The politics of categorization - political representatives with immigrant background between “the other” and “standing for”
- Autor(en)
- Sieglinde Rosenberger, Iris Stöckl
- Abstrakt
How is the category immigrant background (IB) politically made? Which meanings do political actors ascribe to the term IB and to which extent do these meanings include both connotations of ethnic, religious and cultural otherness and migration-related social and economic experiences? This paper deals with the politics of categorization within the field of political representation of ethnic minorities. It empirically examines the making of the IB category in public discourse about candidates for the 2013 Austrian general elections. Our analytical framework takes its cue from Rogers Brubaker's category pair, analysis and practice, as well as Dvora Yanow's account of categorization. The findings indicate that the politics of categorization along IB is characterized by a boundary contraction of origin and a gender-specific boundary expansion of the IB category to include religion. Regarding the discursive filling IB is used to stigmatize candidates as "the others", but also refers to migration-related experiences, thereby "taming" othering. Still, the IB category rather appears as a burden than as a benefit ascribing cultural difference and signaling "they are not from here".
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Forschungszentrum Religion and Transformation
- Journal
- Politics, Groups and Identities
- Band
- 6
- Seiten
- 217-236
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 20
- ISSN
- 2156-5503
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2016.1194764
- Publikationsdatum
- 05-2016
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 506010 Politikfeldanalyse
- Schlagwörter
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-politics-of-categorization--political-representatives-with-immigrant-background-between-the-other-and-standing-for(cd281b8e-e0e7-49d7-bbce-4d0af05e7f56).html