Hierarchies of othering: Public discourses about Ukrainian refugees and immigrants in Romania.

Abstract

Romania has gradually shifted from a country of emigration to a country of immigration after 2020, which led to a variety of positions and discourses about refugees and immigrants articulated in the public space. This chapter aims to map these positions and discourses about the recent newcomers in Romanian society. We are proposing an exploratory analysis of how different social actors and the media have responded and communicated about the Ukrainian refugee displacement after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as well as about the increased number of immigrants coming into Romania in recent years. We argue that (1) there is a gradual construction of Otherness and a Hierarchy of othering in relation to “the refugees”, “the foreign workers”, and “the immigrants working in Romania”, and (2) media played a key role in structuring these processes. Not only do they have implications for aid interventions, programs and inclusion policies for newcomers, but they equally interfere with the (de)legitimation of political agendas of various political actors.