mixed methods research project: europe between east and west

Assignment Cover SheetEurope between East and West: What is Romanian immigrants’image in British tabloids in light of the lifting of workrestrictions, and is this shared by the people in Britain?

I. Introduction

Over the last decade, with more and more Eastern European

countries entering the European Union (EU), migration from

Eastern to Western Europe has become a controversial topic

that incited heated debate in the political, media, and

private realms. Concerns about European immigration emerged

among the Britons since the wave of Polish migration in 2004,

and are currently revolving around what is planned to happen

in 2014, i.e. Romanian and Bulgarian citizens will not be

subjected to restrictions to work in the United Kingdom

anymore. This research project scrutinizes the image British

people have about Romanian immigrants in the UK and it argues

that although the former are not persuaded to a great extent

by the hostile culture against the latter, which is

proliferating in the British tabloids, Romanian migrants are

still not openly welcome on the island. I will start with a

concise review of the existing studies addressing Romanian

immigration in the UK, by examining what the findings of

Student ID: 1257883 POLS SD1D: Research Skills and Methods DrMike Adkins

previous studies are and, respectively, what contribution the

present work may have. The second section will focus on the

methodology employed, consisting of both quantitative, in the

form of self-completion questionnaires, and qualitative

(visual and critical discourse analysis) methods, as well as

the motivation behind choosing it. Thirdly, I will analyse the

data obtained by showing how judgmental representations of

Romanian migrants linked to the 2014 events are abounding in

news stories and how the perception of Britons (particularly

students) on Romanians differ from what the tabloids depict.

Before concluding, I will summarise the evolution of the

project and also discuss its implications related to further

prospective research on this topic.

II. Literature Review

Although the subject of migration from the Eastern to the

Occidental part of the continent has been tackled by a

considerable number of studies, academic work addressing this

topic in relation to the end of work restrictions for Romanian

and Bulgarians in 2014 is quite scarce, due to the recentness

and also uncertainty of this event. Therefore, the present

study aims to show how British people feel about this

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particular matter. In their literature, Modood (1997),

Vertovec and Wessendorf (2010) focus on the problem of a

multicultural Europe where cultural diversity and multi-

ethnicity lead to nations’ stereotyping, making integration a

difficult target. Migration and the fear of Eastern immigrants

have become major research problems after the biggest wave of

European enlargement in 2004, continuing with the perception

of Romanians as would-be emigrants and as the “public enemy”

for the EU’s welfare and social protection system following

its accession to the Union in 2007 (Silaşi & Simina, 2007: 2-

3).

I also found relevant Mădroane’s (2009) critical discourse

analysis of the construction of Romanian economic migrants in

three British tabloids in the year precedent to the adherence

of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU. The aforementioned study

found that the corpus of 34 news stories analysed “construe

migrants as numbers, statistics or percentages”, thus

contributing to the dehumanisation of the targeted group, as

well as persuading readers to fear the large number of

immigrants from these countries allowed into the UK (Mădroane,

2009: 74). In my research I identified similar representations

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of the migrants from the formerly mentioned states.

Nevertheless, I will build on this previous study by showing

that the judgmental depictions in the mass-media are still

present and even enhanced in the discussions on the abolition

of work restrictions.

Moreover, I found that a study published by Fox, Moroşanu and

Szilassy (2012: 682) echoes the results of my research with

regard to the phenomenon of ‘racialization’ of Eastern

Europeans. As concluded in the aforementioned work and as will

be presented later on in this report, this prejudice is not

caused only by socio-economic grounds (i.e. the reference to

the Eastern members of the EU as ‘A8’ and ‘A2’) but also by

their association with Roma people in a pejorative manner.

However, my research will take into account not only the

presence of racialization in the media and immigration policy

but also in Britons’ views, thus proffering a wider

perspective on the topic.

III. Methodology

The methodology employed in the creation of this project

consists of a combination of quantitative and qualitative

methods, which are complementary to each other, leading to a

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well-rounded conclusion and providing “more comprehensive

visions of the same phenomenon” (Cuba & Lincoln, 2004: 9).

