help! the poles are coming'- narrating a contemporary moral panic

8/19/2019 'Help! the Poles Are Coming'- Narrating a Contemporary Moral Panic

1/14

'Help! The Poles Are Coming': Narrating a Contemporary Moral Panic

Author(s): Roos PijpersReviewed work(s):Source: Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 88, No. 1 (2006), pp. 91-103Published by: Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and GeographyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3554409 .Accessed: 02/11/2012 21:18

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2/14

'HELP THE POLES

ARE

COMING'1:

NARRATING

A

CONTEMPORARY

MORAL

PANIC

by

Roos

Pijpers

Pijpers,

R.,

2006:

'Help

The

Poles

are

coming':

narrating

a con-

temporary

moral

panic.

Geogr.

Ann.,

88

B

(1):

91-103.

ABSTRACT.

In the

years

and months

prior

to the

May

2004 en-

largement

of the

European

Union,

transitional

periods

of two

to

possibly

seven

years

were

imposed

upon

free movement of labour

for

immigrant

workers

from new

(Eastern

European)

member

states

by

a

majority

of

'old' member states. This article aims

to

scrutinize fear of mass migrationfrom new member states by ex-

amining

where

(ir)rationality

and

political

opportunism

meet

in

the

perception

of

this

particular

flow

of

labour

migration

as

a

cause

for

contemporary

moral

panic.

To this

purpose,

the article

starts with

embedding

the notion of fear

of

mass

migration

in

lit-

erature

on moral

panics,

risk

society

and the

'othering'

of

eco-

nomic

migrants

as

strangers

and

folk

devils.

By

means of a case

study

narrative

of

the

decision-making

process

on the free move-

ment

issue in the

Netherlands,

it is

subsequently

demonstrated

that

'politics

of fear' are

deeply

rooted in the

uncontrollability

of

mobilities of

an unknown

magnitude

and an uncertain

impact

on,

for

instance,

domestic

labour markets.

Beyond

rationalizable

con-

cerns of

job

loss,

however,

labour

migrants

from

new member

states

are also feared as threats

to borders of

morality

and

identity

in Western Europeansocieties. The narrative's results are placed

within a wider context

of current

boundary drawings

with

regard

to

migration

in the

enlarging European

Union.

Key

words:

enlargement,

fear of mass

migration,

moral

panics,

risk

society, boundary

drawing,

narratives.

It is

widely

acknowledged

hatthis is the

age

of moral

panic.

(Thompson,

1998,

p.

1)

We

may

call it

a

border;

bjection

s above all

ambiguity.

(Kristeva,

1982,

p.

9)

Introduction

The

date 16

April,

2003,

may

be

regarded

s

his-

toric

in

the

process

of

European

ntegration.

This

day

witnessed

he

signing

of

the

Treaty

of

Athens,

in

which the 2004

accession of ten new member

states nto the

European

Union was

officially

aid

down.

In

thecourse

owards

nlargement,

owever,

the ratificationof

the

Treatyby

the various EU

member

states

ed

to fierce

parliamentary

iscus-

sions overperceivednegativeconsequences f en-

largement, mong

which

s

labour

mmigration,

he

focus of this article.

Having pentmanyyears

com-

plying

with

membership

bligations

the

Copenha-

gen

accession

criteria

and the

acquis

communau-

taire),

accession

countries

were

on

the

verge

of re-

ceiving

membership

ights

as well.

Freedom

of la-

bour,

allowing

EU

citizens to take

on

paid

employment

n

another

member

state,

is

one of

these (fundamental) ights. In rapid succession

however,

overnments

f most 'old'

member

tates

(with

the notable

exception

of

Ireland,

he

United

Kingdom

and

Sweden)

decidedto close

theirdo-

mestic labour

market

or

immigrant

workers

rom

new member tates

(with

the

exception

of

Cyprus

and

Malta)

or

a

period

of

at

least two and

possibly

even

seven

years.

This

articleexamines

the

Dutch case. Fears

of

massive flows

of

immigrants

coming

from

new

memberstates after

enlargement,

s

well as

their

assumed

mpact

on

labour

markets nd

he welfare

state,

has led to

intense

political

and

public

discus-

sion in the

Netherlands,

ulminating

n

a

govern-

mental

decision

to

impose

transitional

eriods

on

free movement

of

labour

as

well. The five-month

period

n

which

fear of mass

migration

rom

new

member tates

eatured

n

the media

headlines

will

serve

as

a time

framewithin which to

narrate

he

case,

drawing

on

reports

of

parliamentary

ebates

and

media

coverage.

