New in town. Small-town media discourses on immigrants and immigration

摘要

This article examines discourses on immigrants and immigration in local media by analysing texts from newspapers in three rural districts of Norway. It finds that articulations expressing appreciation of immigration dominated. There was a hegemonic discourse on the economic necessity of immigration. Immigrants were discussed as taking two particularly appreciated roles in society: workers, and participants in local civic and cultural life. When discussed as refugees/asylum-seekers and Muslims, they were more prone to be rhetorically connected to economic burdens, security threats, and irreconcilable cultural differences. Case differences correlated with differing editorial philosophies regarding what statements about minorities are acceptable or desirable to print. Also, with whether or not districts' municipal self-representation material underscored the importance of immigration and multiculturalism. The latter is relatable to specifics of local history. Larger numbers of asylum seekers settled in local reception centres were, to some extent, associated with larger numbers of immigration critical texts. Case differences did not correlate with voting differences, or local differences in numbers of immigrants. The global economic crisis did not noticeably affect discursive tendencies. A right-wing terrorist attack in 2011 led to a confrontation with immigration-critics in the one newspaper that had earlier carried critical articulations to any notable extent.