LABOUR MIGRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS. MEDIA REFRAMING A PUBLIC ISSUE

Abstract

This study examines how Romanian media (through opinion articles in mainstream newspapers, political talk-shows and news broadcasts, sampled between 2011 and 2014) addressed the issue of the labour migration within two European contexts: the economic crisis that began in 2008, having multiple implications for the emigration policies in the EU states, and the opening of the full labour market access to Romanians and Bulgarians starting January 1, 2014. We tested the hypothesis that media discourse instrumentalizes migration in order to legitimize collective identities and public issues, especially those related to identity. Drawing upon the critical discourse analysis and the sociology of public issues, this research argues that the identity categorization practices are based on the dynamics of the migration flows and the economic developments in Europe. Media reframe identity by shifting the angle of approach from the access to the labour market, in terms of liberalization, to the way in which Romanians are perceived in the destination countries, and its extension to Romania’s status within the EU. This redefinition of the public issue occurs through particular types of identity counter-discourses used to deconstruct stereotypical dominant discourses against migrants and Romanians and to revalorize the Romanians working in the EU, as an extension of the (national) collective identity. Labour migration becomes a symbolic resource in negotiating the nation image and a political status