhD in communication and teaches at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication; she also shares her teaching activity with the communication head of the Canary Islands Government Education Councilor.

ORCID

Juan Martínez Torvisco http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4854-0175

Notes

1 Iramuteq is the acronym of Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires.

2 The Reinert method is based on a Descending Hierarchical Classification criterion (DHC).

3 The software Alceste, it is a textual data analysis or textual statistic, software developed by the company IMAGE.

4 Text extracted from the prologue written by Professor Teun A. van Dijk, for the book Immigration, Discourse and Media, a collective work that analyzes the discourse of the media before the phenomenon of immigration in Spain.