Por alusiones. Referencias personales a inmigrantes en grupos de discusión con españoles sobre la recuperación económica

Abstract

In Spain, the deep economic crisis that started in 2008 did not lead to a significant increase in the rejection of immigrants among the local population, as might have been expected from group threat theory. Once the economic crisis has been overcome, the question arises of to what extent this majority acceptance of immigration in Spain is maintained, as well as whether it is solid or sustainable over time. In this article we offer some answers to these important questions based on the analysis of the discourses produced in 9 Discussion Groups with Spaniards held in 2019. Specifically, it consists of a microscopic or detailed analysis focused on personal allusions to immigrants, i.e. references to specific persons identified as immigrants, which emerged during in the group conversations. Through this analysis, we aim to detect possible attitudes of rejection which may be hidden or dissembled in the most explicit discursive expressions. The results suggest that rejection of immigrants is very scarce and discursively weak, even in these personal allusions. But more than an unconditional acceptance of immigration, the allusions are ambivalent, with a relatively frequent expression of criticism and reproach, which however did not arrive to overt hostility or animosity. This ambivalence makes these attitudes more a certain precarious or unstable.