D(I)aspora: Discourse, Multimodality, and the Speaking of Migrant Subjects in New Media

Abstract

The paper has two main aims: first, I emphasize the need for a multimodal lens in discourse analysis; second, I present a critique of the discursive construction of migrant identity on Internet-based new media platforms that are produced by state institutions (i.e. official websites) and created by individual migrants on their own personal social media profiles. Using a multimodal framework that accounts for not only words but the various semiotic resources available to participants in online media content production, I focus my analysis on two sets of cases of official texts from Philippine and New Zealand government migration websites and three sample cases of social media content by Auckland-based Filipino migrants in New Zealand. In both the official and individual texts, there is an apparent idealization and romanticization of migrant life in New Zealand depicted mainly through the hegemonic images of “home”, “family”, and “childhood” that act as nodal points in setting up discursive boundaries. Although it may seem that individual agency is not realized in the purported democratized avenues of expression of the Internet, I
argue that migrant self-presentation online or offline is contingent on the very complexity and contradictions of
migrant daily life as configured by both the home and host nations.