Accession and Migration by Yordanka Valkanova John Eade

Author:Yordanka Valkanova, John Eade [Yordanka Valkanova, John Eade]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780754675037
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2009-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

The chapter has focused on media reactions to the latest twist in a long tale about migration within Bulgaria. This twist has a more global dimension since it has been shaped by the political and economic changes wrought by ‘1989’, post-socialism and EU accession. Newsworthy stories are not the more familiar ones of migration from Bulgaria’s neighbours (Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Romania and Serbia) but from the ‘West’. The British are the most noted of these Western newcomers – an expression not only of numbers but their symbolic significance. They enable Bulgarians to tell stories to each other about how the subjects of the British queen are abandoning their country for the charms of Bulgaria! In other words, there is an element of pride and satisfaction that a new member of the European Union is so attractive despite the socio-economic problems. Even foreigners from the north-western fringe of Europe are becoming real neighbours.

The North-Western European migration to Spain is well documented (O’Reilly 2000; King et al. 2000; Helset et al. 2004). As for the British and other North-West European migration to Bulgaria, it is a much more recent phenomenon, not enough data has been collected and less scientific effort has been invested in analysing the process (see the chapters by Deema Kaneff and Zhivko Ivanov in this volume).

This chapter focuses on communication between the British settlers in Bulgaria and the locals primarily through the lens of one of Bulgaria’s major daily newspapers. I have drawn on media and communication theory to explore how the newspaper articles, as public discourse, do not simply address ‘the public’ but also create a certain reality. This emerges, to some extent, through textual discourse, which involves media representations as well as the collective social understandings of groups formed by shared social and cultural experiences.

The newspapers discussed here provide a rich source for these representations, both reflecting and cultivating them. Although we began this Conclusion by highlighting the positive aspects of Bulgaria’s recent migration story, there is a darker side, of course. There are many others approaching Bulgaria (from the neighbouring countries as well as from Ukraine, Moldova, the newcomers from Asian and African countries), who do not enjoy such media comfort. As previous research shows, media portrayals of new immigrants can fuel local tensions and create a hostile environment (see, for example, Robinson and Reeve 2006, 23). However, the stories analysed here show how the media can promote a welcoming environment. Between 2001 and 2006 the Bulgarian newspapers encouraged a sense of neighbourliness between Bulgarians and the newcomers from the West. They show how media can contribute to constructing civic and cultural concepts of Europe (see Sanna 2006), including the widely discussed concept of European citizenship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.