The Impact of Migration on the Construction of Romania's Country Image: Two Intersecting Public Problems.

Abstract

In Romania, the promotion of the country image has been a recurrent topic on the public agenda after the fall of Communism. Ever since, the governmental campaigns, initiatives or slogans meant to promote and communicate Romania to the world generated so many heated debates that the country’s image eventually became a public problem. After the country joined the European Union these debates about the country’s image started to be closely linked with the increased wave of Romanian migration towards Western Europe. Migrants have become both resource of positive visibility and image crisis for Romania due to their behaviours and actions in the destination countries. This chapter draws a longitudinal analysis of the gradual interconnected construction of Romania’s country image and migration as public problems: it identifies several stages (between 1990 and 2010) when the government played a key role and more recent developments (between 2010 and 2015), when various non-state actors seize the opportunity for increased visibility and instrumentalize the two public problems in brand communication campaigns. Thus, it is showed how the different stages in the construction of these public problems have reconfigured over time and, especially, the impact of migration on the construction of Romania's country image.