Embedded

n literatureon

moral

panics,

risk

society

and

the

'othering'

of

strangers,

he

primary

im of this case

study

elab-

orations to reflecton theconsequencesof fear of

mass

migration

or

borderingprocesses,

which to

an otherwise

mportant

xtent are

rooted

in

irra-

tionality,

xaggeration

nd

political

opportunism.

Changing

versus

converging

spaces

of

social

anxiety

From

safety

discourse

to risk

society

The

concept

of moral

panic

was

introduced

by

Stanley

Cohen

n

his seminalwork Folkdevils

and

moralpanics'of 1972,tellingthestoryof societal

uproar

n the United

Kingdom

over

clashes be-

tween two

youthgangs

named Mods'and

'Rock-

?

The author

(2006)

Journal

compilation

?

(2006)

Swedish

Society

for

Anthropology

and

Geography

91


3/14

ROOS

PIJPERS

ers'.

The

uproar

was

completely

blown out

of

pro-

portion

by

the mass

mediaand

subsequently

aised

fiercedebates

over

British

morality

nd,

closely

re-

lated,

dentity.

This

'Modsand

Rockers' ase

is the

best-knownexample of a classic moral panic,

which

broadly

ncludesanxieties

about

nterrelated

issues of

youth,

sex

andviolence:

youthgangs,

pae-

dophilia,

homosexuality,

IDS,

sex on

screen,

and

so on

(Thompson,

1998;

Critcher,

2003).

Moral

panics

differ

romconcerns

about,

or

example,

un-

employment

or labour

market

ntegration

n the

sense that

they

threaten

ociety's

moralorder-

or

an

'ideological

conception

of some

part

of

it'

(Thompson,

998,

p.

8).

A

moral

panic

s

instigated

by

an

individual

r

group

who

perceives

moralor-

deras

endangered.

hose

calling

attention

o a

per-

ceivedthreatarecalled'moral

entrepreneurs'

Co-

hen,

1972)

or 'claims

makers'

(Goode

and Ben-

Yehuda,

1994).

Anothercharacteristic

f

a moral

panic

s

the

presence

of 'folk

devils':

In the

gallery

of

types

that

society

erects to

show

its members

which

roles should be

avoided

and

which

shouldbe

emulated,

hese

groups

have

occupied

a

constant

position

as

folk

devils: visible

reminders

of

what

we

should

not be.

(Cohen,1972,p. 10)

When

political

and

public

interest fades

away

again,

a

moral

panic

has reached

a

stage

wherein

the features

of

deviancy

and

deviantbehaviour

re

confirmed

s

stereotypes

for

a

detailed

description

see

Cohen,

1972,

and

Thompson,

1998).

Goode

andBen-Yehuda

ttach o moral

panics

he

criteri-

on of

disproportionality:

perceived

threat

s a

moral

panic,

they

argue,only

when the

media at-

tention

paid

o it

by

far

surpasses

he

objective,

eal

threatposed to society.This 'objectivity' s ob-

tained

hrough

ational

alculation

ndrisk assess-

ment of

supposed

negative

consequences,

which

implies

hatmost

moral

panics

canbe identified n-

ly,

and

sometimes

long,

afterwards

Goode

and

Ben-Yehuda,

1994).2

Ungar

2001)

urges

us

to

dismissthe

concept

of

moral

panics,

at least

in

its classic

meaning,argu-

ing

that

at the time

of Cohen's

Mods and

Rockers,

social

anxiety

emerged

and

faded

away

again)

n

a dominantdiscourse

of

safety.

Identifying

olk

devils as well

as the threat

hey

posed

was

fairly

easy,

as was the establishment f effectivecontrol

systems

to

counterbalance

heir

perceived

nflu-

ence.

Nowadays,

social

anxieties

are

embedded

n

a dominant

iscourse

of

risk

(Ungar,

2001).

In

Ul-

richBeck's

'risk

society',

the

contingent

nd

scale-

indifferent

natureof

many

of

society's

contempo-

rarydangers

fundamentalism,

errorism,

andem-

ics, tonamebutafew)is emphasized, ausedby

ir-

reversible

lobal

developments

uch

as mass

ndus-

trialization

nd

progress

n information

echnology

(Hier,

2003).

Classic

moral

panics

iterature

ends

to be foremost

oncerned

with

dentifying

olk

dev-

ils

in

localized

settings

which constitute

limited

spatial

and

emporal

hreats'

Hier,

2003).

