Press discourses on Roma in the UK, Finland and Hungary

This article analyses the political and media discourses on Roma in Hungary,
Finland and the UK, in relation to the local Roma in these countries as well as
those who migrated from Central and Eastern Europe countries following the
fall of communism. The authors have analysed left of centre and right of
centre major newspapers in these three countries, focusing on specific case
studies which were the foci of public debates during the last two decades.
We also examined a common case study in 2013 (“blond Maria”) that was
discussed throughout Europe. In each news paper, the constructions of Roma,
local and migrant, and the changes to related discourses over the period
were studied. In conclusion, we examine the multi-layered processes of social
and political borderings in Europe which dominate discourses on Roma,
“indigenous” and migrant, and the extent to which they constitute a coherent
“European” construction of “the Roma”.