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cause pe ople to lash out against a

convenient out-group (Esses, Jackson, &

Armstrong, 1998; Stewart , Pi tts , &

O sb o r ne , 2 0 1 1 ; Z a w a d z k i , 1 9 4 8 ) . T h i s

feeling of prejudice is only increased if the

individual perceives that the out-group is

cognitively linked to the source of

d i sc o nt ent ( D em o , 2 0 0 5 ; Z a w a d z k i ,

1948) .

Viewing racia l prejudice as an

accumulation of emotional defense

strategies enables one to understand the

phenomena as a strategy that brings

multiple forces together to define the

characterist ics and parameters of inter-

group dynamics and racia l identi t ies

(Dixon, Schel l , Gi les , & Drogos, 200 8) .

Scapegoat theory is closely tied to the

notion of conflict theory; hostility

towards the out-group wil l arise when the

in-group p erceives a confl ict with the

minority populat ion for scarce resources

(Esses et al . , 1998).

Fol lowing the writ ings of Kenneth

B ur k e ,

C. Allen Carter outlines three

elements of the scapegoat process:

hierarchical insecurity, a fear of death,

and ethical guilt . Hierarchical insecurity

can be simply defined as the feelings of

insecurity that come with being higher on

the ladder of power than others. The

definition of a fear of death is the fear and

insecurity with realizing the inevitability

of one's demise. Finally, ethical guilt can

be defined as the feelings of guilt that are

associated w ith not being able to fo l low

all of the rules and moral guidelines of

society at a l l t ime s. Wh ile Carter mak es

very clear and compell ing dist inct ions

between the ways these three elements

interact with each other, I wou ld argue

that two of the eleme nts can be a ttributed

to the genesis of one: a fear of death. It

does not seem pos sible to have insecurity

within those at the top of a hierarchical

structure witho ut having a fear of losing

one's power, and an imminent fear of

death is associated with this loss of

pow er. Thu s, a fear of death leads to a

sense of insecurity am ong those at the top

of the hierarchical ladder. This feeling of

insecurity leads the hierarchical elite to

enact laws and provisions that l imit the

m o v e m en t o f t h o se per so ns b el o w t h em .

No one is able to honestly follow every

commandment that is set by the forces of

society, thus leaving a sense of ethical

guilt for falling short.

Since, for the purposes of this

study, a general fear of death will be seen

as the gene sis for a ll sca pego ating

project ions, the two commonly ci ted

feel ings that represen t a fear of death,

frustration and hostility, will be used to

measure scapegoating project ions

(Zawadzki , 1948) . Hosti l i ty and

frustrat ion that are embodied by the

majority populous are projected upon a

minority community in six di fferent ways:

1. Indire ct Hostility: This is a

roundabout way of project ing

aggression, usually by devious means.

Common indirect tact ics have been

shown to include practical jokes and

malicious gossip

2. Irritability: This is a read iness to

project negative a tt i tudes w ith the

slightest bit of provocation. This

includes the project ion of rudeness

and exasperation.

3.

Nega tivism: Direct opposit ion that is

most often projected upon authority .

This is most commonly seen as a

refusal to cooperate that may span

from direct to in-direct

no nc o m pl i a nc e .

4. Resen tment: This is know n as any sort

of projected jealousy or hatred toward

o t he r s .

These feel ings of anger usually

refer to either a real or fantasized

mistreatment .

5. Susp icion: This sort of proje ction of

hosti l i ty upon others usually varies

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from a simple feeling of distrust to a

more direct bel ief of others planning

ha r m .

6. Ver bal Hostility: Neg ative feelings that

are expressed in either the style or the

content of speech. The style of speech

would include such vocalic strategies

such as a control over the tonality of

v o ic e .

The content of speech would

include everything from direct threats

of harm to simply bein g o vercri t ica l .