The

dan-

gers

mentioned

above

lack such

a

clearly

defined

folk

devil,

which renders

them

very

difficult

to

seize and

therefore

erhaps

an even

greater

eason

for

moral

panic.

Moreover,

he

diffuse

character

f

new fears

generates

imilarly

diffuse

kinds

of

folk

devils,

namely

governments,

ransnational

ompa-

nies,

even

multiple

nstitutions

at the same

time

(Ungar,

001).

Yet

spaces

of social

anxiety

are

con-

verging:

ven

though

almostno one

escapes

aware-

ness of

globalization

hrough

he

influence

of

mass

media,

this

awareness

tands oose

from the

per-

sistent

importance

f

one's

immediate

socio-spa-

tial environment:

perceptions

f

risk are

situated

within

he

contextof

routinised nd

normalised

o-

cal order

and the

production

and

functioning

of

everyday

iving'

(Hier,

2003,

p.

13).

Risk

society

s

thusmediated,but not necessarily ived.Regard-

less of

spatial

cale, therefore,

moral

panics

artic-

ulate beliefs

about

belonging

and

not

belonging,

about he

sanctity

of

territory

nd

the fearof

trans-

gression'

Sibley,

1995,

p.

43).

The labour

immigrant

as

stranger

and

folk

devil

Are labour

mmigrants

ontemporary

olk

devils?

Before

answering

his

question

will

firstaddress

another ne:

Are new

social fears

n

any

way

con-

nected o the more'mundane' ircumstancewhich

is economic

slowdown?

David

Sibley

states

irmly

that there

s 'no obvious

connection'

between

so-

cial anxieties

and

economic

crises

1995,

p.

39)

and

indeed,

n countries uch

as Ireland

nd

the

United

Kingdom,

ierce

mmigration

ebates

have

co-ex-

isted next

to

relatively

table

growth

ates

n recent

years.

However,

he

current tate

of the

economy

would seem

to have a

more

profound

mpact

han

previous

ecessions,

at

least n

continental

Europe.

Job loss

after

times

of sheer

endless

optimism

about

he

'new'

economy,supposedly

urning

he

characteristic

yclical upward

rendof economic

growth

nto

a linear

one,

has

been

enormous

and

widespread.

Anxiety

over

job

competition

among

Geografiska

Annaler

?

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(2006)

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92


4/14

'HELP

THEPOLESARE COMING':NARRATING CONTEMPORARY ORALPANIC

domestic workers

is

only

reinforced

by

the

poten-

tial

presence

on the

labour market of outsiders who

are able and

willing

to

accept

more

jobs

for lower

wages.

Labour contracts

are

increasingly

temporal

in duration at the expense of permanentcontracts.

Welfare states are

reorganized.

Moreover,

risks

of

industrial

production

facilities

getting

relocated to

faraway

places

are

higher

than before: moderniza-

tion 'has reached the

furthest lands

of

the

planet'

(Bauman,

2004,

p.

6).

These

concerns,

set in

the

mind of

the

risk-avoiding

economic

agent,

call for

appropriate

and effective

measures:

responsibility

for not

having,

not

finding

or not

keeping

work is

transferred

o

others,

in this

case labour

immigrants

from new member

states.

Open

borders

can be

closed and access to

competitive

labour

markets ef-

fectively

denied.

Fear of mass

migration

stretches

beyond

fear

of

job

loss and social

benefit misuse.

Being

assumed

to

pursue

'evil'

agendas

of collective

action

(steal-

ing

away

'our'

jobs,

shopping

the

welfare

state),

immigrants

are accused

of

threatening

the

moral

order

proper.

They challenge

the invisible lines

wrapped

around that

order, which,

with some

sense

of

imagination, may

be called

society's

moral

boundaries:

Moral panics are likely to 'clarify [the] nor-

mative contours'

and 'moral boundaries'

of

the

society

in which

they

occur,

demon-

strat[ing]

that

there are

limits to

how

much di-

versity

can

be

tolerated in

a

society....

In

fact,

it is

entirely likely

that moral

panics

serve as

a

mechanism for

simultaneously strengthening

and

redrawing

society's

moral boundaries

-

that line between

morality

and

immorality,

just

where one

leaves

the

territory

of

good

and

enters that

of evil.

(Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 1994, pp. 29 and 52)

Moral boundaries come to the surface and hence

are

'open'

for reinforcement

only

when threatened

by

some outside force. National

identity,

embedded

in

society's history

and

maintained

in

silent

con-

sent,

is the

subject

of renewed

discussion.

