Migrants’ NATION-AS-BODY metaphors as expressions of transnational identities

Abstract

The metaphors nation-as-body and nation-as-person have been used widely in xenophobic discourses targeting migrants as diseases, taboo body parts or flawed character traits of the body politic. It may then come as a surprise to find such metaphors back in a sample of migrants' responses in a cross-cultural survey of metaphors interpretation, which forms the data of this article. Migrants reinterpret these metaphors to negotiate their fear or criticism of marginalization and praising advantages of mixed identities. These self-validating strategies may be utilized in didactic contexts to counter traditionally discriminatory discourses.