R a c i a l Pr eju d i c e a n d S ym b o l i c A c t i o n

Racism and other prejudicia l

persp ectives, by nature, are v iolat ions of

the hierarchical structures th at a im to

protect the fabric of civility and society

(Asma, 1995; Kenneth Burke, 1966;

M e n e s e s , 2 0 0 3 ; Musolff , 2 007 ) . Wh ile

racism is perceived with i ts approp riate

negativi ty by most of the American

populat ion, one out of eight Americans

still describe themselves as racially

biased (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2002) .

Furthermore, 80 percent of white

Americans have racia l ly biased feel ings

that they might not even recognize

(Dovidio & Gaertner, 2002) . The rebirth

of these conscious and unconscious

racia l ly biased perceptions can be

explained thr ough the lens of socia l

learning theory . This theory asserts that

the individual 's perceptions about a

certain out-group direct ly correlate with

the att i tudes that are expressed by the

individual's parents or social

environment (Gerstenfeld, 2002) . By

organizing complex socia l information

through perceiving many disparate

me mb ers of the out-group as being a ll the

s a m e ,

many individuals wi l l adopt a v iew

of out-group homogeneity often with

ethnocentric characterist ics (Asma, 1995;

Gerstenfeld, 2002) .

At the heart of all discourses is the

action that is used to condense an d form

reality from them. This is called symbolic

action, a process of selecting one reality

while at the same t ime deselect ing

another (Burke, 1966) . The set of

knowledge that one uses throughout this

process is ca l led a terminstic screen

(Burke, 1951 ) . These scree ns of

know ledge serve as our just i f icat ion or

reason ing for select ing one real i ty over

another. Any definit ion or terminology ,

no matter h ow m uch of a reflect ion of

real i ty this terminology may b e, is the

selection of one's reality and the

deselect ion of another (Burke, 1966) . An

expert and pioneer of discursive

formations and symbolic act ion, Kenneth

Burke discusses how the early Church

forbad any persons to duel . Instead, the

two chal lengers would merely go for a

walk where the duel was to take place,

arm ing himself in the case that he wer e to

meet an armed enemy. By direct ing the

intention of this walk enem ies wer e

able to have their duel without crossing

the Church's sanction on the pract ice

(Burke, 1966) . The same sort of direct ion

of racist intentions can be seen in m odern

immigrant discourse. While one of the

dominant discursive formations selects

and defines Latino and Mexican

immigrants as criminals , the a lternative

reali ty that mos t of these m igrants are

peaceful an d law abiding is not selected.

This process of select ion and de-select ion

allows one to direct racist intentions

through discourse in order to narrow the

view ability of the aud ience 's reality,

allowing one only to see the discursive

structure of reality that is presented

(Kenneth Burke, 1966; Hattery , Embrick,

& E . Smith, 2008 ; Portes, 2009) . This

process of condit ioning racist p rejudice

and discontent comes from a moralizing

and meditat ive point of v iew (Hart , 1967) .

Visual and discursive metaphors

are often used to condense the complex

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While there may be no direct evidence

between the metaphorical discursive

formations of restrict ive immigration

policies and systematic human rights

violat ions, i t has been show n that there is

a direct l ink between these formations of

imm igration d iscourse and civi l r ights

violations such as racial profiling (Arnold,

2007) .

In an attemp t to separate racia l

profiling from color profiling, one author

suggests that color profiling is merely a

prima facie indicator of one's race and

therefore is free from the morally

problematic characterist ics of discerning

one race from another (Corlett , 2010) .

The author goes on to further suggest that

the matter of deg ree nature that is

problem atic within racia l profi l ing is not

an issue in the light of color profiling

(Corlett , 201 0) . Wh ile the author does

attemp t to groun d color profi ling w ithin

the boundaries of acceptable socia l

pract ices, one cannot deny that an

individual's color is no more of an

indicator of that person's legal status than

their race (Arnold, 2007; Chapkis , 2003;

D el g a d o ,

2 0 0 3 ;

Musolff , 200 7) . W hethe r

one decides to call it racial or color

profiling the main point is that these

arrests ,

stops, and interrogations are

often not made on the basis of the

individual 's beha vior or act ions but

mere ly on their perceived legal status tha t

is conceptually based on their skin color.

