The dialectics of the securitization and desecuritization of African asylum seekers discourse in Israel

ABSTRACT

This study engages in an analysis of the media discourse regarding African asylum seekers in Israel, examining how populist and elite Hebrew language news websites utilize securitized and desecuritized discourses to depict asylum seekers in both a period of perceived acute threat (2011–2012) and a period in which the perceived threat has dissipated (2018–2019). Utilizing a Dialectic Discourse Analysis approach, this study aims to disclose how similar discursive resources and societal values can be dialectically employed to advance both securitized and desecuritized migration discourses. Specifically, the study illustrates how paradigmatic lexical choices, collective memory narratives, religious values, and vox populi discourses can be utilized to advance both securitized and desecuritized approaches to asylum seekers, with no significant different between the two periods studied. The study posits that by appropriating central societal values towards each position, the discourse become fixed in opposition, as neither side is able to engage in a constructive dialogue with the opposing side. The discussion suggests a possibility for engaging in a productive discourse which shifts beyond fixed oppositions with respect to asylum seekers and other perceived threats to the ontological security of a society.

KEYWORDS:

• Discourse analysis
• migration
• asylum seekers
• securitization
• desecuritization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While there are much larger refugee camps around the world, this is the largest detention camp, which is a compound where illegal migrants are detained temporarily, pending determination of their legal status under immigration laws.

2 Other terms such as the Hebrew equivalent of 'illegal foreign worker' and 'illegal migrant worker' were also used on these websites, although with less prominence.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elie Friedman

Elie Friedman (PhD) is Head of the Communication Division at the Department of Multi-Disciplinary Studies, Ashkelon Academic College, an adjunct lecturer at School of Communication, Bar-Ilan University, and a visiting lecturer at University of Maryland. His interests include political discourse in national and international contexts with an emphasis on conflict resolution, media, and public diplomacy. His first book (with Gavriely-Nuri) Israeli Discourse and the West Bank: Dialectics of Normalization and Estrangement was published in 2018 by Routledge. He has published articles in leading discourse and communication journals, including Language in Society (2019) and Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism (2020), Journalism Studies (2020) and Javnost - the Public (2021).