From the first category, I have chosen to design an Internet-

based self-completion questionnaire, as it is a time and cost

saving research strategy, which provides accurate and

generalizable data (Neuman, 2006: 219). A sample of 60

students both undergraduate and postgraduate from the

Universities of Birmingham, Sheffield, and Aberdeen were

chosen in order to collect responses from different regions of

the UK, and from different academic environments. I preferred

the simple random sample as “there is almost no opportunity

for human bias to manifest itself” (Bryman, 2008: 172), since

the selection of students was entirely mechanical and not

based on subjective criteria. Also, by employing this method,

students’ availability was not an impediment in the evolution

of the study, as everyone could complete the questionnaire any

time at their own convenience. Due to the limited amount of

time available for realizing this research, I was able to

include students from only three universities. I opted for the

academic setting as it includes people from different age

groups, although the majority belong to the youth sector, thus

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ensuring a certain degree of diversity among the respondents,

which contributes to the objectivity and possibility of

generalizing the results.

As for the qualitative part of my study, I chose visual and

critical discourse analysis (CDA). I considered CDA a highly

appropriate method, being directly relevant to the topic

chosen, since it studies how “social power abuse, dominance,

and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text

and talk in the social and political context” (Van Dijk, 2001:

352). Both visual and discourse analysis assist the

deconstruction of the meanings behind the material analysed –

in this instance text and photographs from tabloid articles –

helping to illustrate that the selective choice of words and

pictures leads to the portrait of Romanian immigrants being

one constructed by the writer, and not neutrally presented. In

this respect, CDA helps us decipher connotations and

insinuations used with the purpose of influencing the readers

to share the meanings within the content of the text. As

Bryman (2008: 499) put it, CDA “seeks to link language and its

modes of use to the significance of […] social difference in

society”, thus this method of inquiry is of utmost importance

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in understanding the effects of the textual binary opposition

between ‘we’ and ‘the other’, i.e. British and Eastern

Europeans.

However, this research method does not provide exclusively

advantages. A certain degree of subjectivity is among its main

limitations, since I adopted an interpretivist stance,

building my arguments on personal interpretation, and not on

value-free and “hard” data alone (Cuba & Lincoln, 2004: 3).

Nevertheless, my study focused on questioning and “dealing

with this particular image, which is given for this particular

signification” (Barthes, 1991: 108) rather than being

subjective.

IV. Findings and Analysis

I will start by revealing the results delivered by my CDA of

tabloid articles referring to the employment restrictions

relaxation, which prove that Romanian immigrants are depicted

in a biased manner that seeks to manipulate the public

opinion. This report presents the findings of a study done on

articles published in 2013 in newspapers such as The Sun, The

Daily Mail, and The Daily Express. Romanians are generally

aggregated with Bulgarians in tabloid headlines so that the

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figures showing the number of potential immigrants seem

shocking to the public. For instance, numbers and

constructions such as “thousands”, “hordes”, “70,000 people a

year for the next five years” (Craven&Arbuthnott, 2013),

“countless immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria” (Slack,

2013), “50,000 arrivals every year [...] – the equivalent of a

city the size of Newcastle upon Tyne” (Doyle, 2013), “an army

of jobless Bulgarians and out-of-work Romanians are preparing

to invade Britain” (Culliford, 2013), “fears of ‘immigrant

invasion’” (Hall, 2013) can be found in articles posted in

2013, representing the migrants from the two countries in an

amalgam. This type of references to Romanians is not only

found in articles addressing the total number of immigrants

coming from this country, but also in news stories referring

to crimes. For example, an article from the Daily Mail renders

the number of Romanians who “have been held for serious

offences in London over the past five years”, which equals

28,000 or, put in a different and emphatic way, 15 a day.

However, the accentuation of these facts, which are not

supported by documentary evidence, is linked to the

eradication of employment restrictions, which automatically

8


persuades readers to be concerned about more immigrants from

this country moving to the UK.

