Challenging Anti-migrant Moral Panic Discourses: The Role of Migrants and Trade Unions as Folk Devils Fighting Stigmatisation

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Abstract

As a result of the 2004 European Union enlargement the United Kingdom witnessed inflow of economic migrants from Eastern European countries (A8 countries) with the consequences that British public institutions related to social security system, housing, labor policy and social cohesion have experienced significant pressure. It is estimated that around 1 million A8 migrants, with the majority of Poles (66 percent) have arrived in Britain and have attempted successfully or unsuccessfully to find an employment mostly as catering assistants, packers, farm workers, domestic staff, food processing operatives, chefs, bus drivers, food packers and delivery drivers. Because of the growing number of A8 migrants, in some sectors of indigenous British society there has developed a complex set of anxious societal reactions triggered by this challenge. The following article will focus on societal reactions to economic migrants, namely, it will examine the interactions between anti A8 migrants moral panic proponents and targeted as folk devils A8 migrants who attempted to fight back against stigmatization. Further, it will be explored the crucial role of British trade unions which campaigned on behalf of A8 migrants folk devils and were committed to give them a voice. This analysis, on the one hand, aims to contribute to the development of moral panic concept, on the other, it examines the evolution of subject positions of both A8 migrants and trade union campaigners in the context of post-foundational society.

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