Often,

the

immigrant

is assumed to

behave

incompatibly

with

national

identity

even before

accessing

na-

tional

territory:

n

migration policy

documentation,

non-nationals

(whether

they

be

labour

immigrants

or

political

refugees)

are named 'aliens' and

'stran-

gers'

to our

territory

and to us.

Inspired by

the work

of

Zygmunt

Bauman

(cf.

1997,

2004),

an increas-

ingly large

stream

of

literature is devoted to the

'philosophy

of

strangers'

within

social

theory

(cf.

Diken, 1998;

Van

Houtum and Van

Naerssen, 2002;

Hier,

2003),

tying

in

the

exclusionary

status of

many immigrants

to

the

'discontents'

of

globaliza-

tion (Bauman, 1997). In risk society, immigrants

are

considered

mere side-effects or even 'the

waste' of

globalization

and are thus feared as

dis-

order-bringing

strangers

(Bauman, 2004).

Just as

folk devils remind

us

of

what we should

not

be,

as

Cohen

insightfully

argued,

the

presence

of eco-

nomic

migrants

in our midst reminds us of

what we

could be

in

case

our

currently

favourable

circum-

stances take a

turn

for the

worse. We

'risk'

becom-

ing migrants

ourselves

when

jobs

are

reallocated

to

'others'

by

cost-minimizing

business

managers

(Bauman,

2004).

Others

(cf.

Kristeva, 1982;

Bali-

bar, 1991;

Sibley,

1995,

1998)

draw on

psychoan-

alytical

work on the

impurity

of the human

body

to

reach much the same

conclusion.

'Them'

looking

or

acting

'different'

causes harmless

feelings

of cu-

riosity

and sensation

alongside

much

more

power-

ful

sentiments

of

repulsion

and

estrangement

among

'us'.

Social

rejection

invoked

by bodily

ab-

jection

articulates

into

space through processes

of

bordering,

exclusion

and

purification:

Recognising

that

some

groups

are

abject

also

suggests that it is insufficient to focus solely

on

problems

of

integration

into

labour

mar-

kets. Exclusion

from labour markets

may

be a

consequence

from their

abject

status

or ... be-

ing

in

or out of

a

labour

market

may

not be an

issue.

(Sibley,

1998,

p.

95)

Eager

to

keep

the

fragile

order

secure,

control

mechanisms are

installed and enforced

upon

those

feared because of their

very

'being'

as

well as

their

being in a migratory position, either excluding

them from a

territory

or

restricting

their

freedom of

movement once inside.

In

that

sense,

the

guarding

of moral boundaries

may

well result

in

an

upgrad-

ing

of the

physical

borders of the

nation-state,

or of

the access restrictions

prevailing

in

some

parts

and/

or

segments

of the

nation-state or

the

national econ-

omy

(in

this case the

labour

market).

Through

these

kinds of

policies

and

practices,

in

turn,

the mem-

bers of such bordered communities

(in

this case do-

mestic,

often low-skilled

employees) enjoy

a cer-

tain

degree

of

protection

and

hence of

security

(Hi-

er,

2003).

Economic

risk,

more

likely

to strike and

be

felt

locally

than

other

contemporary dangers,

is

therefore

very

much

part

of risk

society,

in which

Geografiska

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5/14

ROOS PIJPERS

Table

1.

Transitional

arrangements

in

member states.

Member state Transitional

period Key

flanking

measure

Austria

2

to

7

years

Belgium At least 2 years

Denmark

At

least 2

years

Access

only

in case

of

full-time

job

Finland At least 2

years

France

At

least 2

years

Germany

2 to

7

years

Bilateral

arrangements

still valid

Greece At least 2

years

Ireland

None

Limited

access to welfare

benefits

Italy

At

least 2

years

Quota

system

Luxembourg

At

least 2

years

The

Netherlands

At

least

2

years

Except

for

specific

jobs

and sectors

Portugal

At

least 2

years

Quota

system

Spain

At

least

2

years

Quota

system

Sweden None

Limited

access

to welfare benefits

United

Kingdom

None

Limited

access to welfare

benefits

Source: EURES:

The

European

Job

Mobility

Portal at

http://europa.eu.int/eures

desires for

security

and

order are often fulfilled

by

constructing

folk devil-like

strangers

out

of

labour

immigrants.

