More than voters: Parliamentary debates about emigrants in a new democracy

There is much research about how migrants engage with politics in their home countries and about how state institutions facilitate this involvement. Yet, we know little about how members of Parliament refer to, and debate, issues related to communities of emigrants. The ways in which legislators giv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEthnicities Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 487 - 506
Main Authors Gherghina, Sergiu, Tap, Paul, Soare, Sorina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2022
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Debates
Democracy
Elections
Emigration
Legislators
Legislatures
Migrants
Speeches
Voters
speeches
resources
discrimination
Romania
members of Parliament
Emigrants
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Summary:There is much research about how migrants engage with politics in their home countries and about how state institutions facilitate this involvement. Yet, we know little about how members of Parliament refer to, and debate, issues related to communities of emigrants. The ways in which legislators give voice to and represent the de-territorialized demos has broad implications for the functioning of contemporary democracies. This article analyzes the ways in which the Romanian parliamentarians refer to emigrants. We focus on the parliamentary speeches from the plenary sessions in the Chamber of Deputies in the two most recent terms in office (2012–2016 and 2016–2020). The study includes 239 parliamentary speeches and uses thematic analysis. Our results identify an ambivalent attitude toward emigrants that transcends political divides. The Romanian legislators express concerns related to the representation of emigrants and their needs and see them as a valuable pool of economic and electoral support.
ISSN:1468-7968
1741-2706
DOI:10.1177/14687968211046309