Lifestyles of immigrants and refugees in the media

Abstract

Among the reports on contemporary immigration to Brazil, we can distinguish different foreign groups from the work they do: one that shows the so-called "skilled" foreign workers who come to occupy management positions in multinationals; Another that refers to those who work in commerce, administering their own businesses; A third that presents the immigrants "without qualification"; and, lastly, a last one that can be seen as the "artist". If we start from the premise that the thematic role of the immigrant is that of a subject of work, we observe how these senses linked to the universe of work are complemented by others that mix social class and national origin. Besides these questions, we wish to observe how this division of groups is positively and negatively valued as a way of trying to understand how Brazilian society sanctions different immigrant groups and their different social functions at work. Finally, we will see how the images of the country are constructed, a recurring topic in these reports. In order to reach our objectives, we have recourse to the postulates of discursive semiotics, especially the proposals of the sociossemiotic.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n42a865