The Role of Language in Anti-Immigrant Prejudice: What Can We Learn from Immigrants’ Historical Experiences?

Abstract

Prejudice remains an unpleasant experience in immigrants’ everyday lives, especially for those of stigmatized groups. In the recurring struggle of various immigrant groups, historical and contemporary events reveal the important role of language in the creation, transmission, and perpetuation of anti-immigrant prejudice. Living in an anti-immigrant climate, immigrants are frequently exposed to stigmatizing language in both political and social discourse. This may be a more significant and frequent experience for immigrants since the beginning of the 2016 United States presidential election. Although it has long been understood that language is inextricably linked with prejudice, the investigation of the role of language in creating, transmitting, and perpetuating anti-immigrant prejudice remains undeveloped in social work research. This paper provides a theoretical explanation of anti-immigrant sentiment by discussing how stigmatization has allowed for immigrants to be subjected to various forms of prejudice throughout history. Building upon prior theoretical concepts of stigma, this paper argues that being an immigrant is a stigma. This paper reviews historical and contemporary cases of prejudice against immigrants to provide evidence for how stigmatizing language transmits and perpetuates anti-immigrant prejudice in the United States and building upon prior stigma theories, defines one’s status of an immigrant to be form of stigma itself. The paper concludes with a call for appreciable attention to the role of language in anti-immigrant prejudice and the need for social workers to advocate for immigrants within higher education and in our communities to reduce such stigma though social work practice, education and research.

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A phenomenological study of the experience of tribal stigma among documented male Venezuelan migrants in Trinidad

“…Figure 2 is an adaptation of the definitions of stigmatisation contained in the works of Link and Phelan (2001), Chen et al (2011), andWei et al (2019). However, Link and Phelan (2001) examined the definition of Goffman (1963).…”

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“…The current sociopolitical context increases the urgency for school counselors to be "mindful of school and community perceptions of the treatment of underrepresented groups and understand the importance of collaborating with school and community groups to help all students succeed" (ASCA, 2018a). Language used to describe immigrants can often be used to villainize, pathologize, and stigmatize (Wei et al, 2019), negating the cultural wealth of immigrant-origin students and families. CCW provides a framework for focusing on the strengths of these students and how they draw upon their cultural assets and networks to navigate new and potentially hostile environments.…”