Abstract (eng)
Discourses on migration in politics and the media are constantly related to the past. This often happens in a hazy way by referring to excessive helpfulness or to the increase of xenophobia. Thus, discourses produce and convey a glorified social reality, because in discourses proponents of different opinions negotiate what is accepted as urgent and true. The present study addresses this phenomenon by answering the following question: How has the discourse on migration developed in politics and the media in the course of the Austrian Second Republic?
Therefore, systematically selected minutes of National Assembly meetings and daily newspapers have been analyzed. The research results indicate a history of migration, which on the one hand shows constant phenomenons. Hence, the thesis shows, that in the discourse about migration discrimination since 1945 does not only occur between Austrians and immigrants, but also between accepted immigrants and unwanted ones. Thereby the reference to Austrians was always important, long before the rise of the Freedom Party led bei Jörg Haider, which is often blamed for a radical change in immigration policy. On the other hand, the analysis shows important breaks and changes in the discourse about migration. The aid for example, which was given to the refugees from Hungary in 1956, was at first used to argue for further help. Over the years the given aid conduced to refuse migration. The aim to help people to help themselves shows a similar development. Summarised, the positive and negative positions concerning migration since 1945 have always been ambivalent. But the majority of opinions in the discourse lead to one basic result: Austria has never wanted to be a country of immigration.