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Immigration has been, and continues to be, a topic of enduring debate in the British media. The lead-up to the 2016 EU Referendum exposed and sharpened already divisive opinions, and media coverage of the referendum became an extended battleground in the war of words over the role and place of migration in British society. Coverage reached fever pitch in the month leading to the referendum, with some outlets openly using language that racialised immigration and immigrants: language that created and established differences between the British ‘self’ vs the European immigrant ‘other’.
Racialised language in mass media has the potential to shape perceptions of race and the way that we think of ourselves in relation to others. It can determine who is included and who is excluded in society. It is therefore important to look at how newspapers racialised immigration from the EU in the lead up to Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union, as this exposes the ways though which immigrants who are ‘white’ in terms of skin colour are nevertheless categorised as being racially different and ripe for exclusion as a result.
