The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media
In the last decade’s media discourse, particular Arab immigrant groups received the name ‘Arab clans’ and have been portrayed as criminal kinship networks irrespective of actual involvement in crime. We question how ‘Arab clans’ are categorized, criminalized, and racialized in the German media. To a...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-02-01
|
| Series: | Social Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/2/104 |
| _version_ | 1797618163970473984 |
|---|---|
| author | Özgür Özvatan Bastian Neuhauser Gökçe Yurdakul |
| author_facet | Özgür Özvatan Bastian Neuhauser Gökçe Yurdakul |
| author_sort | Özgür Özvatan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the last decade’s media discourse, particular Arab immigrant groups received the name ‘Arab clans’ and have been portrayed as criminal kinship networks irrespective of actual involvement in crime. We question how ‘Arab clans’ are categorized, criminalized, and racialized in the German media. To answer this question, we collected clan-related mainstream media articles published between 2010 and 2020. Our first-step quantitative topic modeling of ‘clan’ coverage (n = 23,893) shows that the discourse about ‘Arab clans’ is situated as the most racialized and criminalized vis-à-vis other ‘clan’ discourses and is channeled through three macro topics: law and order, family and kinship, and criminal groupness. Second, to explore the deeper meaning of the discourse about ‘Arab clans’ by juxtaposing corpus linguistics and novel narrative approaches to the discourse-historical approach, we qualitatively analyzed 97 text passages extracted with the keywords in context search (KWIC). Our analysis reveals three prevalent argumentative strategies (Arab clan immigration out of control, Arab clans as enclaves, policing Arab clans) embedded in a media narrative of ethnonational rebirth: a story of Germany’s present-day need (‘moral panic’) to police and repel the threats associated with ‘the Arab clan Other’ in order for a celebratory return to a nostalgically idealized pre-Arab-immigration social/moral order. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:09:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ce8f47c1dbca49ffa4195fe10b246cb8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:09:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-ce8f47c1dbca49ffa4195fe10b246cb82023-11-16T23:16:30ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602023-02-0112210410.3390/socsci12020104The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German MediaÖzgür Özvatan0Bastian Neuhauser1Gökçe Yurdakul2Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10117 Berlin, GermanyBerlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10117 Berlin, GermanyBerlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10117 Berlin, GermanyIn the last decade’s media discourse, particular Arab immigrant groups received the name ‘Arab clans’ and have been portrayed as criminal kinship networks irrespective of actual involvement in crime. We question how ‘Arab clans’ are categorized, criminalized, and racialized in the German media. To answer this question, we collected clan-related mainstream media articles published between 2010 and 2020. Our first-step quantitative topic modeling of ‘clan’ coverage (n = 23,893) shows that the discourse about ‘Arab clans’ is situated as the most racialized and criminalized vis-à-vis other ‘clan’ discourses and is channeled through three macro topics: law and order, family and kinship, and criminal groupness. Second, to explore the deeper meaning of the discourse about ‘Arab clans’ by juxtaposing corpus linguistics and novel narrative approaches to the discourse-historical approach, we qualitatively analyzed 97 text passages extracted with the keywords in context search (KWIC). Our analysis reveals three prevalent argumentative strategies (Arab clan immigration out of control, Arab clans as enclaves, policing Arab clans) embedded in a media narrative of ethnonational rebirth: a story of Germany’s present-day need (‘moral panic’) to police and repel the threats associated with ‘the Arab clan Other’ in order for a celebratory return to a nostalgically idealized pre-Arab-immigration social/moral order.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/2/104mediacritical discourse analysiscorpus linguisticsracismcrimeimmigrants |
| spellingShingle | Özgür Özvatan Bastian Neuhauser Gökçe Yurdakul The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media Social Sciences media critical discourse analysis corpus linguistics racism crime immigrants |
| title | The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media |
| title_full | The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media |
| title_fullStr | The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media |
| title_short | The ‘Arab Clans’ Discourse: Narrating Racialization, Kinship, and Crime in the German Media |
| title_sort | arab clans discourse narrating racialization kinship and crime in the german media |
| topic | media critical discourse analysis corpus linguistics racism crime immigrants |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/2/104 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ozgurozvatan thearabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia AT bastianneuhauser thearabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia AT gokceyurdakul thearabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia AT ozgurozvatan arabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia AT bastianneuhauser arabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia AT gokceyurdakul arabclansdiscoursenarratingracializationkinshipandcrimeinthegermanmedia |