Is the press presenting (neoliberal) foreign residency laws in a depoliticised way? The case of investment visas and the reconfiguring of citizenship
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Santos, Tânia R.
Castro, Paula
Guerra, Rita
Abstract / Description
Neoliberalism calls upon the social sciences to explore how legal innovations – new laws and policies – incorporating neoliberal values are presented to the citizenry. An example are investment visas, a new legal instrument regulating foreign residency. Investment visas reconfigure citizenship by prioritising neoliberal values, by privileging economic capital over labour and over place-and-community involvement in the host country. They also create sub-groups within a same migrant community. The press can present these changes by highlighting how they involve choices among competing values, stimulating debate, or it can hide such choices, offering a depoliticised coverage of the issue. This paper explores how investment visas were presented to the Portuguese public by the press, in connection with the Chinese, its main beneficiary community. The analysis is two-fold: first, a thematic analysis focuses on the representation of the Chinese in two newspapers (n = 525 articles), exploring whether it differentiates the investment visa sub-group within the Chinese community; second, a content analysis examines whether the law’s transformations to citizenship are presented in a depoliticised way (n = 164 articles). Findings indicate that the press shows Chinese investment visa beneficiaries as disconnected from other representations of the Chinese. Additionally, the investment visa laws are presented in a depoliticised way: one (uncontested) perspective is privileged, emphasizing their benefits. Conflicting values are almost absent, and the deterritorialised aspect of citizenship is left unproblematized. We conclude by discussing the implications of this type of coverage in shaping social debate and for the socio-psychological study of legal innovations and of citizenship.
Keyword(s)
social psychology of citizenship legal innovation depoliticisation neoliberalism investment visas Chinese migrantsPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2020-11-02
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
8
Issue
2
Page numbers
748–766
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Santos, T. R., Castro, P., & Guerra, R. (2020). Is the press presenting (neoliberal) foreign residency laws in a depoliticised way? The case of investment visas and the reconfiguring of citizenship. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(2), 748-766. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1298
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jspp.v8i2.1298.pdfAdobe PDF - 676.93KBMD5: f156aff376267acbfa441d769030dd33
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Santos, Tânia R.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Castro, Paula
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Guerra, Rita
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:23:52Z
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Made available on2022-04-14T11:23:52Z
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Date of first publication2020-11-02
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Abstract / DescriptionNeoliberalism calls upon the social sciences to explore how legal innovations – new laws and policies – incorporating neoliberal values are presented to the citizenry. An example are investment visas, a new legal instrument regulating foreign residency. Investment visas reconfigure citizenship by prioritising neoliberal values, by privileging economic capital over labour and over place-and-community involvement in the host country. They also create sub-groups within a same migrant community. The press can present these changes by highlighting how they involve choices among competing values, stimulating debate, or it can hide such choices, offering a depoliticised coverage of the issue. This paper explores how investment visas were presented to the Portuguese public by the press, in connection with the Chinese, its main beneficiary community. The analysis is two-fold: first, a thematic analysis focuses on the representation of the Chinese in two newspapers (n = 525 articles), exploring whether it differentiates the investment visa sub-group within the Chinese community; second, a content analysis examines whether the law’s transformations to citizenship are presented in a depoliticised way (n = 164 articles). Findings indicate that the press shows Chinese investment visa beneficiaries as disconnected from other representations of the Chinese. Additionally, the investment visa laws are presented in a depoliticised way: one (uncontested) perspective is privileged, emphasizing their benefits. Conflicting values are almost absent, and the deterritorialised aspect of citizenship is left unproblematized. We conclude by discussing the implications of this type of coverage in shaping social debate and for the socio-psychological study of legal innovations and of citizenship.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationSantos, T. R., Castro, P., & Guerra, R. (2020). Is the press presenting (neoliberal) foreign residency laws in a depoliticised way? The case of investment visas and the reconfiguring of citizenship. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(2), 748-766. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1298en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5640
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6244
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1298
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4229
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Keyword(s)social psychology of citizenshipen_US
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Keyword(s)legal innovationen_US
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Keyword(s)depoliticisationen_US
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Keyword(s)neoliberalismen_US
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Keyword(s)investment visasen_US
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Keyword(s)Chinese migrantsen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleIs the press presenting (neoliberal) foreign residency laws in a depoliticised way? The case of investment visas and the reconfiguring of citizenshipen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers748–766
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Volume8
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US