In new research, Dora-Olivia Vicol and William Allen examine how the media reported on Bulgarians and Romanians in the run-up to transitional controls being lifted. A textual analysis revealed that the nouns identified as explicitly ‘Romanian’ tended to centre around criminality and economic poverty, and this was especially the case in tabloids

Allen, William

Vicol, Dora Olivia

LSE Research Online

8/26/2014How has the UK national press described Bulgarians andRomanians?blogs.lse.ac.uk /politicsandpolicy/how-uk-press-describe-bulgarians-and-romanians/In new research, Dora-Olivia Vicol and William Allen examine how the media reported on Bulgarians andRomanians in the run-up to transitional controls being lifted. A textual analysis revealed that thenouns identified as explicitly ‘Romanian’ tended to centre around criminality and economic poverty,and this was especially the case in tabloids. On 1 January 2014, transitional controls placed on Bulgarians and Romanians wishing to work inthe UK were lifted. From 1 December 2012 to 1 December 2013, arguably a crucial time in the run-up to this important change, UK national newspapers discussed the potential magnitude, impacts,and composition of migrants from these countries. In a new report published by The MigrationObservatory, we explored what kind of language was used around mentions of these countries aswell as people identified as Bulgarian or Romanian over these twelve months. We were particularlyinterested in identifying what issues were raised alongside mentions of both groups when theyappeared together, but also in comparing the language used in connection with mentions of eithergroup when they appeared separately.Using Nexis, a service that archives many periodicals including newspapers, we searched for anyitems mentioning Bulgaria, Romania, Bulgarian(s), or Romanian(s) that had appeared in ten of the UK’s mostpopular national tabloids and broadsheets, as well as their Sunday editions (a full list of papers and categorisationappears at the end of this post). We intentionally searched across all sections of newspapers, rather thanconcentrating on ‘news’ or ‘international’ sections, because readers are likely to encounter stories mentioning thesecountries in a variety of locations—such as the sports or arts sections. We also consciously avoided including themonth immediately prior to 1 January 2014: since we were interested in explaining how the press had generallytalked about these groups, inclusion of this particularly intense period may have unintentionally skewed the results.The final dataset included 4,441 items totalling over 2.8 million words. Using corpus linguistic methods and theSketch Engine, a web-based tool employed by lexicographers to study how words are used in context, we looked forwords that were most frequently and significantly linked to mentions of Romanians and Bulgarians together, as wellas separately. The findings are expressed in ‘raw’ frequencies, representing simple counts of the number of times aword was used, and in frequencies ‘normalised’ per 1,000 items, which accounts for the difference in lengthbetween tabloid and broadsheet articles. This means that one mention of ‘Romanian migrant’ in a tabloid article, forexample, counts as the same as a (potentially) longer broadsheet article. (Fuller discussion of the methodology iscontained in Appendix 2 of the report.)Over the twelve months, tabloids published more items mentioning the key terms than broadsheets except for July,September, and October. There was an increase from December 2012 to February 2013—the single month with themost items published, largely driven by the horsemeat scandal which was linked to Romanian abattoirs—followedby a decrease in both publication types.Figure 1: Frequency of items in the corpus over time1/6Source: The Migration ObservatorySince the dataset was collected with no particular topic in mind, other than references to Bulgaria and Romania, wefirst wanted to know what people, places, or things were regularly described as Bulgarian and/or Romanian—or, ingrammatical terms, when ‘Bulgarian’ and ‘Romanian’ were used as adjectives, what nouns regularly appeared withthem. The results show that both tabloids and broadsheets were referring to migration issues when they mentionedthese two groups together, as in ‘Bulgarian and Romanian migrants’.Table 1: Nouns described by the adjectives ‘Romanian and Bulgarian’ by publication typeTabloids BroadsheetsNoun Raw Frequency Normalised Noun Raw Frequency Normalisedmigrant 35 15.05 migrant 48 22.70immigrant 34 14.62 worker 32 15.13worker 26 11.18 immigrant 31 14.66immigration 21 9.03 citizen 23 10.87citizen 16 6.88 immigration 11 5.20student 4 1.72 migration 4 1.89migration 4 1.72 economic 4 1.89national 4 1.72January 4 1.72seasonal 3 1.29influx 3 1.29 2/6Meanwhile, looking at verbs associated with ‘Bulgarian’ and ‘Romanian’ when they are used as nouns tells us whatactions the press reported the two groups as doing. In this case, one set of words focused on inward movement, asillustrated by verbs like come, arrive, and work.Table 2: Top 20 verbs appearing after Bulgarian and Romanians by publication typeTabloids