The Public Framing of Immigrant-Related Collective Action in New Immigrant Destinations

• In Event: 4151 - International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 6: Immigration Lawmaking and Political Activism

Abstract

The ways that newspapers cover immigrants in the public realm – whether immigrants are associated with positive or negative sentiments, and the types of topics that are associated with immigrants – can potentially provide insights into how and when group boundaries are instantiated and how they shift over time and place. Sentiments and topics in the media that are associated with immigrants can shape the framing of events and actors, which can have a significant effect on public perceptions of immigrants and immigration, and strongly impact policy changes and social movements. We add to the existing literature by: (1) examining how immigrant- and immigration-related collective action is covered over nearly three decades in nine different U.S. metropolitan areas; and (2) utilizing sentiment analysis, a computational social science method, to examine shifts in the framing of immigrants over time and place. We find that immigrant-related collective action events are generally associated with positive sentiments, and discuss the broader implications of this first step in understanding how immigrants are framed in the public arena.

Authors

• Dina G. Okamoto, Indiana University-Bloomington

• Helge Johannes Marahrens, Indiana University, Bloomington