Ethics, Politics and Migration: Public Debates on the Free Movement of Romanians and Bulgarians in the UK, 2006–2013. (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Balch, Alex; Balabanova, Ekaterina
• Is Part Of: Politics. Volume 36:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 19
• Page End: 35
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: UK -- ethics -- immigration -- media -- security; Political science -- Periodicals; 320
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9256.12082
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-3957

Abstract

Public debates on immigration have become the subject of much concern, particularly in the UK. This article applies an ethical lens to assess changes in public debates over intra-EU migration in six UK national newspapers during 2006 and 2013. It finds an almost complete dominance of communitarian justifications, mainly based on welfare chauvinism, but a notable increase in security-related arguments and a decrease in economic nationalist ideas. Alternative cosmopolitan arguments about immigration go from rare to virtually absent. The discussion links these shifts to a failure of the UK centre-left to overcome historic difficulties in presenting a coherent narrative on immigration policy.