Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T22:42:34.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Public discourse on minorities: how discursive opportunities shape representative patterns in the Netherlands and the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Nermin Aydemir  and
Rens Vliegenthart
Nermin Aydemir
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya, Turkey. Email: nermin.aydemir@antalya.edu.tr
Rens Vliegenthart
Affiliation:
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent literature on discursive opportunities shows broad consensus on the importance of media communication in determining the success of minority mobilization. However, the impact of media discourse on formal forms of political participation is less clear. This article examines to what extent, if any, media coverage on immigrant minorities shapes the parliamentary activities of “minority representatives” in the Netherlands and the UK. We investigate whether salience and tone on minorities have impact on how often and in what ways minority members of parliament address ethnic and/or religious constituencies. To study this relationship between media coverage and parliamentary activity, we conduct two separate content analyses of parliamentary questions and newspapers between 2002 and 2012 in the Netherlands and the UK. Multivariate analyses reveal that a more negative tone in newspaper coverage results in more suppressive framing in the Dutch parliament. Our findings for the British case indicate a negative effect of media salience and minority presence on parliamentary salience.

Keywords

discursive opportunitiesminoritypolitical representationthe Netherlandsthe UK
Type
Special Section: Representation of minorities: perspectives and challenges Guest Editors: Licia Cianetti and Jelena Lončar
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 237 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aydemir, Nermin, and Vliegenthart, Rens. 2016. “Minority Representatives in the Netherlands: Supporting, Silencing, or Suppressing?” Parliamentary Affairs 69 (1): 73–92.Google Scholar
Bird, Karen. 2005. “The Political Representation of Visible Minorities in Electoral Democracies: A Comparison of France, Denmark, and Canada.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 11 (4): 425–465.Google Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene. 2013. “Accessing the Corridors of Power: Puzzles and Pathways to Understanding Minority Representation.” West European Politics 36 (3): 652–670.Google Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene, and Schönwälder, Karen. 2013. “Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Representation in Europe: Conceptual Challenges and Theoretical Approaches.” West European Politics 36 (3): 564–579.Google Scholar
Bonjour, Saskia, and Lettinga, Doutje. 2012. “Political Debates on Islamic Headscarves and Civic Integration Abroad in France and the Netherlands: What Can Models Explain?” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 10 (3): 260–278.Google Scholar
Carol, Sarah and Koopmans, Ruud. 2013. “Dynamics of Contestation over Islamic Religious Rights in Western Europe.” Ethnicities 13 (2): 165–190.Google Scholar
Celis, Karen, Childs, Sarah, Kantola, Johanna, and Lena Krook, Mona. 2008. “Rethinking Women's Substantive Representation.” Representation. 44 (2): 99–110.Google Scholar
Cinalli, Manlio, and Giugni, Marco. 2011. “Institutional Opportunities, Discursive Opportunities and the Political Participation of Migrants in European Cities.” In Social Capital, Political Participation and Migration in Europe, edited by Cinalli, Manlio and Giugni, Marco, 43–62. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cinalli, Manlio, and Giugni, Marco. 2013. “Political Opportunities, Citizenship Models and Political Claim-Making Over Islam.” Ethnicities 13 (2): 147–164.Google Scholar
De Wit, Thom Duyvené, and Koopmans, Ruud. 2005. “The Integration of Ethnic Minorities into Political Culture: The Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain Compared.” Acta Politica 40 (1): 50–73.Google Scholar
Entman, Robert M. 1993. “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.” Journal of Communication 43 (4): 51–58.Google Scholar
Entzinger, Han. 2003. “The Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism: The Case of the Netherlands.” In Toward Assimilation and Citizenship, edited by Catherine Collomp, Christian Jopkke, and Morawaska, Ewa, 59–86. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ferree, Myra Marx. 2002. Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, Mark N., and Norton, Philip. 1993. Parliamentary Questions: For the Study of Parliament Group. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gardener, D., and Connolly, H. 2005. Who Are the Other Ethnic Groups. London: Office for National Statistics.Google Scholar
Giugni, Marco. 2011. “Political Opportunity: Still a Useful Concept?” In Contention and Trust in Cities and States, edited by Hanagan, Michael and Tilly, Chris, 271–285. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 2001. “Repression and the Public Sphere. Discursive Opportunities for Repression against the Extreme Right in Germany in the 1990s.” Paper presented at the Conference on ‘Mobilization and Repression: What We Know and Where We Should Go From Here?', Maryland, June 21–24.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 2004a. “Migrant Mobilisation and Political Opportunities: Variation among German Cities and a Comparison with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30 (3): 449–470.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 2004b. “Movements and Media: Selection Processes and Evolutionary Dynamics in the Public Sphere.” Theory and Society 33 (3): 367–391.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud, and Olzak, Susan. 2004. “Discursive Opportunities and the Evolution of Right-Wing Violence in Germany.” American Journal of Sociology 110 (1): 198–230.