Borderless fear? : how right-wing populism aligns in affectively framing migration as a security threat in Austria and Slovenia

Thiele, Daniel (author), Pajnik, Mojca (author), Sauer, Birgit (author), Šori, Iztok (author)

Studies have highlighted differences between right-wing populism in Western and Central Eastern Europe but suggested that discourses have been converging since the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015. This article examines this claim by focusing on right-wing populist frames and affective communication on migration in Austria and Slovenia. Taking a communication-centred approach, the study is based on a critical frame analysis of 70 speeches from far-right to centre-right parties in parliamentary debates on migration between 2015 and 2019. The results show that right-wing populist discourses in the two adjacent countries have aligned in appealing to affects, particularly to fear and in framing migration as a threat to security and culture. Despite differences in mobilizing affects, the findings indicate a mutual alignment of right-wing populism beyond borders, signalling a potential risk of a broader right-wing populist bloc unified by fear of migration.

• Language: English
• Keywords: right-wing populism, migration, discourse, affects, framing, Austria, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 176-196
• Numbering: Vol. 23, issue 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-153178
• UDC: 329
• ISSN on article: 1569-2159
• DOI: 10.1075/jlp.22026.thi
• COBISS.SI-ID: 177473027
• Publication date in RUL: 20.12.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of language and politics
• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• ISSN: 1569-2159
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512505881

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: populizem, desnica (politične vede), izseljevanje in priseljevanje, analiza diskurza, Avstrija, Slovenija