Journal article
Narratives of Infectious Threat and Contagion Crises in Contemporary Immigration Rhetoric
2020
Abstract
In this essay, we briefly analyze the current shaping of a particular aspect of what we call the “Mexican/Central American/immigrant threat” narrative. Specifically, we consider the notion that Mexican and Central American immigrants are deemed threatening because they are characterized as “diseased”—and this “disease” is presumably contagious. Reference to “disease” has lent a contemporary manifestation to the idea that immigrants mark a crisis or disaster—an angle that politicians have tirelessly worked since the events of September 11, 2001 (though the roots of this idea extend to an earlier point in US history). Trump continued to deploy the image of Mexican immigrants as diseased invaders after his election by talking and tweeting about how these immigrants bring diseases to the United States, placing contagious threats squarely at the US-Mexico international border.
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Details
- Title
- Narratives of Infectious Threat and Contagion Crises in Contemporary Immigration Rhetoric
- Creators
- CARMEN ROSALLY LUGO-LUGO (Author) - Washington State University, Languages, Cultures, and Race, School ofMARY KATHERINE BLOODSWORTH-LUGO (Author) - Washington State University, Languages, Cultures, and Race, School of
- Academic Unit
- Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Department of
- Identifiers
- 99900662037501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article