Although the United States is largely a nation of immigrants, xenophobic ideologies and values about immigrants are continuously broadcast across various media outlets. This study uses Systemic Functional Linguistics and transitivity analysis to examine how textbook publishers’ language choices frame migration, immigrants, and immigrant identity for immigrants from two different geographical backgrounds in a currently adopted 11th-grade U.S. history textbook. Findings demonstrate textbook language was organized around three overarching themes: contribution, reception, and integration. Across the textbook, European immigrants are provided with more opportunities through verb processes to act, feel, sense, and be, as compared to Latinx immigrants. Furthermore, language choices reveal how authors create and perpetuate a hierarchical view that some immigrants are desired over others depending on their region of origin and proximity to Whiteness. This study concludes by providing implications for students and teachers to critically engage with analysis of texts.

尽管美国在很大程度上是一个移民国家，但各种媒体不断传播有关移民的仇外意识形态和价值观。本研究使用系统功能语言学和及物性分析来检查教科书出版商的语言选择如何在目前采用的 11 年级美国历史教科书中为来自两个不同地理背景的移民构建移民、移民和移民身份。调查结果表明教科书语言是围绕三个总体主题组织的：贡献、接受和整合。在整个教科书中，与拉丁裔移民相比，欧洲移民通过动词过程获得了更多的机会来行动、感受、感知和成为。此外，语言选择揭示了作者如何创造并延续一种等级观念，即根据他们的原籍地和与白人的接近程度，某些移民比其他移民更受欢迎。本研究最后为学生和教师批判性地参与文本分析提供了启示。