Italy is one of the most representative ‘new immigration countries’. Between the 1980s and the 1990s, it became a major country of destination for immigrants coming from Asia, Middle East and North Africa. As a result, since the mid-nineties, immigration has gained salience within the Italian political debate. Building on the existing literature on agenda-setting and framing studies, this article studies the evolution of the immigration issue in Italy over the last two decades. It focuses on the framing and, more specifically, the position political actors tend to adopt when debating on immigration. In particular, the main research questions are: to what extent is the framing of immigration associated with the traditional left vs. right spectrum? Do incumbent political parties tend to adopt a different position toward immigration than opposition parties? This article analyses party competition dynamics over the immigration issue in Italy from 1995 to 2011. The author carried out a political-claim analysis of articles from two Italian national daily newspapers. Findings show that immigration is more a positional issue than a valence one. Political actors’ positions towards migration appear to be anchored to the old left vs. right dimension of the political conflict. This demonstrates that parties’ engagement within the political conflict goes beyond electoral campaigns. Finally, being in government seems to play a crucial role in “softening” the way party actors frame immigration, in terms of both the arguments used and the pro- or anti-immigration positions adopted.
The frontier between the United States and Mexico is the busiest land border in the world. It is also among one of the world’s most heavily regulated and policed border zones—the arid climate of which is responsible for many migrant deaths each year. But it’s also an area that occasionally lends itself to more cheerful pursuits—something you won’t hear about from a number of far-right US politicians, who prefer to frame the US-Mexico border as something like a war zone.
A new video from Culturunners, "Khaled's Ladder," documents multidisciplinary artist Khaled Jarrar's journey along the U.S.-Mexico border and the making his new work that takes the border wall as its raw material.
FrameWorks Institute nonprofit think tank that designs, conducts, interprets and explains communications research to advance the resolution of social problems
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