De lever bland oss men inte med oss - En samtida policyanalys av svenska beslutsfattares problematisering av romska migranter

This thesis concerns the problematization of the appearance of non-citizens within the nation state. It is studied by examining Swedish policymaker‟s response to the influx of poor eastern European Roma to Sweden in relation to the EU enlargments of 2007, a phenomenon wich has caused much debate and turmoil in Swedish society in recent years. The thesis poses the question of what policymakers perceive to be the actual problem in relation to the Roma migrants, what the construction of Roma identity looks like and how this effects policy aimed towards the group. As method the thesis makes use of Carol Bacchis critical policy analysis in combination with discourse analysis and the theoretical framework is built on theories on “governmentality” and “securitization”. Through this the thesis shows how the roma migrants are partly victimized, but mainly perceived as a threat towards society‟s constituting principles and the basis of a societal identity. It also shows how this has effects on how policymakers construct the identity of the roma migrant and that policymakers tend to share a logic which limits what sort of policy can be directed towards the group.This thesis concerns the problematization of the appearance of non-citizens within the nation state. It is studied by examining Swedish policymaker‟s response to the influx of poor eastern European Roma to Sweden in relation to the EU enlargments of 2007, a phenomenon wich has caused much debate and turmoil in Swedish society in recent years. The thesis poses the question of what policymakers perceive to be the actual problem in relation to the Roma migrants, what the construction of Roma identity looks like and how this effects policy aimed towards the group. As method the thesis makes use of Carol Bacchis critical policy analysis in combination with discourse analysis and the theoretical framework is built on theories on “governmentality” and “securitization”. Through this the thesis shows how the roma migrants are partly victimized, but mainly perceived as a threat towards society‟s constituting principles and the basis of a societal identity. It also shows how this has effects on how policymakers construct the identity of the roma migrant and that policymakers tend to share a logic which limits what sort of policy can be directed towards the group