ABSTRACT
In this chapter I reflect on the role that the media plays in the criminalization of immigrants by examining how the issue of immigration is constructed in Italian public discourse. First, I summarize the characteristics of this discourse and illustrate how immigrants are seen to be, by nature, a dangerous class. Second, I briefly discuss the logics that make this discourse possible and the effects that it produces, considering the interaction between its principal exponents. Finally, I focus on the practices of immigration controls, underlining how Fortress Europe generates meaning and produces objectivizations that both define immigration and tell us how to speak of it.
