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Title: Anti-immigrant rhetoric of President Trump
Introduction:
Immigrants have always been targeted as a root of the society’s ill though out the history of the United States. During the time of any social uncertainty in the country, the immigrants are looked upon with great suspicion. Migrants have always been blamed for an issue like economic downturns, weak national security, and the high rate of unemployment in the country. They are usually perceived as a trouble maker and as a threat to the nation. Immigrants are considered as a threat to the national unity and cultural integrity of the United States. The country has an ambivalent relationship with these people despite their strong role in marinating diversity in society (Quinonez).
However, the majority of the immigrants are settling in the United States from the European countries since 1960, and the influx of these people is increasing with time. In the current time, the number of migrants from Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America are increasing, and this demographic shift in the population of the United States is causing uncertainties. It has changed the shared notion of consensus and citizenship on what the country represents its self (Quinonez).
The changing face of the United States is discomforting the pubic coupling with the tension of security issues and concerns regarding the economy. Thus, this anxiety has prompted with an attitude towards the foreigner in the United States who are seeking to maintain their own status within the States and underpinning a notion of xenophobia (Quinonez).
However, many western politicians, including Donald Trump have shown support for populism. The widest view of the increasing support for populism is economic insecurity. According to the populist leaders, the United States is going through economic insecurities due to the collapse of the manufacturing sector of the country and due to the global flow of immigrants for other countries who are not skilled enough to give back to the economy of the United States (Inglehart and Norris).
Trump is blaming the Hispanic and other immigrants for the problems in the country and is making them responsible for the failure of the policies of the government (White). Theses action of the current government is creating enemies for the United States. These political manifestations of enmity are turning the native Americans against the immigrants. It is obvious from the fact that the majority of the white people supported Donald Trumps’ notion of populism in the last election (Anderson-Nathe and Gharabaghi).
There could be some psychological constructions that are making the citizen of one society to hate those of others. The hostile imagination regarding a specific group of people in the mind of others transforms those into "enemies." The process of enmity starts with the stereotyped perceptions of others and dehumanizing others based on such concepts. These hostile imaginations become the bases of war between many nations in the current time. It could be the psychological constructions that are making the American against immigrants, or it could be the normalization of the masculinity of violent culture of the United States. The holistic approach of Donald Trump towards immigrants is an example of identitarianism. This approach is spreading violence, threat, and hatred for each other in American society. Trump is spreading a conspiracy against the immigrants. He called the Mexican as a drug dealer, murders and rapist and they are part of a group run by the Mexican government. He also targeted the Muslim-American by saying that they are with terrorist groups and blamed that they are here to take our jobs and to make us economically deprived. Donald Trump was successful to turn the majority of the public against the immigrants (Anderson-Nathe and Gharabaghi).
Consensual paranoia:
Paranoia is a set of emotional, mental, and the social mechanism by the help of which a person's claims purity and righteousness and thus attribute evil and hostility to the enemy. The process of paranoia starts when the person identifies another individual based on bad self and categorizing their selves as good. The bad self is celebrated by median and by the self-generated myths, and these remain unconscious until they are projected onto any entity that is enti9tled as the enemy. Thus, enemies are created by dehumanizing a group of people based on generalized attributes or attaching some stigma to them (Keen).
Propaganda is created to target the group of people who are considered as an enemy, and these propagandas are as sophisticated as psychological warfare. The target group is pinpointed based on some false attributes or generalized facts and stigma are attached to them forever. That stigma makes them marginalized from the majority of the people in society and they are being considered as an enemy (Keen).
Propaganda regarding a group can find out by the help of “the prejudices-enmity index: That is a process of conducting a street interview regarding a group of people that rea considered as bad or as a group in the locality. If people are asked to rank their favorite individual in the society then they will list them according to some attribute. If these attributes are accosted with the whole group, then enemies rea created in society. People will criticize those who they consider as bad people through ethical jokes and these jokes are the best ways to identify the stereotypes an attached to them. Establishing a discrimination day to get the idea of what minority groups experience by choosing some characters that are attached to them (Keen).
However, the concept of good war is justified by saying that it is fetched against the bad people who are disturbing global peace. This phenomenon is supported by Donald Trump. According to him, the immigrants are a threat to internal peace and security, and thus they should not be allowed to enter the United States. The vulnerability of the global community is triggered by the nationalist concepts of such leaders. The Presidential administration of the United States is deporting Muslims from the United States, and that is making this religious group hostile not only in the United States but in the whole world. Such groups are perceived very differently by the international communities and people stared propaganda against them based on different stereotypes attached to them (Anderson-Nathe and Gharabaghi).
However, the rhetoric of President Trump against immigrant is an example of authoritarianism and fascism. The state has waged assaults against immigrants, minority groups n of different color and class and women. The concept of marinating global peace by targeting a group of people is a miss guided manifesto. Conflict is the main outcome of propaganda and technology of warfare (Keen).
There are various ways through wit conflicts between the individual can be solved. Behavioral modification is considered as the solution to warfare and conflicts. The psychological understanding of the group in which people usually function should be modified in a way that the stereotyping of a group of people is controlled (Keen).
