Representación de sujetos que han migrado y desplazamientos territoriales

aproximación discursiva desde el análisis de un libro de texto para la enseñanza secundaria argentina

Abstract

In this paper we view the textbook as a complex discursive object which presents a particular interpretation of the pre-established program of studies and provides ideological viewpoints of the contents it tackles. Within these guidelines, we propose to analyze how migratory processes and the subjects who have migrated are constructed in a Social Science textbook currently in use in high schools in Argentina. To achieve this aim and within the framework of a Historical Discourse Approach, we focus on the identification of contents and topics in order to trace discursive strategies of naming, arguing and predicating, as well as linguistic realizations and devices used in our text sample. At the level of content, the analysis shows direct articulation between migration and poverty. Thus, certain naming strategies, such as metaphors, lead to an association between migratory processes and «unrest«, while the use of metonymic displacement nominalizes the processes erasing the subjects. The predicates show stereotypical characteristics and responsibility attributions about social problems, strengthening the bond between poverty and precariousness, and the recurrence of an argumentative strategy which highlights advantage is used to explain migratory processes in economic terms, considering the supposed benefits for those who have been involved in territorial displacements. Therefore, we can mention the existence of stereotypes and prejudice when dealing with subjects and migratory processes as they appear in this book, associated with a simplistic approach to the aforementioned phenomena without including enough references to the situations and processes which originate, condition or surround them.