Migration and Education in the media: a discourse analysis of the press in France and England

Welply, Oakleigh

Abstract

This chapter critically examines the framing of migration and education in France and England in public discourse, in policy and media. Historically presented as “pole opposites” in terms of their philosophies of integration, France and England in fact present multiple points of convergence with regard to migration and education. The countries’ colonial histories, their monocultural and monolingual school systems and the recent emergence of populist, far-right and xenophobic discourse contribute to contexts in which narratives of the “threatening immigrant Other” permeate social imaginaries around Otherness and migration. Against this increasingly hostile background, education is given a central, yet paradoxical role. On the one hand, schools are accused of failing integration by not equipping children with the necessary cultural and linguistic skills necessary for becoming future citizens and participating in democratic societies. On the other hand, educational systems are invested with the goal of furthering “successful” integration to address the perceived rise in communitarianism and foster a new sense of national unity. Educational initiatives in recent years in both countries have been caught within these tensions: trying at the same time to reenforce national(ist) values through curricular changes (Fundamental British Values in the UK; Grande Mobilisation pour les Valeurs de la République in France) whilst promoting new ways of being inclusive towards linguistically and religiously diverse school populations. This chapter will examine these different (yet convergent) approaches to migration and education through a critical review of media and policy discourse since 2000.

Citation

Welply, O. (2023). Migration and Education in the media: a discourse analysis of the press in France and England. In H. Pinson, N. Bunar, & D. Devine (Eds.), Research Handbook on Migration and Education (434-448). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839106361.00039

• Acceptance Date: Sep 20, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Dec 1, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2022
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Pages: 434-448
• Series Title: Elgar Handbooks in Migration
• Book Title: Research Handbook on Migration and Education
• Chapter Number: 30
• ISBN: 9781839106354
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839106361.00039
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1649636