Graduation Year
2015
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
American Studies
Reader 1
Julie Liss
Reader 2
Suyapa Portillo
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2015 Hilary Slauson
Abstract
This thesis explores the function and limitations of presidential immigration rhetoric, using Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as examples to show the development of rhetoric across their presidencies. Reagan and Clinton are theoretically ideologically juxtaposed, though examples found in their public speech on immigration politics show patterned language that contributed to harmful discourses, kept legislation ineffective, and promoted anti-immigration sentiment. Most persistent since Reagan’s response to the fourth and current wave of immigration to the U.S. was the description of the United States as a “nation of immigrants.” Reference to the “nation of immigrants” was often conflictingly coupled with rhetoric that promoted restrictive sentiments. Contradictory and ambiguous presidential immigration rhetoric used to appeal to multiple constituencies has left immigration legislation unproductive and has had harmful consequences for immigrant communities.
Recommended Citation
Slauson, Hilary, "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land: An Analysis of Presidential Immigration Rhetoric in the "Nation of Immigrants"" (2015). Scripps Senior Theses. 712.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/712
