Borders, Fences, and Limits—Protecting Austria From Refugees:Metadiscursive Negotiation of Meaning in the Current Refugee Crisis

The so-called refugee crisis presents a field of discursive struggle over meanings in politics. In Austria, mediatized politics in 2015 and 2016 was dominated by metadiscursive negotiation of terminology related to building a border fence and setting a maximum limit on refugees. Both issues raised serious ideological and legal concerns and were thus largely euphemized; as responses to ever-increasing pressure from the political right, however, they were also intended as signals to voters. This article presents a discourse-historical study of the normalization of restrictive policies in the theoretical framework of border and body politics, otherness, and mediatization

Religious organisations as political actors in the context of migration: Islam and orthodoxy in Austria

This paper investigates how immigration and concerns over integration are changing established modes of cooperation between church and state in Austria. Focusing on the relationship between officially recognised Muslim and Eastern Orthodox organizations and the state, we examine how the mounting politicisation of immigrant integration has led the state to collaborate with minority religious organisations as representatives of immigrants and is increasing the opportunities for such religious groups to be visible and express voice in the public sphere. Based on interviews, policy documents and literature, we analyse how the modes of cooperation between religious organisations and the state are moving from a narrow and institutionalised collaboration on policy issues exclusively related to religion to a broader but more fluid and uncertain form of symbolic cooperation. We argue that, within this modified setting, recognised minority religious organisations are gradually assuming the function of political entrepreneurs who speak for the entire immigrant community. This, in turn, creates tensions within and between religious groups, and risks overstating religion as a factor in the integration of immigrants. Our comparison between Muslim and Eastern Orthodox religious organisations shows that, notwithstanding the greater salience of Islam, they both benefit from the new role of religion in integration issues.© 2010 Taylor & Francis

Grenzen, Zäune und Obergrenzen – Österreich in der „Flüchtlingskrise“:Metadiskursive Begriffsaushandlungen in der mediatisierten Politik

Die sogenannte „Flüchtlingskrise“ ist seit 2015 Bezugspunkt zahlreicher diskursiver Konflikte im Bereich der Politik. In Österreich war die mediatisierte Politik in den Jahren 2015 und 2016 geprägt von metadiskursiven Begriffsaushandlungen im Zusammenhang mit der Errichtung eines Grenzzauns und der Festlegung einer Obergrenze für Geflüchtete. Beide Themenbereiche brachten ernsthafte ideologische und rechtliche Bedenken auf und wurden daher weitgehend euphemisiert bzw. beschönigt. Als Reaktion auf den wachsenden Druck der politischen Rechten waren die Äußerungen zu beiden Themen aber auch als Signale an die Wähler gedacht. Dieser Artikel präsentiert eine diskurshistorische Studie zur Normalisierung restriktiver Politik im theoretischen Rahmen von Grenz- und Körperpolitik, der Darstellung des „Anderen“ und der Mediatisierung politischer Prozesse