What is it about?
Has the immigration debate in the United States changed over the past century? This paper analyzes the metaphors used in the immigration debate and compares three sources: congressional debates from the 1920s, a speech by President Obama, and a speech by President Trump. It maps and compares everyone's arguments. Interestingly, the debate today is somewhat similar to the debate a century ago.
Featured Image
Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The analysis adds a historical perspective to the immigration debate in America, but it also helps us understand the underlying arguments of both sides and how they have changed (or remained unchanged) over time. This is especially important as political polarization has increased in the United States, and as the immigration debate has once again come to the fore of public discourse.
Perspectives
After a more than a year of examining speeches, trying to map out all of the speakers' many metaphors, and then attempting to write coherently about said metaphors, I hope this article is thought-provoking. Further than that, I also would like it to provide readers with a different way to look at the immigration debate.
Graham Smith
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Cattle, progress, and a victimized nation, Metaphor and the Social World, November 2019, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/msw.18011.smi.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
