Dehumanising people seeking asylum
JVL Introduction
An elegant dissection of how the language used about asylum seekers is constructed to demonise refugees in general.
For example:
“Some people say…” is a rhetorical trick that allows the speaker to launder a view as something someone else over there is saying while pretending they are “simply asking questions”. It is only an “open, calm, [and] fact-based discussion” to Nick Robinson because he feels safe to assume he will never have to flee across borders or have a journalist ponder if he looks enough like an asylum seeker to deserve help.
This article was originally published by Conquest of the Useless on Tue 1 Nov 2022. Read the original here.
Jackboots at the despatch box and in the comment section
In the Commons and from commentators, dehumanising people seeking asylum is business as usual.
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The unpalatable reality is that it is a vote winner.
Are you an Asylum Seeker or an Economic Migrant? What’s in a name? Is there any point to economic borders?
Nick Robinson’s Jewish grandparents were refugees from Nazi Germany.
As for ‘some people say’ anybody could easily challenge that by saying ‘who, how many?’
It rarely happens though.
Politicians should be in the business of persuading and not simply pandering.
I seem to remember some years ago, Quentin Letts was on Channel 5 news and saying how Blair must respond to public opinion on the issue of asylum seekers.
Rory Bremner also appeared and, as I recall, had a right go at him.
I think he said: “Oh, so it doesn’t matter what the facts are?”