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

Gherghina, S. , Tap, P. and Soare, S. (2022) More than voters: parliamentary debates about emigrants in a new democracy. Ethnicities, 22(3), pp. 487-506. (doi: 10.1177/14687968211046309)

Abstract

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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gherghina, Dr Sergiu
• Authors: Gherghina, S., Tap, P., and Soare, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Ethnicities
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 1468-7968
• ISSN (Online): 1741-2706
• Published Online: 27 September 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Ethnicities 22(3): 487-506
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License