In the end, no matter how accurate an

officer may be in even correctly

identifying a Latino individual from a

Japanese individual, the individual is sti ll

being subjected to the discursive

formations th at simpli fy such socia l

constructions as race and class (Arnold,

2 0 0 7 ;

A sm a , 1 9 9 5 ; C h a pk i s , 2 0 0 3 ) . U nd er

this light, it is impossible to separate

racial profiling from color profiling,

because to profi le one based upon the

skin color is ultimately to profile them

b a sed u po n t h e c o m m o n sk i n

characteristics of a particular racial

gr o up .

M E T H O D S

A m et h o d o l o g i c a l a ppr o a c h

consisted of four activities that follow a

linear plain: locating artifacts, identifying

materia l , analyzing the materia l , and

defining the rhetorical situation. This

o pen-end ed m et h o d o l o g i c a l a ppr o a c h

allowed for the development of theory

through an i terat ive process of data and

theoretical analysis , continually veri fy ing

the relat ionship between the data that is

obtained from art i facts with the

theoretical presumptions of scapegoat

theory (Ott , 1998) .

Locating rtifacts

As defined by Goetz and Lecompte

( 1 9 8 4 ) , an art i fact is anything that may

help i l luminate research questions such

as,bu t not l imited to : legal recor ds,

w r i t t en d o c u m ent s , m em o s , d em o g r a ph i c

information (Brock & Scott , 1989) . For

the purposes of this study a collection

publishing's by major media outlets such

as art icles , reports , and e ditoria ls wer e

us e d .

Arti facts were gathered using

LexisNexis Academic online database for

the years 2009-2011. 532 results were

displayed, of which 414 were found to

speci f ica l ly deal with American

immigration.

Identifying Material

Not a ll discursive represe ntations

of immigration and migrants f i t within the

context of scapegoat theor y . In order to

identify relevant material , each artifact

wil l be evaluated upon whether or not the

artifact displays one, or all , of the

fol lowing sentiments toward immigration

and migrants: frustrat ion and

h o st i li t y ( G r eenw o o d , 1 9 7 0 ; Z a w a d z k i ,

1948) . These two categories have been

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show n to be the basis for d iscursive

sca peg oatin g an d therefore are a wa y to

identify which artifacts will be relevant

for materia l analysis (Zawadzki , 1948) .

nalyzing the Material

Once relevant materia ls were

gathered they were then analyzed for one,

or more, of the six sca pegoa ting

project ion tech nique s: indirect hosti l i ty ,

irri tabi l i ty , negativism, resentment ,

suspicion, and verb al hosti l i ty . This

approach toward analysis did not

consider the internal factors that often

drive prejudice and scapegoating

(Zawadzki , 1948) . This approach rather

provided an understanding of the way

that intergroup pre judice is discursively

represented with respect toward the

migration of minority groups.

R E S U L T S

The task of analyzing the major

discursive representations of immigration

within the current news media is a

daunting task to say the least; with the

topic itself being full of political rhetoric

and historical taboos. Coupled w ith this

sense of ambiguity are the endless

personal , socia l , and economic factors

that come along with analyzing racia l ly

charged theoretical frameworks such as

scapego ating. N everthe less, indirect

inferences can be drawn between the

most common of scapegoating project ions

and the way p oli t ica l discourse , and the

su b seq u ent new s m e d i a , w h i c h su r r o u nd s

the current immigration debate.

2 9 A total of 229 articles were

analyzed for the year of 2009. The m ost

numerous scapegoating tact ics

throughout the year of 2009 were those

that projected feel ings of resentment ,

which is defined as either real or

fantasized mistreatment . One example of

this is a comment made by John Prigge, a

city councilman for Elgin Illinois, when

asked about the effects that i l legal

imm igratio n has on the city: It 's killing

Elgin .