BroadsheetsVerb Raw Frequency Normalised Verb Raw Frequency Normalisedwill 115 49.44 come 71 33.57come 88 37.83 will 69 32.62arrive 39 16.77 work 47 22.22live 30 12.90 live 27 12.77move 27 11.61 could 23 10.87access 23 9.89 gain 18 8.51lift 20 8.60 arrive 18 8.51expect 19 8.17 move 14 6.62gain 17 7.31 travel 11 5.20head 16 6.88 lift 9 4.26flock 15 6.45 allow 8 3.78allow 12 5.16 head 8 3.78flood 11 4.73 settle 6 2.84settle 11 4.73 enter 6 2.84enter 8 3.44 expect 6 2.84travel 8 3.44 strain 5 2.36relax 7 3.01 seek 4 1.89prepare 5 2.15 crop 3 1.42poise 4 1.72 curb 3 1.42emigrate 4 1.72 blame 3 1.42 Broadsheets and tabloids also used a range of numeric language ( million, thousands) and specific figuresalongside mentions of these groups when they appeared together. The 50,000 figure was particularly associatedwith a report published by MigrationWatch UK, although the results below also show how a wide range of otherfigures were circulated. This finding was particularly interesting given the absence of official data.Table 3: Numerals and specific figures associated with mentions of Bulgarians and Romanians3/6Tabloids BroadsheetsNoun Raw Frequency Normalised Noun Raw Frequency Normalisedmillion 69 29.66 million 24 11.3529 50 21.50 29 13 6.15thousands 29 12.47 50,000 12 5.6750,000 20 8.60 21,250 5 2.36millions 13 5.59 250,000 5 2.36350,000 8 3.44 26,000 4 1.89250,000 8 3.44 80,000 4 1.8970,000 6 2.58 millions 4 1.8935,000 4 1.72 35,000 3 1.4213,000 4 1.72 350,000 3 1.4230,000 3 1.29  400 3 1.29   However, when we turned attention to how the press portrayed each group separately, we found a strikingdifference: the nouns identified as explicitly ‘Romanian’ tended to centre around criminality (words like gang,criminal, thief) and economic poverty (squatter, beggar). This was especially apparent in the tabloids compared tothe broadsheets, as seen below.Table 4: Top 20 nouns described as Romanian by Publication Type:Tabloids BroadsheetsNoun Raw Frequency Normalised Noun Raw Frequency Normalisedside 21 9.03 Abattoir 26 12.29gang 19 8.17 Migrant 16 7.57abattoir 17 7.31 Ambassador 13 6.15criminal 13 5.59 Gang 13 6.15woman 13 5.59 Immigrant 13 6.15immigrant 13 5.59 Authority 12 5.67passport 11 4.73 Woman 11 5.20gypsy 11 4.73 Beggar 9 4.26beggar 10 4.30 Horse 9 4.264/6defender 10 4.30 Orphanage 8 3.78national 10 4.30 Capital 8 3.78slaughterhouse 8 3.44 Supplier 7 3.31ambassador 8 3.44 Horsemeat 7 3.31thief 8 3.44 Citizen 7 3.31authority 8 3.44 Leu 6 2.84minnow 7 3.01 Girl 6 2.84squatter 7 3.01 Dictator 5 2.36capital 7 3.01 Parliament 5 2.36keeper 7 3.01 Soprano 4 1.89stopper 5 2.15 slaughterhouse 4 1.89 This was distinctly absent from the nouns described as ‘Bulgarian’, where references to football and a particularcase of blonde Bulgarian Roma child who sparked an ‘abduction’ investigation in Greece were more predominant.Table 5: Top 20 nouns described as Bulgarian across publication typesTabloids BroadsheetsNoun Raw Frequency Normalised Noun Raw Frequency Normalisedwoman 13 5.59 woman 17 8.04midfielder 7 3.01 town 10 4.73capital 7 3.01 Roma 10 4.73couple 6 2.58 mother 9 4.26star 5 2.15 couple 9 4.26immigrant 5 2.15 nurse 8 3.78dissident 4 1.72 capital 8 3.78ambassador 4 1.72 ambassador 7 3.31ace 4 1.72 driver 6 2.84winger 4 1.72 immigrant 6 2.84resort 4 1.72 politics 5 2.36gypsy 4 1.72 authority 5 2.36striker 4 1.72 soprano 4 1.895/6wine 4 1.72 interior 4 1.89official 4 1.72 investigation 4 1.89foreign 4 1.72 wine 4 1.89open 4 1.72 citizen 4 1.89millionaire 3 1.29 dissident 3 1.42drug 3 1.29 actress 3 1.42international 3 1.29 singer 3 1.42 Crucially for the study of British politics, this research documents the language which the UK national press—itself aheterogeneous space in which migration debates continue to occur—has actually used in its coverage of thesemigrant groups at a critical time for migration policy and governance. Furthermore, not only does it contribute a newset of evidence for properly understanding how the press has portrayed different migrant groups, but it alsoillustrates the exciting possibilities for further large-scale analysis of other political texts.National UK tabloids analysed were: The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday, TheExpress, The Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday. National UK broadsheetsanalysed were: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph The Guardian, TheObserver The Independent, Independent on Sunday, The Financial Times.Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of theLondon School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting. Featured image credit: DavidHolt CC BY-SA 2.0About the AuthorsDora-Olivia Vicol is a DPhil student at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography(SAME) at the University of Oxford. William Allen is a Research Officer at The Migration Observatory and the Centre on Migration,Policy, and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. He tweets from @williamlallen and hiswebsite can be seen at https://oxford.academia.edu/williamallen   6/6

How has the UK national press described Bulgarians and Romanians?

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