Migration Discourse and the New Socially Constructed Meanings of the English Lingua Franca

Abstract

After the 1990s, the mass arrival of immigrants in Europe transformed the phenomenon of migration from a benefit into a problem and opened the debate to issues of first aid, security, expulsion and rejection. Even today, migrants are no longer seen as a socio-economic resource to be protected and regulated, but as a potential social problem affecting areas such as the economy, health and national security. The paper deals with the linguistically relevant literature about migration discourse (MD) and the role of English as lingua franca in public discourse related to the migration phenomenon. The latter part examines some traditional English key terms used to represent migrants since their mass arrival in Europe after the 1990s and concludes with the current international debate conducted by the mass media and non- governmental organizations on the new, socially constructed meanings that some migration terms have acquired in the English lingua franca over the past decades.