Moreover, it is not the only time the immigrants of the United States are being targeted, but nativism has risen and declined several times in the history of the United States. It dates back to the 1882 Chinses Exclusion Act when the nationalist movement adversely affected the admittance of the immigrants. The rhetoric used by the nationalist created fear in the heart of the local people against the immigrants. The Hispanic is moistly targeted at times of election by the nationalist and were considered as “illegal alien” who have entered in their country. Thus, negative images of the immigrants are consistently given by the politician and immigrants are dehumanized based on such rhetoric (Alvarez and Bachman).
The effect of anti-immigration rhetoric on the people targeted:
Center for the Racial Justice innovation started to address the impact of media on the rhetoric used to discuss immigration. Communities of color are constantly targeted but anti-immigrant sentiments and they are highly marginalized by the mainstreamed society. The rhetoric to describe a human being must change otherwise it will create a pool of enmity among the people living in the same society. In the United States, every immigrant group- is seen directly and the rhetoric has a different impact on each of them. In the past years, Asians are seen as the ones who are involved in illegal immigration, and the perception of the people of the United States have changed regarding Asia since then (Freedman).
The various perception of people against immigrants make society hard for them to live in. They are being criticized with stereotyping and are verbally attacked by mainstream society. As a result of huge hatred among the public anti-immigrant parities immerged that fight to keep the immigrants out of the reach of the United States and thus the native develops negative immigrates regarding them (Freedman).
However, the victimizing of someone who is actually admitting to hurt some human being is an issue that is called validity. Validity is the measurement of what an individual think. As the validity of the propaganda can be illegal if they are actually felt by someone not just by harming them. Thus, the rhetoric made against the immigrants are not valid but are merely generalized attributes (Alvarez and Bachman).
Moreover, rhetoric has an adverse impact on the policy-making of the government. The most important one is policies making regarding refugees. The increasing criticism of the immigrants and the era of Arab Spring policy-making for refuges is nearly impossible. They are a challenge that the world leaders have to handle. In many instances, the anti-immigrant rhetoric has created hatred against the immigrants, and those are the main obstacles in the ways of policymaking for the refuges. Rhetoric has the ability to divert the understanding of people regarding a targeted group. There it is very important to identify how this rhetoric impacts different nations (Taylor).
Political rhetoric controls the evaluation of public policies. For instance, the Bush administration portrayed Iraq war as a war conducted by the “coalition force” rather than American force thus the imperialism of United States is kept hidden by the politicians and the public support also changes for the policies made by the government. Some harsh rhetoric like that of Donald Trump has changed the policies in multiple ways. This can be widely seen in the anti-immigrant sentiments of the local public who think their jobs are stolen by the immigrants. Who says that the immigrants are not well assimilated in the society of the United States and are responsible for the social insecurities (Taylor).
Ma y researchers have shown that legal immigrants are less incarcerated than the native people. Many anti-immigrant groups have false claims and these shoes that not fact but rhetoric have changed the mindset of the local people. Trump administration is building a wall on the Mexican border to prevent crimes and violence inside the United States and this step has influenced the opinion of the native regarding Mexican (Taylor).
Conclusion
Rhetoric is actually policymaking that is in between ethos, logos, and pathos. It is the most integral part of policymaking and the ides of rhetoric is used to perceive various group to follow that planned policy for them. Rhetoric can be used to manipulate people against a targeted group and the political atmosphere of the country can be changed. Social media provides a platform for the use of rhetoric and various materials can be uploaded against the immigrants that can change their image globally (Taylor).
However, the political rhetoric has a huge influence on policymaking for the immigrants. Donald. Trump has passed an order to barred all the refugees from Syria; whoever tried to enter the United States. His order also barred the immigrants from Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia for 90 days. This admiration is also effecting the United Nation action against immigrants,
Thus, rhetoric is a strong mechanism, to spread propaganda against any group and is a mean of creating hatred among the public for each other. The stereotypes generated by the rhetoric of Trump created fear and hatred towards the immigrants. The number of hate crimes has occurred worldwide as a result of the rhetoric of Donald Trump. After the 2016 election, the number of hate crimes has increased as a result of the stereotype that is spread through rhetoric. The president has not just spread propaganda against some specific group in the United States but also support hate crime against them. This led to anti-immigrants’ movement and thus a clear change in policies has been seen that push the United States away from the immigrants. Therefore, rhetoric has not just influenced the mindset of the native people but it can shift the paradigm of policymaking. It is the cause of increased hate crimes in the United States. If Trump's administration does not stop its usage of rhetoric against immigrants, then the security condition of the United States will decline even more.
Works Cited
Alvarez, Alex, and Ronet Bachman. Violence: The Enduring Problem. Sage Publications, 2016.
Anderson-Nathe, Ben, and Kiaras Gharabaghi. Trending Rightward: Nationalism, Xenophobia, and the 2016 Politics of Fear. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
Inglehart, R. F., and Norris. Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash. 2016.
Keen, Sam. “Faces of the Enemy.” Culture, Communication and Conflict:". 1984.
Quinonez, Erika Sabrina. WELCOME TO AMERICA: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT RHETORIC IN TRUMP’S SPEECHES AND CONSERVATIVE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. 2018.
Taylor, Eliana Marie. “The Effects of Political Rhetoric on Refugee Policy and Communities in the United States and Germany.” El Río: A Student Research Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2018.
White, John Kenneth. Donald Trump and the Scourge of Populism." The Forum. Vol. 14. No. 3. De Gruyter. 2016.
