“We cannot even take care of our own citizens”: Symbolic boundaries and perceptions of intergroup threat in citizens’ initiatives on immigration

Abstract

This master’s thesis focuses on citizens’ initiatives on immigration. By conducting discourse analysis, it examines how symbolic boundaries and perceptions of intergroup threat are visible in immigration-related citizens’ initiatives with over 1 000 signatures. Whereas symbolic boundaries maintain inequalities by creating inclusion and exclusion by categorizing people and groups, intergroup threat theory offers a way to examine these in-group – out-group divisions and boundaries through the concept of threat. The analysis shows that divisions between “Finnish people” and “immigrants” are maintained through depicting immigrants as economic threats, cultural or symbolic threats, and physical threats. Additionally, the concept of “citizenship” is used to solidify these boundaries. It is argued that the examined citizens’ initiatives contain features of cultural and structural violence, and that the initiatives are part of larger processes and discourses where anti-immigrant sentiments are attempted to be made more visible. As such, this research adds to existing research by examining citizens’ initiatives as a “new” site where anti-immigrant sentiments can be voiced. Moreover, it connects to peace and conflict research by bringing attention to the fact that forms of violence can and do exist also within societies that are considered “peaceful”. Finally, despite of the restrictive nature of the majority of examined initiatives, it is also noted that the initiatives contain rhetoric that challenges these prevailing views of immigrants as a “threat”.