European Identity: Across Which Lines? Defining Europe Through Public Discourses on the Roma

Abstract

This paper offers a careful look at the relationships between discursive constructions of minorities and discriminatory policy making in order to better account for the ways hegemonic cultural standards are prevalent in Europe, not only in prejudiced discourse, but also in apparently neutral practices such as institutional law making. By examining the different discourses surrounding a particular controversy—Italy's so-called “Maroni census”—I illustrate how public rhetoric and policies regarding contemporary Europe's different ethnic groups reduce racism and discrimination to the blatant deployment of essentializing categories. As a consequence, European institutions are fostering a European identity that, by refusing to acknowledge the existence of dividing, discriminatory lines, is reinscribing the inequalities that come with society's reliance on those same lines.

Keywords:

• European Identity
• Critical Intercultural Communication
• Critical Race Theory
• Critical Rhetoric
• Race and Ethnicity
• Roma

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Lisa A. Flores and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Previous versions of this essay were presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, November 2009, and at the annual meeting of the Western States Communication Association, March 2010.

Notes

1. Most of the communication-oriented work dealing with racism and discrimination in Europe has been carried out within the frame of critical discourse analysis (CDA), which emphasizes the role of discourses in reinforcing inequalities, but does not always include asystematic analysis of the policies and laws that accompany these (see, e.g., Wodak & Chilton, 2005; Wodak & Reisigl, 1999 Wodak & Reisigl, 2000).

2. I owe this important qualification to one of the anonymous reviewers.

3. For a more detailed discussion of the procedures to remove Roma children from their families see Carlisle (2004).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susana Martínez Guillem

Susana Martínez Guillem is a Doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA