Constructing the Jungle, Distance Framing in the Daily Mail
Ibrahim, Y. (2011). Constructing the Jungle, Distance Framing in the Daily Mail. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 7(3), 315–331,
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/mcp/2011/00000007/00000003/art00004?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf
By K ulbert (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The official
narrative of the demolition and clearing in September 2009 of the camp, known
informally as 'the Jungle', occupied by illegal immigrants in Calais sought to
frame the issues from a perspective of police efficiency. The authorities both
in the United Kingdom and France defended their actions as justified in
tackling a persistent problem that could only be resolved through brutal force.
The Jungle as a barbaric settlement amidst a civilized society juxtaposed the
Other as uncouth and not belonging to the space of civility and thereby
warranting immediate removal. The need to expel the Other and demolish the
Jungle became a moral discourse of maintaining a civilized society amidst the
illegal invasion of economic migrants. The discourse of the Jungle and the
narration of the story through discourses of criminality sought to dehumanize
the occupants of the shanty town, depicting their very existence as a
transgression of legal boundaries. This article argues that this moral
discourse becomes a tool to desensitize us to the human suffering associated
with immigration. In the process the issue of immigration becomes a liminal
space between rationality and atavism in developed societies.
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