The “Roma Question”: Exclusion and Threat in the Making of European Identity

This paper theorizes and studies the evolution of discourse on the Roma in the context of the making of European identity. Roma are at once the largest minority and one of the most marginalized groups in the EU. Hostility and racism toward the Roma date back to the beginning of modernity and have experienced a violent comeback in the aftermath of the economic crisis in Europe. Most EU debates about the welfare state, security, citizenship and minority rights will be influenced by the Roma migration for decades to come. The paper focuses on the framing of the Roma in the EU countries receiving most Roma migrants. We use automated content analysis, including topic models, to explore how the identity of the Roma is constructed in the media and official documents as an integral part of the evolution of the identity of a new Europe. We show that the political discourse is polarized between security and control, on the one hand, and antidiscrimination and minority rights, on the other. We argue that framing Roma as a security problem contributes to the convergence of the political and societal responses by the European governments in radically different social and economic realities and plays a role in shaping the European identity. Furthermore, we discuss how the meaning of European citizenship is likely to change if the political and social rejection of the Roma goes unsanctioned.