Populism and Immigration: (Re)Inventing Identities Through Language

2022

Populism is one of the hottest topics of the moment and immigration is a fundamental lens for understanding its success, although not the only one. Starting from this assumption, this chapter aims to specify how language can be used as a strategic resource to empower populist platforms. The analysis contributes to the existing analysis by clarifying that language is intrinsically evaluative: the choice of the use of words and the linguistic strategies implemented by any political actor cannot be seen as neutral. Hence, we argue that (radical right) populists do not make a pathological use of language per se. The populist linguistic strategies belong to a physiological dimension, in the sens…