Moreover, Romanian nationals are often associated with the

Roma ethnic minority in tabloid articles, although the latter

represents only 2.5% of the country’s total population

(Census, 2002). Through the visual analysis of pictures

inserted in articles from The Sun and The Daily Mail I will

show that the representation of Romanians in this section of

the media is unfair, as there is merely no difference made

between Romanian and Roma people.

The text surrounding the image below (Figure 1) mentions

Romanian immigrants, without any reference to gypsies.

However, the picture evidently shows a group of people

belonging to the aforementioned ethnic minority. The multitude

of bags, the clothes hanging on the fence, and the posture of

the man lighting a cigarette on the street are details which

connote the image in a negative sense, and also suggests

poverty.

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The description below the figure – “New Arrivals: Romanian

immigrants set up camp [...], central London” (Slack & Doyle,

2013) leads to a false generalization which prejudices the

image Romanians have in the United Kingdom. Through the use of

illustrations such as figure 1 while discussing Romanians’

immigration to Britain, this nation is narrowed to one of its

ethnic minorities, and the reader may be persuaded to believe

that such pictures are truly representative of the entire

population.

Figure 2 puts Romanians under the same negative light and it

is featured under the headline “The UK is much better than

Romania. All my mates will come in 2014” (Francis, 2012), thus

manipulating the reader to fear the relaxation of the

employment laws. It shows a group of young men with dubious

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Figure 1


looks, drinking and smoking at the corner of a street instead

of working, giving the impression that they were trying to

hide their profiles. Similarly to the purpose of the first

figure presented, this capture leads to a biased

generalization by representing Romanians as people with

questionable characters and morality. The text of the article

intensifies the suggestions of the illustration below, by

employing a persuasive language, filled with metaphors and

connotative verbs, as can be noticed in the following phrase:

“a tidal wave of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants is

threatening to swamp Britain – and flood our overstretched

jobs market” (Francis, 2012).

Figure 2

Regarding the findings obtained with the aid of the

questionnaire, there are some similarities between the ways in

which Romanians are portrayed in the formerly presented

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Copyright 2012 News Group Newspapers Ltd


tabloids and the surveyed students’ opinions. However, the

general opinion differs to a considerable extent from the

perceptions examined above. Before starting to analyse the

results of the quantitative part of my study, I shall mention

that 78% of my sample was represented by UK nationals, while

the remaining 22% were students of other nationalities living

in the UK. The presence of respondents of other nationalities

offered diversity to my research, and the large proportion of

British participants served the main purpose of this study,

which was to discover what Romanians’ image is in the eyes of

Britons. Also worth mentioning is that 66.10% of the

respondents interact with Romanians at least once a month,

therefore their

opinions are

formed on the

basis of their

personal

experience, and,

therefore, are less likely to be uninformed and prejudiced.

The diagram below indicates what respondents chose from a list

indicating possible words that come to mind when they think of

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0.00%10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%

Series1


a Romanian. In order to avoid any confusion, I should mention

that those who completed the questionnaire had the possibility

to select more than one attribute, thus the percetages do not

amount to 100%, but exceed it. The majority of the respondents

chose ‘hard-working’ (57.14%), ‘intelligent’ (44.64%), and

‘fair’ (41.07%). This views contrast the perception of

Romanians in the UK promoted in tabloid articles, such as the

one discussed earlied in this report, which suggests that

“immigrants wait in car park for work” (Francis, 2012). Also,

the percentage of respondents who chose ‘crimes’ as a word

which they associate with Romanians was relatively low

(12.5%), contrasting with the discourse employed by British

tabloid journalists, who highlight “how Romanian criminals

terrorise our streets” (Dawar, 2013). However, one fourth of

the answerers associate Romanians with gypsies.

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As for the attitude of the British towards the immigrants from

the Carpatho-Danubian country, the respondents considered

‘discriminatory’ and ‘indifferent’ the predominant feelings,

with the former being chosen by approximately 43% of those who

answered the question. This finding can be considered a

justification for the percentage of 30% respondents who

thought that the lifting of employment restrictions may be a

reason for the UK to leave the EU, among other factors.

