New Britons and New Racism

The aim of this paper is to show that The new Britons, a newspaper article on Polish immigrants in the UK that claims to be objective and unbiased, does in fact raise resentment against immigration, particularly reproduce contemporary forms of racism. Drawing on Norman Fairclough and Teun A. van Dijk, this work will apply to explore how The new Britons manipulates from Poland, and

critical discourse analysis

language to perpetuate racist discourses. My interest in this topic was sparked by a complaint from the Polish Federation of Great Britain to the Press Complaints Commission accusing the Daily Mail of defaming Polish residents in the UK. The Daily Mail dismissed this claim and pointed out that they had published plenty of positive stories about Polish immigrants, mentioning The new Britons by Fiona Barton in particular, which, they said, had a very balanced and fair assessment of the virtues of Polish immigrants. However, nothing could be further from the truth, as this analysis of the lexical choices and grammatical structures of the article will intend to reveal . The new Britons, by Fiona Barton, was published in May 2006, and claims to be a major three-part investigation on one of the biggest waves of immigration in modern times, namely the Polish migration to Great Britain after the year New Britons is a popular expression

2004, when Poland joined the EU.

usually used by the media to refer to people who become British citizens. For the purpose of this study, I will only analyze the first article of the series. The article opens with a picturesque description of a Polskie Delikatesy

-mentioned in Polish as are also some of the foods, like kabanos sausages and Polski chleb (bread, the writer kindly translates for us) - which, not by chance, ends with the item indecipherable magazines. The next thing we learn is that Fiona Barton asks a question and the shop assistant looks at her blankly, shrugs and shakes her head, the journalist then turns to the customers and they are equally puzzled. So`, the writer ends her paragraph, unable to make myself understood, I retreat. It is a long process of meaning

extension that

starts with the Polish terms, continues with words like

indecipherable, blankly, puzzled, not understood, and reaches its full meaning in the following paragraph in the word foreigner: I feel like a foreigner, but this is not Warsaw, Kracow or Gdansk. I am in Southampton`. This dichotomy they vs. I / we is already present in the lead paragraph they deprive Britons of jobs and houses , they are adding 300 million to the economy - and will continue to appear all throughout the article, but nowhere in the whole text will it be so explicitly and dramatically expressed as in these introductory paragraphs. The inversion of roles by which I becomes the other I feel like a foreigner - is a very effective linguistic device for indirectly representing a minority group as invaders; image already drafted in the phrase unable to make myself understood, I retreat, by the choice of the verb retreat, from the lexical field of war and which literally means to move away from a place or an enemy because you are in danger or because you have been defeated. It is also very interesting to note that after this personal experience narrative, Fiona Barton will never again express her feelings or views directly, but will rather masquerade as an objective witness passively describing facts and events. Only when it comes to the Government will she emphatically show her disapproval of immigration policies, unreliable official figures of Poles in the UK, and control of illegal immigrants. In fact, all over the text the journalist assumes the attitude of someone who is searching for the truth concerning Polish

immigration, whether it is beneficial or negative for the British people, and describing a picture of contrasts. There are only two facts she presents as absolute truths: What is indisputable is that Southampton is experiencing the biggest influx of foreigners in its history, and But one thing is certain - the outcome of this 'open door' policy is nowhere near as clear cut as the Government would have us believe. Figures and statistics abound in the article: One in ten of the 220,000

population is now believed to be Polish ; No one knows exactly how many Poles live in the city but estimates start with "at least 10,000 and rise to 30,000; The largest wave of immigration for at least 300 years ; Home Office figures show that 205,000 Poles have come here to work since May 2004 ; and so on. However, while those figures supplied by economists - Economists say they

(the Poles) are adding 300million to the economy and keeping interest rates down are not doubted, those provided by the Government regarding the number of Polish immigrants are said to be estimative or unreliable. This does not only contribute to undermine the Government s credibility but also to reinforce the image, pervasive in the text, of Polish immigration as a mass, which literally means a large coherent body of matter without a definite shape. This terrifying metaphor is overtly expressed in the text with such expressions as the biggest influx of foreigners in its (Southamptons) history, one of the biggest waves of immigration in modern times and this mass exodus (from Poland) of young, ambitious workers. Furthermore, we are told that the Government is no longer bothering to hunt hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and that those numbers are likely to increase if Bulgaria and Romania join the EU in January next year. The use of the verb to hunt in connection with illegal immigrants is revealing, as if the autochthonous, as opposed to the new, Britons were dealing either with wild animals or criminals. However, not once in the article does the journalist or any British citizen interviewed employ derogatory terms against the Poles, and only on three instances critical views of Polish immigration are voiced. These are not expressed by the writer directly, but as opinions gathered by her in the course of her investigation. W e are told, there are, naturally, those who resent the intrusion, as for example Chris Carter, who has worked in the family hardware shop in Shirley since he was a boy and nervously says: "When I am cycling to work in the morning, it is very unusual to hear anyone speaking English. I think it is getting a bit out of hand but if you dare to say so, you lay yourself open to being accused of being a racist. I like the Polish people but it is all too much."; or Others mutter that the newcomers are a drain on the state. Interestingly,

