ABSTRACT
The ways in which the lexicon around migration is adapted and manipulated within the popular discourse and (anti-) immigration rhetoric has been and continues to be the subject of much contested debate at a time when migration crises are hitting the headlines. The desperate situations of those seeking refuge from violence, persecution and economic crisis by attempting to cross the increasingly fortress-like ‘key’ borders around and within Europe have, at the time of writing, reached zenith proportions of tolerability. The conditions under which those attempting to seek asylum in different European states are being forced to make their journeys have been described as like ‘living in a horror movie’ 1 and call into question the whole etymology of the word ‘refuge’. Turton (2003: 2) argues that ‘we need to become self-conscious’ about the use of language associated with migration. Certainly, in the often highly charged and politicised narrative around (im)migration in the British context, the language ascribed to the migration process and those who migrate is constantly being renegotiated as images and symbols associated with such language are formed in the public imagination. The lexicon of migration also becomes increasingly contested as the struggle between those who wish to restrict the flows of people into the country and those who argue for the rights of human beings to migrate intensifies. 2