I firmly believe its killing Elgin

Elgin has a modest populat ion of 108,000

with forty percen t of the populat ion of

Caucasian decent and thirty-f ive percent

listed as Hispanic. This simple view of the

city 's demographics proves that whi le the

issue of i l legal-immigration may truly be a

burden on a few of the city's resources, it

seems more l ikely that the growing legal

Hispanic populat ion, are being mistaken

for i l legal-immigrants. Nevertheless,

there is no economical proof ever put

forward to support the claim of the initial

comment in question, and clearly

portrays a feel ing of anger bec ause of a

sense of mistreatment .

Strict opponents to i llegal-

imm igration often argue tha t the legal

Hispanic migrants that currently reside in

the U.S . are in some w ay universal ly

united in opposit ion as well . For exam ple,

Joe Mil ler (Alaska) , when speaking on

behalf of the legal migrant populat ion

stated , . . .step forw ard and say 'you're

screw ing us up, you know . Com me nts of

this nature clearly reflect a sense of

irritability, one of the scapegoating

project ion strategies. The previous

statement was actual ly stated in support

of a then future rally where Miller had

nam ed several me mb ers of the Hispa nic

advocacy group You Don't Speak For Me

as attendees a nd spe akers of the ra l ly .

The very ne xt day an art icle w as

published stat ing that the group had

made no such promises to appear at the

event . This suppos ed l ie highlights an

irrational scrabble, on the part of Miller at

least , to do whatever is deemed necessary

to make his c la ims sound the most

appea ling , thus hinting at a sense of

irritability.

The scrabbling of misinformation

in order to support one's c la im would not

be a strategy solely dedicated to the

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project ion of irri tabi l i ty , butverbal

hostility as well . In an editorial published

by the Manassajournal Messenger of

Virginia stated that the local police are,

using the drop in v iolent crimes in 2008

as proof that the county's i l legal

imm igratio n policy is doin g its job . First

of a ll , this c la im would have to assum e

that i l legal-immigrants are

disproportionally incl ined to commit a

crime than those persons who are within

the U.S. borders legally; no proof has ever

been put forward to support this c la im.

The article goes on to state, Mu rde rs

went up 20 percent -- from 10 to 12 -- in

2 0 0 8 .

Rapes stayed the same. Robberies

went down 8.8 percent and aggravated

assaults we nt down 36.5 percent . The

author states that since there was n ot an

across the board cut in Part I crimes

against persons and crimes against

property than the local police are not

justified in suggesting that this is a

significant drop in crime. Linking i llegal

immigrants so int imately with a

discussion of these Part I crimes

enthymematical ly suggests that i l legal-

immigrants are not only more criminally

inclined, but are also more inclined to

commit some of societ ies worst crimes.

This is a clear indication of overcritical

verbal hostility.

Raymond Herrera , a national

spo k esm a n fo r t h e M i nu t em en P r o j ect

stated that, The trave sty is that they're

trying to embed a criminal element into

our society at the expense of the real

Am erican , This com me nt clearly displays

a bel ief that i l legal-imm igrants are not

only disproportionally criminals , but a lso

that there is a deliberate effort to corrupt

the perceived sterile morality of

Am erican society , thus f i t ting the

definition of direct suspicion. For the

purposes of this study, feelings of

suspicion can be defined as a belief that

others are planning harm.

Indirect hostility is a feeling that

was not readi ly found within the art i facts

of 2009, this could possibly be attributed

to the polar nature of the subject,

nevertheless there were a few instances

found. One art icle of note was published

by a local newspaper in Pennsylvania

discussed how Voice of the People USA

plan s to hold a, si lent prote st dur ing the

tria l of two Shenandoah teens accused of

beating an i l legal Mexican immigrant to

death last July. In response to criticism

brought fourth against the protest , the

rally lead ers stated that they, are no in

way trying to glorify those who killed Mr.

Ram irez, but rather, to counter other

potentia l protests that are meant to

encourage i l legal immigration and

dem onize those wh o oppose i t. The

picketing of a funeral, on both sides of the

argument , is a devious strategy to support

one's argument , when considering the

definition used for indirect hostility in

this study.