Nevertheless, 62.71% believed that Romanians and Bulgarians

are entitled to the right to work in the UK, as their

countries are

members of the

EU. In contrast

to the media

propaganda

against the

events planned

for 2014, only 23.73% of the participants in my study

expressed their concerns about more Eastern Europeans taking

British people’s jobs and receiving benefits, while 13.5% were

unsure or not interested.

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tolerant

discriminatory

open-minded

unjust

indifferent

14.29%

42.86%

16.07%25.00%33.93%

British people's attitudes towards Romanian immigrants


Therefore, there are collisional ways of depicting Romanians

in Britain. While tabloids focus exclusively on the lowest

stratum of this country’s representatives, and attempt to

spread worries about their free access to the British labour

market, British students do not share the same perceptions,

the majority considering the relaxation of employment

restriction something rightful.

V. Evaluation

This project was challenging to me both as a beginner in the

field of social research, and as an individual. I would have

liked to deliver my questionnaire to more people, from more

varied backgrounds, but as an international student I do not

have many contacts in the UK, and promoting the survey

randomly only on social media could have meant unreliable

results. Also, I had to undertake a extensive research of the

discourses on immigration, as well as make a selection of

specific material referring to Romanians. Furthermore, in

order to carry out the visual analysis, I could only select

pictures which were were not protected by copyright or, if so,

I had to contact the owner and ask for their consent to

utilize the photographs. My e-mails have not been answered

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every time and this resulted in a narrower range of choice,

and implicitly to the impossibility to analyse more

illustrative pictures. Moreover, by mixing methods – surveying

people and analysing discourse – I managed show that tabloids

continue to represent Romanian immigrants in a prejudiced

manner, which does not coincide with the general opinion,

although a discriminatory attitude is admitted. Through my

study I have built on and supported the conclusions of

previous studies conducted before another significant event

for the phenomenon of migration, i.e. this country’s accession

to the EU. Thus, my study may enable a comparison between the

attitudes towards Romanians in 2006 and 2013.

VI. Conclusion

This study has found that tabloids represent Romanian

immigrants in the UK in a way intended to persuade readers to

become concerned about the unrestricted access of the former

to the British labour market, and that this representation is

generally not shared by people in Britain. However, the

findings indicate that Romanians are associated with Roma

people both in the media and, to a smaller extent, in people’s

perceptions, being perceived in a discriminatory way by

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British natives. To complete the results of my study, further

research using focus groups and interviews could be conducted

after the employment restrictions are lifted, in order to

examine the impact of this event on the labour and housing

markets, as well as to test whether the image Romanians have

in the UK changes.

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Bibliography

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University Press;Craven, N. and Arbuthnott, G. (2013), “Thousands of Bulgarians

and Romanians 'plan to flood UK in 2014' as employment restrictions relax”, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268952/Thousands-Bulgarians-Romanians-plan-flood-UK-2014-employment-restrictions-relax.html, Date Accessed: 14/04/2013;

Cuba, E. G. and Lincoln, Y. S. (2004) “Competing Paradigms inQualitative Research: Theories and Issues” in Hesse-Biber, S. N. and Leavy, P. (eds.), Approaches to qualitativeresearch: a reader on theory and practice, Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress;

Culliford, G. (2013) “Next stop UK: Romanians & Bulgarians arequeueing up for handout Britain”, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4776276/Romanians-Bulgarians-are-queueing-up-for-handout-Britain.html, Date Accessed: 14/04/2013;

Dawar, A. (2013) “How Romanian criminals terrorise our streets”, http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/380512/How-Romanian-criminals-terrorise-our-streets, Date Accessed: 14/04/2013;

Doyle, J. (2013) “28,000 Romanians are held for crimes in UK over 5 years... and there are only 68,000 of them living here!”, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285177/28-000-Romanians-held-crimes-UK-5-years--68-000-living-here.html, Date Accessed: 13/04/2013;

Figure 1, The Daily Mail (2013), New arrivals: Romanian immigrants setup camp at Marble Arch, central London, last year, Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278373/Clueless-Ministers-attempt-estimate-number-Romanian-Bulgarian-immigrants-come-Britain.html, Date Accessed: 18/04/2013;

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4776276/Romanians-Bulgarians-are-queueing-up-for-handout-Britain.html

