"TAKE BACK CONTROL" - En diskursanalys av Brexit-kampanjens invandringsmotstånd i Storbritannien

Abstract

The British debate on the EU membership in the spring of 2016 was both hectic and intensive. One of the big issues in debate was immigration, especially from the European Union. The leave side, including representatives from Labour, the Conservative and Unionist Party and United Kingdom Independence Party, was dominantly problematising EU-immigration. The aim of this thesis is to explore this problematisation in reference to these migrants’ right to the national welfare system. The theory used to analyse this phenomenon is the theory of welfare chauvinism that if fully achieved, immigrants are not seen as worthy of welfare because they are not seen as a part of the national community. This idea is usually expressed by right-extremist and national populist parties. To test this, Carol Bacchi’s discourse method” what is the problem represented to be” is used on material from live debates and campaign material. The results imply that welfare chauvinism occurred as an argument in the material.