On Apr il 24, an article titled, Gov.

Brewer: Feds Denied National Guard

reques t was the f irst of ma ny art icles

that discussed how the governor was

very surpr ised that the Obama

administrat ion did not send the requested

250 addit ional National Guard troops to

help with the enforcement of border

protection. In retrospect, the act of

requesting the increase in National Guard

troops was an obvious stretch given the

poli t ica l environment and seemed to be

more of an act to solidify a sense of

identi f icat ion among those who general ly

oppose the Obama administrat ion as well

as comprehensive immigration reform.

Brew er wou ld later mak e the comm ent , I

just feel very d isappointed that the

federal government has not stepped up

and done what their responsibi l i t ies are,

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and have left the control, i f you will , left

up to our local law enforcem ent . Not only

this comment, but also the entire act of

requesting mil i tary support from a

government that has clearly expressed

that i t wi l l deal with imm igration

enforcement at the governmental level ,

reflects a sense of direct opposition and a

refusal to cooperate or what has been

defined as negativism.

2 1 A total of 276 new spap er art icles

were analyze d for the total year of 2010.

SB 1070 reached the Arizona state

legislature in January of this year, l ighting

a spark underneath the fermenting

immigration debate that started after the

disastrous eve nts of 9/11. Most of the

imm igration d ebate du ring this year is

focused around f ive key issues: SB 1070,

racial profiling, assimilation, jobs, and the

dist inct ion b etwe en legal vs . i l legal

i m m i g r a nt s .

One interest ing observation about

this particular period is the cookie-cutter

fashion by which news art icles are

written covering the aftermath of the

Arizona bill , as well as the several states

that would fo l low up with the

introduction of similar bills. The articles

wou ld usually fo l low this pattern: X and Y

are currently under f ire a fter proposing a

bill that is similar to Arizona's restrictive

imm igration bi l l SB1 070 . These art icles

would usually provide statistical data in

either support or rejection of the

proposed restrict ive policy . For example,

a more l iberal ly leaning author stated,

According to a recent study by the P ew

Hispanic Center . . . from 2007 to 2009, an

estimated 300,000 i l legal immigrants

entered the United States annually , down

from 550,000 whi le a more con servative

author wou ld ci te , The Pew Rese arch

Center est imated in 2008 that Nebraska

had about 45,000 i l legal immigrants, up

from about 30,000 in 2000. As one

author for the San Bernardino County Sun

states ,

surveys such as these only take

into account those wh o are wi l l ing to

come forward and discuss their i l legal

status , and therefore cannot be rel ied

upon for any strong statistical

representation of the i l legal/ legal migrant

populat ion. This back and fourth of

statistical correctness hints at a general

feeling of either real or fantasized

mistreatment on both sides of the debate.

Another proli ferate theme

throughout the year was the number of

art icles that touched on the essen tia l

undermining of U .S . nat ional law that

i l legal immigration presents. This

argument is usually presented from the

point of view of the legal citizen by

usually noting how the undermining U.S .

national law undermines the rights of a l l

the citizens within its borders. For

example, one editoria l published in the

Washington Post in May stated, . . . the

presence of so many i l legal migrants in

the United States without enforceable

rights undermines the rights of everyone

else . This l ine of argume ntation is usually

tied in with the issue of san ctuar y cities

or those cities who by either practice or

by law protect i l legal immigrants. S ince

the early 1980s over 40 cities and

counties across the U.S . have adopted

these p olicies , which basical ly state that

they will not use local resources to

enforce federal immigration laws. One

ex a m pl e o fthis , published in the El Paso

T i m e s ,

points to an apparent hypocrisy

within the Obama administrat ion when

dealing with these ci ties , Everyone ha s

noticed the hypocrisy of the government

going after Arizona and ignoring the

sanctuary ci t ies By paring the Obam a

administrat ion with commentary about

the undermining of national laws and

rights ,

the discourse is able give

just i f icat ion for presen ting a sense of

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direct opposition to authority; a direct

opposition to authority is defined as

negativism.