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Figure 2, Thompson, L. (2012), Cashing in...immigrants wait in car park for work, Available from: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4637926/Wave-of-Romanian-and-Bulgarian-immigrants-is-threatening-to-swamp-Britain.html, Date Accessed: 18/04/2013;

Fox, J. E, Moroşanu, L. and Szilassy, E. (2012) “TheRacialization of the New European Migration to the UK”,Sociology, 46 (4), pp. 680-695;

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Hall, A. (2013) “Germany rejects Romania and Bulgaria's bid toroam Europe without passport amid fears of 'immigrant invasion'”, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287852/Romania-Bulgaria-WONT-join-EU-passport-free-zone-Germany-vows-veto-Schengen-bid-corruption-fears.html

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Silaşi, G. and Simina, O. L. (2007) The Bitter Taste of Strawberry Jam: Distortions on Romanian Labour Market beyond 2007, [online], http://aei.pitt.edu/9484/1/Silasi,_Simina_2007-Bitter_Taste_of_Strawberry_Jam.pdf, Date Accessed: 10/04/2013;

Slack, J. (2013) “An accident waiting to happen and apolitical class in paralysis”,http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2280795/An-accident-waiting-happen-political-class-paralysis.html,Date Accessed: 13/04/2013;

Slack, J. and Doyle, J. (2013) “Clueless: Ministers have madeno attempt to estimate number of Romanian and Bulgarian

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http://aei.pitt.edu/9484/1/Silasi,_Simina_2007-Bitter_Taste_of_Strawberry_Jam.pdf

http://aei.pitt.edu/9484/1/Silasi,_Simina_2007-Bitter_Taste_of_Strawberry_Jam.pdf

http://www.insse.ro/cms/rw/pages/rpl2002.ro.do

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4637926/Wave-of-Romanian-and-Bulgarian-immigrants-is-threatening-to-swamp-Britain.html







immigrants who will come to Britain”, [online],http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278373/Clueless-Ministers-attempt-estimate-number-Romanian-Bulgarian-immigrants-come-Britain.html, Date Accessed: 18/04/2013;

Van Dijk, T. (2001) “Critical Discourse Analysis” inSchiffrin, D., Tanne, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (eds), Thehandbook of discourse analysis, Malden: Blackwell;

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Wilson, G. (2013) “‘350,000 Romanians and Bulgarians heading to UK’ as EU lift restrictions”, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4748536/350000-Romanians-and-Bulgarians-heading-to-UK-as-EU-lift-restrictions.html, Date Accessed: 14/04/2013.

Appendix

Questionnaire and results:

1. What is your nationality?

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278373/Clueless-Ministers-attempt-estimate-number-Romanian-Bulgarian-immigrants-come-Britain.html#ixzz2R0zw0Hpd




UK 78%

Other 22%

2. How do you feel about the lifting of the current workrestrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in theUK in 2014?

I believe they areentitled to this right astheir countries are EUmembers

62.71%

I am worried about moreEastern Europeans takingBritish people’s jobs andreceiving benefits in theUK

23.73%

I don’t know/care 13.56%

3. Have your views been influenced by the mass-media orpolitical declarations?

Yes 15%Unsure 25%No 60%

4. Do you consider this a reason for the UK to leave the EU?

Yes, this would be amajor reason

10%

Maybe, among others 30%No, this is not somethingto worry about

23.33%

I don’t agree with the UKleaving the EU

36.67%

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5. Do you interact with a Romanian at least once a month?

Yes 66.10%Unsure 6.78%No 27.12%

6. What words come to mind when you think of a Romanianperson?

Hard-working 57.14%Modest 32.14%Fair 41.07%Intelligent 44.64%.Disadvantaged 41.07%Communist 7.14%Poor 37.50%Crimes 12.50%Gypsy 25%Unskilled 7.14%

7. How would you describe British people’s attitudes towardsRomanian immigrants?

Tolerant 14.29%Discriminatory 42.86%Open-minded 16.07%Unjust 25%Indifferent 33.93%

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mixed methods research project: europe between east and west

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