What is it about?
This paper contextualises and analyses YouTube commenters' contrasting representations of two figures of personhood: 'The static, unmotivated welfare claimant', and 'the dynamic, driven migrant'.
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Why is it important?
The findings make three main contributions to the study of language and politics: 1) It is unusual that migrants are portrayed here in a somewhat positive light, as a new incarnation of the 'model minority' discourse. 2) It shows that the semiotic process of enregistering figures of personhood can be used to explain local inequalities. 3) The linking of mental, spatial, and social mobility brings together several key issues of the contemporary era.
Perspectives
This single-authored paper could not have happened without the help of all the people listed in the acknowledgements section, as well as from Lydia Catedral and Jaspal Naveel Singh, who both offered feedback on earlier versions of the paper.
John Scott Daly
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The static welfare claimant vs. the dynamic migrant, Journal of Language and Politics, May 2024, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jlp.23192.dal.
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