The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion - A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Construction of the German National Identity in the Right-Wing Political Discourse on Refugees, Migrants, and Foreigners

Abstract: This thesis explores how the German right-wing political party AfD constructs a national identity in their political discourse around refugees, migrants, and foreigners. The rise of refugees and migrants worldwide has led to a renewed focus on the concepts of nation-states and national identity in defining who does and does not belong. Germany, which has taken on close to a million refugees from the MENA region during the years 2015-2016 and a similar number of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war in 2022, has seen an increased interest in national identity in the political discourse. The first influx of refugees in 2015 led to the rise of the AfD, which has played a predominant role in shaping the political discourse around national identity and belonging. A critical discourse analytical lens is used as the theoretical and analytical framework from which a directed content analysis is carried out to identify which categories are used to define the German national identity, the Self, against the identity of the refugee, migrant, foreigner, the Other. The data that is analyzed with the program NVivo, are 30 speeches from the AfD in the Bundestag, 3 election posters and their party program. The findings show that the main categories used in defining the Other are a division into real and unreal Others, religion, criminality, terrorism and the use of metaphors and whataboutism used mainly to justify the categorization that the AfD undertakes. The main categories present in definitions of the Self are the welfare system, citizenship, territories and borders, a collective culture (Leitkultur), and the concept of Heimat. This thesis concludes that focusing on the Other is equally important when understanding the Self. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of acknowledging the naturalization of categories in the construction of national identity and the consequences for those that are othered. The rise of the AfD and its role in influencing the construction of a German national identity highlights the importance of further research on how political parties construct a national identity and how this impacts both those that are in- and excluded from understandings of national identity.