A no t h er a r g u m en t th a t w a s a l so

closely t ied to the issue of und erm ining of

national laws is the issue of assimilation.

I t is commonly argued, mostly from a

more l iberal perspective, that it wou ld be

impossible to d eport a l l o f those person s

who are in this country i llegally, and

therefore there must be a mechanism

develope d to open a path to legal

ci t izenship. Amnesty has a lso been

commonly brought up as a solution to this

issue.

One editoria l published in The San

ntonio Express c o nd enses t h is a r g u m ent

by stating, It is phy sically and finan cially

impossible to deport 12 mil l ion

u nd o c u m ent ed w o r k er s a nd t h ei r

famil ies . Our nation would be better

served by fully assimilating these families

into Am erican society . On the other side

of this argument the common statement

is that granting amnesty or some other

form of assimilat ion would sim ply just i fy

the i llegal act of entering this country

dishonestly. In an editorial published by

the Sacramento Bee i t was stated that

assimilat ion, as well as birthright

citizen ship, for i l legal imm igra nts is

unjust and unfair to people who play by

the rules. Statemen ts such as these

clearly show that there is a sort of

perceived mistreatment is being thrust

upon legal c i t izens every t ime someone

enters the U.S . witho ut going through the

established rou tes. This is an examp le of

the scapegoating strategy that has been

defined as resentment .

2 1 1 A total of 240 new spap er art icles

were analyzed for the months between

Janua ry-June of 20 11. A storm of

immigration reforms seemed to sweep

across the conservative US after the

passage of SB1070, and thus during this

time much of the political discourse

surrounding immigration is focused on

the aftermath of the passage of the bill .

Much of the debate during these months

has focused on three key issues: lack of

r eso u r c es , la w l essness , a nd g o v er nm e nt a l

i na d eq u a c i es .

Since it is currently law to grant

ci t izenship to any persons born within

the borders of the US, it has becom e a

com mon argum ent that these i l legal ly

b o r n

children will ultimately have entire

famil ies that wi l l become a burden upon

socia l resources and cohesion. Most of

this line of argum entation takes the form

of statements of verba l hosti l ity b y

displaying att i tudes that are negatively

overcritical. For example, one article

published in the San Gabriel Valley

Tribune stated that , In 2010 there were

over 300 ,000 births in the United States

to i l legal immigrant mothers. By granting

chi ldren of i l legal imm igrants' c i t izenship,

the chi ld can eventually anchor an entire

family into the United States, even though

they gained access to our nation i l legal ly .

More d irect statem ents of verbal hosti l ity

l ike what was stated by Rep. Daryl

Metcalfe when discussing how the

children of i l legal immigrants are the

mos t direct threat to our nation: They

are brought up in this nation and then

tear i t dow n, By framing the argu me nt

around tax payer dollars that go into the

education of these children, one is able to

draw the sense of humanity out of the

debate in order to focus the public's

attention around the issue of taxpayer

dol lars .

B y fr a m i ng th e a r g u m e nt a r o u n d

the assumption that the chi ldren of

i l legal-immigrants wi l l grow up to deceive

and che at society the project ion strategy

moves out of the realm of verbal hostility

and into the realm of direct suspicion.

Another key issue that was present

was the apparent lack of governmental

involvement in the enforcement of i l legal

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imm igration laws. Thu s, it is sa id, the

states must take action in order to protect

themselves from the economic and socia l

woes of i l legal immigration. A statement

written by Rep. Lamar Smith highlights

the central argum ent , We have tools to

l imit i l legal immigra tion, but the Oba ma

administrat ion is not enforcing the

immigration laws on the books.

Comments of this nature are most

definitely m ean t to be an open reb ell ion

against the conventions of current

governmental policy , and thus are a

negativistic hostility projection strategy.

