Table Of ContentDebating Migration
as a Public Problem
Simon Cottle
General Editor
Vol. 24
The Global Crises and the Media series
is part of the Peter Lang Media and Communication list.
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PETER LANG
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Debating Migration
as a Public Problem
National Publics and
Transnational Fields
Camelia Beciu, M lina Ciocea,
Irina Diana M droane, and Alexandru I. Cârlan,
ă
Editors
ă
PETER LANG
New York Bern Berlin
Brussels Vienna Oxford Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Beciu, Camelia, editor.
Title: Debating migration as a public problem: national publics and
transnational fields / edited by Camelia Beciu [and three others].
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.
Series: Global crises and the media; v. 24 | ISSN 1947-2587
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018002350 | ISBN 978-1-4331-5534-5 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-5548-2 (paperback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-5554-3 (ebook pdf)
ISBN 978-1-4331-5555-0 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-5556-7 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Foreign workers—Government policy—European Union countries. |
Foreign workers—Government policy—Romania—Case studies. | European
Union countries—Emigration and immigration—Government policy. |
Romania—Emigration and immigration—Government policy—Case studies.
Classification: LCC HD8378.5.A2 D395 2018 | DDC 331.6/2094—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018002350
DOI 10.3726/b14216
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table of contents
Acknowledgments vii
I ntroduction: Intra-EU Labor Migration and
Transnationalism in Media Discourses:
A Public Problem Approach 1
Camelia Beciu, Mălina Ciocea, Irina Diana Mădroane,
and Alexandru I. Cârlan
Part 1. I ntra-EU Labor Migration in the Media of the Sending
Country: Between Instrumentalization and Empowerment
Chapter 1. M igration and Country Status: The Rearticulation
of Identities Through Media Counter-Discourses 41
Camelia Beciu and Mirela Lazăr
Chapter 2. Debating Migration: Diasporic Stances in Media Discourse 63
Mălina Ciocea and Alexandru I. Cârlan
vi table of contents
Chapter 3. T he Impact of Migration on the Construction of Romania’s
Country Image: Two Intersecting Public Problems 83
Alina Dolea
Part 2. I ntra-EU Labor Migration and Deliberative
Practices in the Public Sphere
Chapter 4. M edia Deliberation on Intra-EU Migration:
A Qualitative Approach to Framing Based on
Rhetorical Analysis 115
Alexandru I. Cârlan and Mălina Ciocea
Chapter 5. R omanian Immigration in the British Newspapers: Engaging
Audiences During the Brexit Referendum Campaign 139
Irina Diana Mădroane
Part 3. I dentity Negotiation in the Transnational Field:
Agency and Discourse
Chapter 6. M igrant Identities and Practices in Media Advocacy
Campaigns: The Construction of Claims and Audiences 175
Irina Diana Mădroane
Chapter 7. M edia Hospitality to Diasporactivism and Diasporapathy
in the News Community 199
Nicolae Perpelea
Chapter 8. “ Here” and “There”: Identity-Building Strategies in
Debates with Non-Migrants 233
Camelia Beciu
F inal Remarks: Media, Migration, and
Transnational Practices 253
C amelia Beciu, Mălina Ciocea, Irina Diana Mădroane, and
Alexandru I. Cârlan
About the Contributors 259
Index 261
acknowledgments
The studies in this volume are the result of several years of intense research on
the topics of intra-EU migration, media and public discourse, and of collab-
oration with specialists in Romania and abroad, for which we are immensely
grateful. Our ideas have taken shape and grown in the course of two projects,
funded by the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research,
Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI): The phenomenon of workforce
migration and the formation of the diasporic public: impact on the public space and
institutional practices (2008-2009) and Diaspora in the Romanian political-media
sphere. From event to the media construction of public problems (2012-2016). We
have had the privilege to exchange views with national and international
experts, with colleagues, many of whom are also good friends, and with (now
former) PhD students. The exploratory workshop we organized in 2013, Dias-
poric Identities and Transnational Experiences: From Social Actors to Public Dis-
courses, brought some of them together: Alex Balch, Ekaterina Balabanova,
Elena Negrea Busuioc, Irina Culic, Alina Dolea, Nadia Kaneva, Mirela
Lazăr, Luciana Răduț-Gaghi, Nicolas Pélissier, John E. Richardson, and Ruth
Wodak. We thank them for an inspiring academic event that has furthered
the scope of our research and for the collaborations that followed, includ-
ing a special issue, “Discourse in Transnational Social Fields,” in the Critical
viii debating migration as a public problem
Discourse Studies Journal. We are deeply grateful to Dana Diminescu, Isabela
Fairclough, and Norman Fairclough, for insightful feedback and continued
support. We would also like to give special thanks to our contributors, Alina
Dolea, Mirela Lazăr, and Nicolae Perpelea.
We thank the journals that have given us permission to republish, in a
revised form, four of the studies included in the volume: the Romanian Journal
of Sociology and the Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations.
We have also benefitted from the support of the institutes of higher educa-
tion where we are affiliated: The National University of Political Studies and
Public Administration, University of Bucharest, West University of Timișo-
ara, and the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy.
We thank our families for all their patience over the past few months,
when most of our time has been taken up by work on this volume, and for
their confidence.
Funding
This work was financed by a grant of the Romanian National Author-
ity for Scientific Research, CNCS–UEFISCDI [project number PN-II-ID-
PCE-2011-3-0968] Diaspora in the Romanian Media and Political Sphere. From
Event to the Social Construction of Public Problems.
introduction
Intra-EU Labor Migration and Transnationalism
in Media Discourses: A Public Problem Approach
Camelia Beciu, Mălina Ciocea, Irina Diana Mădroane,
and Alexandru I. Cârlan
The President1 expressed well and succinctly the desire of the majority of the pop-
ulation when he urged those dissatisfied with the conditions in the country2 to
abandon Romania and go to other countries, which could offer them what they
wanted. He first wished “safe journey” and “fair wind” to doctors. He then implied
that teachers should feel free to follow them, if they were unable to find a second
“job” in Romania.3
(“Traian Băsescu, Criticized by the British Press: He Supports the Migration of His
Own Citizens”)4
In 2010, in a controversial statement on what was perceived as a problem in
Romanian society—rising high-skilled emigration—Traian Băsescu, Roma-
nia’s president at the time, asserted that the decision to work abroad, in other
European Union member states, made by the youth (and specialists in var-
ious fields, in general), was absolutely legitimate, given that the country of
origin could not offer them the opportunities they might have in the host
countries.5 The president underlined that the absence of economic policies
that would encourage professionals to build a career in the country of origin
should be acknowledged and assumed by the entire political class. However,
in Romania, the president’s statement generated fierce criticism from politi-
cians, NGOs, and opinion leaders, who interpreted it as legitimizing economic
migration, an unacceptable stance for a decision-maker. At the same time, the
press mediatized negative reactions from migration actors and presented in