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud, and Statham, Paul. 1999a. “Challenging the Liberal Nation-State? Post-Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and the Collective Claims Making of Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Britain and Germany.” American Journal of Sociology 105 (3): 652–696.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud, and Statham, Paul. 1999b. “Political Claims Analysis: Integrating Protest Event and Political Discourse Approaches.” Mobilization 4 (2): 203–221.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 2006. Tradeoffs Between Equality and Difference: The crisis of Dutch multiculturalism in cross-national perspective. Copenhagen: DIIS.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud and Statham, Paul. 2000. Challenging Immigration and Ethnic Relations Politics: Comparative European Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud, Statham, Paul, Giugni, Marco, and Passy, Florence. 2005. Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
McCombs, Maxwell E., and Shaw, Donald L. 1972. “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media.” Public Opinion Quarterly 36 (2): 176–187.Google Scholar
Meer, Nasar, and Modood, Tariq. 2009. “The Multicultural State We're in: Muslims, ‘Multi-Culture’ and the “Civic Re-Balancing” of British Multiculturalism.” Political Studies 57 (3): 473–497.Google Scholar
Meyer, David S. and Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1996. “Movements, Counter Movements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity.” American Journal of Sociology 101 (6): 1628–1660.Google Scholar
Michon, Laura, and Vermeulen, Floris. 2013. “Explaining Different Trajectories in Immigrant Political Integration: Moroccans and Turks in Amsterdam.” West European Politics 36 (3): 597–614.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna Fenichel. 1967. The Concept of Representation. California: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Roggeband, Conny and Vliegenthart, Rens. 2007. “Divergent Framing: The Evolution of the Public Debate on Migration and Integration in the Dutch Parliament and Media, 1995–2004.” West European Politics 30 (3): 524–548.Google Scholar
Roodenburg, Hans, Euwals, Rob, and ter Rele, Harry. 2003. Immigration and the Dutch Economy. The Hague: CPB.Google Scholar
Russo, Federico, and Wiberg, Matti. 2010. “Parliamentary Questioning in 17 European Parliaments: Some Steps towards Comparison.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 16 (2): 215–232.Google Scholar
Saalfeld, Thomas. 2011. “Parliamentary Questions as Instruments of Substantive Representation: Visible Minorities in the UK House of Commons, 2005–10.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 17 (3): 271–289.Google Scholar
Saalfeld, Thomas, and Bischof, Daniel. 2013. “Minority-Ethnic MPs and the Substantive Representation of Minority Interests in the House of Commons, 2005–2011.” Parliamentary Affairs 66 (2): 305–328.Google Scholar
Saalfeld, Thomas, and Kyriakopoulou, Kalliopi. 2011. “Minority MPs in the British House of Commons.” In The Political Representation of Immigrants and Minorities: Voters, Parties and Parliaments in Liberal Democracies, edited by Karen Bird, Thomas Saalfeld, and Wüst, Andreas. M., 207–229. Oxon and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Saggar, Shamit. 2013. “Bending Without Breaking the Mould: Race and Political Representation in the United Kingdom.” Patterns of Prejudice 47 (1): 69–93.Google Scholar
Saggar, Shamit, and Geddes, Andrew. 2000. “Negative and Positive Racialisation: Re-examining Ethnic Minority Political Representation in the UK.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26 (1): 25–44.Google Scholar
Saward, Michael. 2006. “The Representative Claim.” Contemporary Political Theory 5 (3): 297–318.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Vivien A. 2010. “Taking Ideas and Discourse Seriously: Explaining Change through Discursive Institutionalism as the Fourth ‘New Institutionalism'.” European Political Science Review 2 (1): 1–25.Google Scholar
Schönwälder, Karen. 2013. “Immigrant Representation in Germany's Regional States: The Puzzle of Uneven Dynamics.” West European Politics 36 (3): 634–651.Google Scholar
Snow, David A. 2008. “Elaborating the Discursive Contexts of Framing: Discursive Fields and Spaces.” In Studies in Symbolic Interaction, edited by Denzin, Norman K., 3–28. Bingley: Emarald Group Publishing.Google Scholar
Thrasher, Michael, Borisyuk, Galina, Railings, Colin, and Shears, Mary. 2013. “BAME Candidates in Local Elections in Britain.” Parliamentary Affairs 66 (2): 286–304.Google Scholar
Togeby, Lise. 2008. “The Political Representation of Ethnic Minorities: Denmark as a Deviant Case.” Party Politics 14 (3): 325–343.Google Scholar
Vink, Maarten P. 2007. “Dutch Multiculturalism Beyond the Pillarisation Myth.” Political Studies Review 5 (3): 337–350.Google Scholar
Vliegenthart, Rens, and Roggeband, Conny. 2007. “Framing Immigration and Integration: Relationships between Press and Parliament in the Netherlands.” International Communication Gazette 69 (3): 295–319.Google Scholar
Rens, Vliegenthart, Walgrave, Stefaan, Baumgartner, Frank R., Bevan, Shaun, Breunig, Christian, Brouard, Sylvain, Chaqués Bonafont, Laura, et al. 2016. “Do the Media Set the Parliamentary Agenda? A Comparative Study in Seven Countries.” European Journal of Political Research 55 (2): 283–301.Google Scholar
Walgrave, Stefaan, and Van Aelst, Peter. 2006. “The Contingency of the Mass Media's Political Agenda Setting Power: Toward a Preliminary Theory.” Journal of Communication 56 (1): 88–109.Google Scholar
Walgrave, Stefaan, Soraka, Stuart and Nuytemans, Michiel. 2008. “The Mass Media's Political Agenda-Setting Power: A Longitudinal Analysis of Media, Parliament, and Government in Belgium (1993 to 2000).” Comparative Political Studies 41 (6): 814–836.Google Scholar
Wüst, Andreas M. 2014. “A Lasting Impact? On the Legislative Activities of Immigrant-Origin Parliamentarians in Germany.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 20 (4): 495–515.Google Scholar