Rotation, Integration, and Social Exclusion. Discourse and Change in/of Migration Policies in Austria
Rotation, Integration, and Social Exclusion. Discourse and Change in/of Migration Policies in Austria

Summary/Abstract: Although (labour) migration is an important topic of political debate, scholarly literature on migration discourses and policies in Austria is still lacking. This paper, which is an outcome of a research cooperation between Vienna-based LBI for European History and Public Spheres and Malmö University, combines discourse analysis and institutional approaches in order to produce a more complete picture of the developments spanning over roughly the last 50 years. Special emphasis is placed on the analysis of “integration discourse” starting to evolve in Austria in the early 1970s as a pro-migrant (if not necessarily pro-migration) discourse, and which since then has been developed into a weapon in the arsenal of anti-immigration policies. By means of this diachronic approach, the analysis points out omissions and blind spots in contemporary immigration and integration debates. I conclude that “immigration debates” in Austria are not so much concerned with the presence of foreigners within the country, but with the granting of a long-term perspective and social and political rights.

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