Understanding Anti-Asylum Rhetoric: Restrictive Politics or Racist Publics?

Political Quarterly

Volumn 74, Issue SPEC ISS., 2003, Pages 163-177+vi

  Statham, Paul ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 10744230536     PISSN: 00323179     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2003.00588.x     Document Type: Review

References (13)

1. The research findings are to be found in 'The Contentious Politics of Asylum in Britain and Europe', funded by the British Economic and Social Research Council R000239221; for details see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ics/euro.htm.
2. See esp. Gary Freeman, 'Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States', International Migration Review, vol. 29, no. 122, Winter 1995, pp. 881-902, and 'The Decline of Sovereignty? Politics and Immigration Restriction in Liberal States', in C. Joppke, ed., Challenge to the Nation-State, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998.
3. See esp. Gary Freeman, 'Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States', International Migration Review, vol. 29, no. 122, Winter 1995, pp. 881-902, and 'The Decline of Sovereignty? Politics and Immigration Restriction in Liberal States', in C. Joppke, ed., Challenge to the Nation-State, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998.
4. Here see Thomas Faist, 'How to Define a Foreigner? The Symbolic Politics of Immigration in German Partisan Discourse', Western European Politics, vol. 17, no. 2, 1994, pp. 50-71; Dietrich Thränhardt, 'The Political Uses of Xenophobia in England, France and Germany', Party Politics, 1995, pp. 325-45.
5. Here see Thomas Faist, 'How to Define a Foreigner? The Symbolic Politics of Immigration in German Partisan Discourse', Western European Politics, vol. 17, no. 2, 1994, pp. 50-71; Dietrich Thränhardt, 'The Political Uses of Xenophobia in England, France and Germany', Party Politics, 1995, pp. 325-45.
6. A more detailed presentation of these research findings is given in Paul Statham, 'The Role of Public Debates and the extent of "Europeanisation" within British Immigration and Asylum Politics: Some Empirical Findings', paper presented at the 1st Pan-European Conference on European Union Politics, held by the Standing Group of the European Consortium for Political Research, 2002. This is available in pdf format at http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR/standinggroups/eu/index.htm.
7. The newsprint mass media are taken as the main source for the public sphere, as the events and outcomes within many semi-public and non-public spheres are also reported here. It should be noted for purposes of interpretation that this method brackets out journalistic opinion on events, and, following the protest event analysis method from social movement research, collates a record of public events where political demands are raised by collective actors within a specific issue-field. The present data are based on every second issue (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) of the Guardian for Britain from 1990 to 1999. The reliability and validity of these sources were checked and confirmed by comparisons with several other national newspapers. For further details on method, see Ruud Koopmans and Paul Statham, 'Political Claims Analysis: Integration Protest Event and Political Discourse Approaches', Mobilization: The International Journal of Research and Theory about Social Movements, Protest and Collective Behavior, vol. 4, no. 2, 1999, pp. 203-22.
8. These findings appear in a more detailed form in Paul Statham, 'State Policies, Political Discourse and "White" Public Opinion on Ethnic Relations and Immigration in Britain: Pushing the Borders of "Extremity"', paper presented to the joint sessions of workshops at the European Consortium for Political Research, 2001, available in pdf format at http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/grenoble.asp? section=14.
9. See e.g. Richard E. Dawson and Kenneth Prewitt, Political Socialization, Boston, Little, Brown, 1969.
10. See the classic approach by Robert Merton and Patricia Kendall, 'The Focussed Interview', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, 1946, pp. 541-57, which has been advanced by David E. Morrison, The Search for a Method: Focus Groups and the Development of Mass Communication Research, Luton, John Libbey Media, 1998. Also relevant is the social movement approach by William A. Gamson; see his Talking Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
11. See the classic approach by Robert Merton and Patricia Kendall, 'The Focussed Interview', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, 1946, pp. 541-57, which has been advanced by David E. Morrison, The Search for a Method: Focus Groups and the Development of Mass Communication Research, Luton, John Libbey Media, 1998. Also relevant is the social movement approach by William A. Gamson; see his Talking Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
12. See the classic approach by Robert Merton and Patricia Kendall, 'The Focussed Interview', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, 1946, pp. 541-57, which has been advanced by David E. Morrison, The Search for a Method: Focus Groups and the Development of Mass Communication Research, Luton, John Libbey Media, 1998. Also relevant is the social movement approach by William A. Gamson; see his Talking Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
13. The findings here are based on six focus groups, which were professionally randomly recruited, according to the following characteristics of ethnicity, gender, age and location: 6 white, 3 male, 3 female; 2 of each age cohort 16-24, 24-45, 45+ years; 3 Bradford, 3 Catford (SE London). There were between 8 and 11 participants in each group. For further details on method see Statham, 'State Policies, Political Discourse and "White" Public Opinion on Ethnic Relations and Immigration in Britain'. This research continues.