From ‘angels of the sea’ to ‘smugglers' accomplices’: the politicisation of the sovereignist discourse against humanitarian NGOs

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Dario Lucchesi, Andrea Cerase
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/2
Language Italian Pages 38 P. 153-190 File size 358 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2023-002009
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Starting with a corpus of over eight hundred thousand tweets, the paper analyzes the communication of Italian politicians with respect to the NGO debate by investigating its progressive criminalization. Through a qualitative-quantitative approach involving the integration of digital methods with the tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study aims to find the convergence between the criminalization of NGOs, the articulation of the notion of sovereignty and, more generally, to remark the media representations of migration phenomena in relation to political processes. The analysis focused on metrics and discursive strategies brought into play by politicians highlighting the central role of those from the sovereignist area in the criminalization of NGOs. The latter emerges as a “politicizing moment” capable of aligning the sea rescue debate with the political field and protagonists, contributing to the removal of the faces and voices of migrants and asylum seekers from the debate.

Keywords: migrations; NGO; political communication; politicization; sovereignism.

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Dario Lucchesi, Andrea Cerase, Da "angeli del mare" a "complici dei trafficanti": la politicizzazione del discorso sovranista contro le ONG umanitarie in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2023, pp 153-190, DOI: 10.3280/MM2023-002009