Experiencing whiteness: intra-EU migration of Romanians to Paris and London

ABSTRACT

This article explores the concept of “whiteness” going beyond skin colour to look at its socio-economic and cultural components in the case of intra-EU Romanian migration to two different national/local contexts. Romanian migrants face widespread public demonizing and discrimination in Western Europe, with political campaigns against them focusing more on the job market in the case of the UK and the presence of the Roma minority in France. The analysis is based on qualitative research done around 2012–2016, at the height of anti-Romanian migration sentiment in the EU, and specifically on in-depth interviews conducted with 76 participants (migrants and key informants) in London and Paris. Following studies of the racialization of Eastern European migrants in Western Europe, this article exposes how in London, Romanians’ inclusion/exclusion in the white space is experienced mostly in occupational and economic terms, while in Paris ethnicity and other cultural markers gain greater weight.

KEYWORDS:

• Whiteness
• EU migration
• precarity
• ethnicity
• racism
• Romanians

Acknowledgements

I thank the three anonymous reviewers for their comments which improved this article. I also express my gratitude to Nathan Topari, Dr. Anastasia Bermudez-Torres and Dr. Lisa Long for their insightful suggestions and encouraging vibes. The research is part of a larger project entitled “Aspirations of belonging. A Study of Romanians in London and Paris” (2012–2016).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/J500215/1].