By ma king an us vs . the m contrast

between the conservative base that is

aggressively pushing for strict

immigration reform and the Obama

adm inistrat ion, the author is able to

condense and sol idi fy a sense of

identi f icat ion among those who would

agree with a stricter imm igration policy .

The Democratic poli t ica l base uses a

reciprocal argument to achieve the same

cohesive effects among the growing

Latino voter base. Bui lding upon this ,

some have even suggested a

premeditated and conscious effort by the

Obama administrat ion to disrupt state

and local authorit ies from enacting these

immigration policies; this emphasis on a

premeditated effort shifts the effect that

is being presented away from the realm of

negativism and into the realm of direct

suspicion.

Like any other strongly divided

poli t ica l deba te, there we re som e strict

instances of verba l hosti li ty , and perha ps

some of the most critically interesting.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalf would make the

curious dist inct ion between legal and

non -lega l imm igratio n by stating, It 's not

immigration, [ it 's an] i l legal-alien

i nv a si o n . T h i s c o m m ent c o nd enses w h a t

would seem to be a common conservative

affect of prejudice that assumes all Latino

immigrants, no matter what their legal

status ,

are criminals in nature and must

b e , i f not physical ly , men tal ly separated

from the rest of the American populat ion.

Another instance of part icularly strong

verbal hosti l i ty was a comment given by

Kansas Rep. Virgi l Peck during a press

confere nce, Looks like to me , i f shooting

these immigrating feral hogs works,

maybe we have found a (solution) to our

i l legal imm igration pro blem Here , Rep .

Peck is c learly project ing a thre atening

sense of hostility by directly comparing

Latino immigrants to pest like feral hogs

that are routinely shot from helicopters.

C O N C L U S I O N

Issues such as immigration have,

and pos sibly a lways w i l l be, very polar in

nature and thus has the tendency to

attract at least a few instances intensely

negative rhetoric. The six strategies

defined as strategies used for

sc a peg o a t i ng m ea ns w e r e seen a s a n

effective means to evaluate artifacts by

focusing on the att i tudes behind the

project ive behavior.

While using a basic search with

LexisNexis Academic databases, for

newspaper art icles that simply contained

the word ' i l legal-immigration' were useful

to identi fy that these scapegoating

project ive behaviors actual ly do exist

within modern immigration discourse, i t

was found to omit many art icles from

major U.S . publicat ions. For example, any

given Lexis-Nexis Academic search wi l l

only display a maximum of one thousand

results so natural ly ma ny art icles wi l l be

omitted unless the search is more acutely

defined. While this is not unexpected,

what was surprising was what art icles the

search engine selected. Instead of first

including those art icles of the m ost

popular U.S . news publicat ions, the

results would mostly include 'perspective'

or 'opinion' editorials that are often little

197

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more than biased rants inr espo nseto

another previously published art icle . This

could easi ly skew the results ofthe

general evaluation

of

trends over t ime.

The transformation intoam o r e

posit ive discourse surrounding

the

immigration debateis not ab u r d en t h a tis

i m po sed u po nthegenera l public , ratherit

is

the

discursive form ations that are

d ev el o ped atthe govern men tal level that

will need

to be

changed before

the

dominant negative discourse wi l l evolve

intoamore p osit ive perspective (Burke,

1966) .

Public engagement is completely

reliant ontheansw ers that are given

through poli t ica l metaphors

and

proverbOs that surround civic problems

(M .

W.

S m i t h

Waugh, 2OO8). Public

att i tudesareorganizationally established

through symbolic act ion, and becauseof

this

are

usually sluggish

to

change unless

thereisalegislative body that oversees

the publics mind (M.

W.

Smith

W a u g h ,

2OO8). F u r t h er m o r e ,the perpetual

r eg ener a t i o n

of

negative imm igration

discourse, and the scapegoating strategies

that are associated withit,simply serves

to val idate

and

magn ify the feel ings

of

aggression that are commonly presented

t h r o u g h o u t t h e A m e r i c a n p o pu l a c e .

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