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Article In: Journal of Language and Politics: Online-First Articles

The normalization of liquid racism in migrant narratives

Evidence from Greek data

ORCiD logo with link | University of Patras: Panepistemio Patron
 | University of Patras
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Abstract
This study critically examines how racist representations of migrants are subtly normalized in Greek parliamentary, media, and NGO narrative texts, often under the guise of empathy and solidarity. Drawing on Krzyżanowski, Michał. 2020. “Discursive Shifts and the Normalisation of Racism: Imaginaries of Immigration, Moral Panics and the Discourse of Contemporary Right-wing Populism.” Social Semiotics 30 (4): 503–527. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar model of discursive shift and De Fina, Anna. 2020. “Doing Narrative Analysis from a Narratives-as-practices Perspective.” Narrative Inquiry 31 (3): 49–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar narrative-as-practice approach, the analysis reveals how migrants are recurrently portrayed as vulnerable victims and ideal objects of assimilation. These narrative representations serve to enact, perpetuate, and normalize a subtle form of racism, i.e. liquid racism ( (eds). 2024. Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism. In between Antiracist and Racist Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), which emerges in ostensibly anti-racist texts. By unpacking the discursive processes that sustain this normalization, the study seeks to contribute to debates on language and politics, highlighting how discourse can implicitly legitimize racist norms about who is (not) “deserving” support and acceptance.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Normalization of racism and the discursive processes involved
    • 2.1The normalization of racism: The case of liquid racism
    • 2.2Normalization, recontextualization and intertextuality
  • 3.Research aims and data: Focusing on Greek migrant narratives
  • 4.Analytical framework
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Enactment of liquid racism through the emergence of migrant narratives
    • 5.2Perpetuation of liquid racism through the wholeness of migrant narratives
    • 5.3Normalization of liquid racism through the narrative connectivity
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
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