Date of Award

12-24-2025

Date Published

January 2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition

Advisor(s)

Brice Nordquist

Keywords

Asylum;Forced migration;Middle East North Africa;Muslim men;Refugees;Representation

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Rhetoric and Composition

Abstract

This dissertation examines the growing crisis of forced migration from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region noting how it is portrayed, across varied media channels, as an outcome of a trenchant inability of these states', and societies, inability to retain or protect their citizens. Implicating the character of the people in the MENA region in repeated portrayals that focus on the crises of forced migration, rather than its root causes, this rhetoric frames migration as both a critique of MENA leadership and civic structures and a justification for foreign intervention. Through this discourse, out-migration becomes part of a global narrative that presents the use of force against sovereign nations as reasonable or even necessary. This dissertation examines how narratives about forced migration, refugees, and political asylum from the MENA region advance American foreign policy interests in the region by both masking American intervention and regime change in the, arguably, interest of a larger imperative of imposing liberal democratic values in MENA countries. Observing patterns in public rhetoric, specifically what is and is not conveyed about involuntary population movements from Muslim-majority nations, this dissertation considers the implications of narratives about forced migration out of the region and into the USA, particularly how the framing of MENA nation as reliant on Western intervention in a pattern of discourse that consistently diverts attention away from the structural and geopolitical drivers of displacement. Forced migration continues to rise at an exponential rate, yet prevailing narratives often mislead in ways that divert attention from the foreign policy decisions that produce depopulation crises. Focusing on out-migration from the MENA region from the 1990’s onward, this work argues that portrayals of forced movement in media and institutional contexts withhold information to shape audiences’ emotions, motives, and reasoning as part of a broader practice of “perception management” that operates alongside kinetic forms of national and international force. Ranging from Burke’s dramatism to Plato’s critique of representations and mimesis, this dissertation analyzes how ethos-based narratives depict the MENA region as needing Western intervention, while pathos-driven appeals obscure the structural causes of displacement. These narratives sustain an ongoing Orientalist framework in American public discourse that conceals a foreign policy agenda aimed at globalizing liberal democratic values through force while framing depopulation crises as outcomes of domestic mismanagement implicating the nature and character of MENA populations. This rhetorical framing extends beyond humanitarian concerns and embeds the MENA region within a discourse that rationalizes the use of force and breaches of sovereignty in the name of democracy, freedom, and human rights.

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Open Access

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