Refugees of color as racial and criminal others : the critical analysis of media discourses on Burmese refugees in local news.

Representation of refugee issues in the U.S tend to be in the frames of humanitarianism and national security. However, it is important to see that those issues that are deeply embedded in racial formation and criminalization of immigrants. Especially, Burmese refugees appear objects of humanitarian aids, becoming welcomed refugees in the media campaigns and news. However, those of whom have settled in the white dominant rural towns in the U.S struggle against racial and criminalized discrimination. This study begins to analyze how Burmese refugees in the U.S are represented in the local media news. Dallas in Texas and Buffalo in the state of New York have hosted more than 25,000 Burmese refugees in the last ten years. In that regard, the most historical and significant local news, the buffalo news and the Dallas news, were selected. Also, in this research, I use critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyze the discourse of local newspapers. CDA examines how knowledge is determined and affected by privilege and power within social and cultural contexts. In doing so, CDA is an appropriate method for this research because it is both theoretically and mythologically suited to explain why Burmese refugees are represented the way they are in particular racial and criminalized contexts. This study coalesces three questions 1) How are Burmese refugees represented in the frame of racialization? 2) How are Burmese refugees represented in the frame of criminalization 3) How Burmese refugees are excluded from mainstream communities in the United States