Constructions of Migrant Integration in British Public Discourse: Becoming British

This is a study into how the public discourse on migrant integration in the UK changed from 2000-2010. The book shows that the discursive construction of integration in the British public sphere shifted from one of cultural pluralism to one of neo-assimilation, informed by a wider spread of neo-liberalism that necessitates self-sufficiency and discourages state assistance. Situated within the Critical Discourse Studies tradition, the book employs a Discourse Historical approach to the data and includes innovative analysis combining 'top-down' (policy documents and media texts) and 'bottom-up' (focus groups with migrants and new citizens) sites of discourse production. In doing so, it provides a broad and detailed perspective of public discourse on integration in the UK. The book shows that understandings of 'integration' are diachronically and synchronically fluid and as such, the term plays an important role as a 'consensus concept' that different actors can support whilst construing it in different ways. Analysis of the data further reveals that integration is interdiscursively linked to other social fields, such as the economy, terrorism and public spending. The book also argues that integration policy has become directed not just at new migrants, but also long-term British citizens and that this has the potential to have considerable impact on community cohesion.

Sam Bennett is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Working within the frame of critical discourse analysis, his research has centred around discursive constructions of migration integration as well as questions of community, (non)belonging and exclusion, and populist politics. He is also the coordinator of a migrant integration project in Poznan where he attempts to transfer academic research into practice.

David Machin is Professor of Media and Communication at Örebro University, Sweden.

JOHN E. RICHARDSON is Lecturer in Communications and Media Studies at Loughborough University, UK.

Michal Krzyzanowski is Chair in Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, Sweden and Chair in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool, UK.