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`Diversity' as enacted in US immigration politics and law: a corpus-based approach

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS, USA, tgales{at}ucdavis.edu

As a national institution, the law is held to be above prejudice and bias (Gibbons, 1994). However, in recent years, as public awareness of `homeland security' has been heightened and borders have been tightened, the laws regarding immigration have come under close scrutiny. This article explores the language of immigration laws that target the notion of `diversity' and the political contexts in which those laws were created. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: Is there prejudice or bias in US immigration laws? If so, from where do those negative ideologies arise? And, finally, what does `diversity' actually mean in the context of US immigration? This analysis, which utilizes the tools of corpus and appraisal analysis, shows how contradictory positions surrounding the ideology of diversity exist within seemingly positive political discourses and demonstrates how those underlying judgements about diversity interact with and shape the very language of the laws that ensue.

Key Words: appraisal analysis • corpus analysis • discourse analysis • diversity • immigration • law • politics • SFL

Discourse & Society, Vol. 20, No. 2, 223-240 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0957926508099003


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