Affect and Discrimination in Media Discourses of Migration in Germany

This research analyzes the German term migrationshintergrund (MH; “migration background”), looking at data from 2005 to 2023 in newspapers and X. In the newspaper data, othering discourses are dominant. Counter-discourses noting discrimination in German society appear only infrequently. This pattern reproduces the affective-discursive canon of legitimizing fear and resentment of migrants and reproducing feelings of superiority for the imagined majority. Although the discourses are much the same in the X data, there are some differences in the details. There is a higher rate of counter-discourses that challenge the cultural superiority of the (ethnic) majority and resist the framing of people with a migration background as a legitimate source of fear and resentment. The othering discourse remains more strongly represented but appears in some different ways. In the early years in the X data, the most common use was mocking “political correctness” by applying MH to non-human entities. There are also tweets that claim reverse discrimination, heightening the emotional response of fear and resentment. Overall, the X data can be seen as more polarizing, showing a different role for participatory media in the circulation of affective discourses.