News about the nation-state and its citizens is an important component of the
discourse of nationhood, and its representations of migrant groups can refract relations
of power, constructing subject positions that may locate them in the periphery of this
imagined community. These mediated identities construct public perception, and by
internalizing them, migrant learners can invest in their learning and pursue life trajectories
in ways that reflect this positioning. To demonstrate how language and images in the
news can position minorities, this paper provides a critical discourse analysis of reports
from several major Canadian newspapers that provide accounts of Filipino immigrants,
Canada’s fourth largest, but significantly under-researched, visible minority. Recognizing
the power of media to promote specific ways of thinking, this paper recommends a
critical pedagogy that develops a sharper awareness of how media operates and how
migration serves the needs of the nation-state. It seeks to provide a framework through
which migrant learners can examine and challenge the very discourses that position
them.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofUnreviewedGraduat
