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 both the local Roma in these countries as well as those who migrated from and to these countries following the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. To do so the authors have analysed left-wing and right of centre major newspapers in these three countries, focusing on specific case studies which were foci of public debates during the last twenty years. In addition they examined a common case study in 2013 (‘Blond Maria’) that was discussed throughout Europe. The article examines the constructions of Roma, both local and migrant, in each newspaper and how these have changed over the period studied in this research. The conclusion of the article examines the multi-layered processes of social and political borderings which dominate discourses on Roma, ‘indigenous’ and migrant, and the extent to which they constitute a coherent ‘European’ construction of ‘the Roma’.