the only explicit critic of Poles comes from a man of the original Polish community in Southampton, Jan Kosniowski, who explains that the main

friction caused by the immigration is between the old and new Polish immigrants because the old Polish people think the newcomers are drunks and cause trouble. Now, the article does in fact emphasize the virtues of Polish immigrants. Either directly by the writer, who reminds her readers of the phenomenon of the Polish plumber - the hard-working, ever-available tradesman (that) has been

experienced all over Britain; or by those who are interviewed, such as

St

Joseph's headmaster Ben Cassidy, who has nothing but praise for the newcomers: "The children are here to study,()They have a wonderful work ethic and get great support from their parents; Shalil Raichura, a newsagents owner: "The Polish people are good for me economically because they spend money and they don't worry too much about comparing prices"; Arun Sharma, who admires the Polish work ethic and their qualifications ; Landlord Roger Bell, who rents out houses to eight Polish immigrants, echoes the sentiment: They work hard, take any job and get on with things. They are high-calibre people and extremely well qualified"; or Mr. Kosnioswski: employers in this country are surprised at how hard Poles work and they do not argue or question what they are asked to do, they do not have hang-ups about doing jobs that are beneath them. Hard work is seen as noble. Thus, we learn that their most outstanding virtue is that they are hardworking, highly qualified people who never complain. In contrast, we are also informed that a lot of young British people are not interested in, or qualified for, trades or apprenticeships. Ones man meat is another mans poison, the proverb goes and the journalist cleverly manages to bring it into relief: While the middle classes have been full of praise (for Polish immigration), others claim the competition has meant British workers losing out. Last month, unemployment figures climbed to three per cent - the highest since October 2003 - giving fresh ammunition to the critics. Ingeniously enough, Poles main (reported) virtues contribute to the texts prevailing metaphor of the threatening mass of foreign invaders. Poles voices are also heard. In a series of brief interviews they report their experience as immigrants in the UK. We learn, for example that Anna, from Ostrowiec, called her friends to tell them how nice it was ( in the UK), so then they came and phoned their friends Or that her brother loves it here because everyone is so kind and friendly. No one gets cross even though sometimes Polish people are a bit naughty. They drink a bit.. Or that Marta and Pavel, who arrived in England five years ago from Wroclaw, didn't know any English but, Marta says: we learned. I worked in a factory but now I am working in a hotel and we have bought a flat. We wouldn't have been able to buy our own home after five years in Poland. This is where we will stay." However, empathy

between them and the readers will hardly develop as, according to Barton, the optimism of these young entrepreneurs is infectious.

Fiona

In sharp contrast, pity for the autochthonous population is created, since they are presented as foreigners in their own land, who are being deprived of jobs

and houses and are fearful to express their anxiety. Almost at the beginning of the article, and therefore subtly influencing the rest of our reading, Fiona Barton asks her audience: So what is the truth? Is this dynamic new workforce filling a need in Britain, boosting the economy and teaching the indigenous unskilled population about the ethos of hard work? Are these foreigners being welcomed or shunned? I highly doubt that, by the end of this article, the indigenous unskilled population will gladly welcome this dynamic new workforce. In his article New(s) Racism A discourse analytical approach, Teun A. van Dijk declares:
In many respects, contemporary forms of racism are different from the old racism of slavery, segregation, apartheid, lynchings, and systemic discrimination, of white superiority feelings, and of explicit derogation in public discourse and everyday conversation. The New Racism (Barker 1981) wants to be democratic and respectable, and hence first off denies that it is racism. Real Racism, in this framework of thought, exists only among the Extreme Right. In the New Racism minorities are not biologically inferior, but different.

And he will further say: Whether in immigration, employment, housing or education, or even in discrimination, minorities are generally represented as creating difficulties for us, if not in terms of deviance and illegality. All the discourse strategies of The new Britons singled out in this analysis contribute to that view by stressing the otherness of the Poles and characterizing their presence in the UK as a threat, and thus constitute the visible signs of both the article s ideology and the ways discourse is shaped to covertly transmit new forms of racism. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-386567/The-new-Britons.html

Estela Vazquez

REFERENCES

Fairclough, Norman (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman. Van Dijk, Teum A. (1987). Mediating racism. The role of the media in the reproduction of racism. Short version In R. Wodak (Ed.), Language, Power and Ideology , pp. 199-226. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Van Dijk, Teum A. (2000). New(s) Racism. A discourse analytical approach. In: Simon Cottle (Ed.), Ethnic Minorities and the Media. (pp. 33-49). Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.