Moral

border

guards

Literature

on moral

panics

and risk

society

distin-

guishes

a

fairly

broad

range

of

potential

moral

en-

trepreneurs:

ndividual

politicians, political parties,

opinion-makers,interest groups, the media (Goode

and

Ben-Yehuda, 1994;

Thompson,

1998; Critcher,

2003;

Hier,

2003).

Several

empirical

studies

report

the moral 'border

guarding'

of

immigrants

and

asy-

lum-seekers.

Claims-making

activities of

(Western

European) parliaments,

for

example,

have

been

ex-

amined

by

Van

Dijk,

who

demonstrates

convincing-

ly

that, indeed,

parliamentary

debates

often

nega-

tively

represent immigrants

as unknown

others and

therefore as 'threatsto the

nation'

(Van

Dijk,

1997).

In

the case of the

Netherlands,

Erik

Snel identifies a

number of influential individual moral entrepre-

neurs

who have

recently portrayed

he

failing-to-in-

tegrate immigrant

as folk devil. These

individuals,

including

politicians

as

well

as

opinion-makers,

cat-

alysed

anti-immigration

sentiments

otherwise

thought

of as

virtually

non-existent,

marking

the be-

ginning

of a

wholly

different

perception

of

immigra-

tion and

integration

ssues.

Previously

the

subject

of

political

care

due

to socio-economic

deprivations,

the

non-Western

mmigrant

s

increasingly regarded

as a

threat to

Dutch

cultural

identity

and domestic

norms

and values

(Snel,

2003).

Taking

on the

perspective

of the

general

public,

Lynn

and

Lea

(2003)

analyse

the

ways

in

which

public opinion

about

asylum

policy

in the

United

Kingdom expressed

in

newspapers

contributes

to

the social construction of

asylum-seekers

as

stran-

gers.

They

identify

a discursive rhetoric

which

strongly supports

the idea that the vox

populi

may

arouse

perceptions

of

asylum-seekers

as undesired

and to be

rejected

as well

(Lynn

and

Lea,

2003,

see

also Goode and

Ben-Yehuda,

1994).

In

fact,

both

Thompson

(1998)

and Critcher

(2003)

find

that

a

large part of the 'distortion' moral panics suffer

from

in

terms of

exaggeration

and

disproportional-

ity may

be accredited to

the

media. Social anxieties

instigated

either

at

decision/opinion-making

levels

or in

localized

settings by

the

general public

can

be

and

are

spread

by

national

and local

media.

In

a

way,

therefore,

moral

panics

over

migration

issues

are not dissimilar to what

crowd

psychology

in

as

early

as

the

beginning

of

the twentieth

century

an-

alysed

as

'irrational movements'

(Balibar,

1991,

p.

23).

On the other

hand,

contemporary

claims-mak-

ing leaves folk devils less marginalized than be-

fore:

their

voice

is

made heard

in

and

by

the media

as well

(Hier, 2003).

Elite

actors,

the

general public

and the

media are

inextricably

linked in

instigating

social

anxiety

about

migration

at

different,

yet, through

informa-

tion transfer

and

locally

lived economic

insecurity,

converging spatial

scales.

Hence

unravelling

their

relative

importance

s a

complex

task. Viewed

in this

context,

the

'leap-frogging'

of restrictive

measures

(transitional

periods imposed upon

free movement

of

labour)

with

regard

to

immigrant

workers from

the

European

Union's new

member states

is

likely

to

be caused

by

a chain

reaction of fear of mass

migra-

tion

(for

an

overview,

see Table

1).

Geografiska

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'HELP

THE

POLES

ARE COMING': NARRATING

A

CONTEMPORARY

MORAL

PANIC

Narrating

fear

of mass

migration:

the

Dutch

case

Moral

panics

and

narrative

Theremainder f this article s devoted o a case

study

of fear of

mass

migration

romnew member

states

n

the

Netherlands,

ulminating

n the

clos-

ing

(or

rather

ery

imited

opening)

of theDutch a-

bour market.

More

specifically, by examining

where

rationality,

xaggeration

and

opportunism

meet

in

the

perception

f

this

particularmigration

flow

as a cause

for

contemporary

moral

panic,

I

hope

to

identify

mplications

or

boundary-draw-

ing.

I

will order he various

relevant vents which

occurred

during

the five-month

period

ranging

from

September

003

until

February

004,

where-

in the Dutch

decision-making rocess

ontheissue

of freemovement

f labour eatured

n

political

and

public

debates

n Parliament nd media

by

means

of

a

narrative. arratives re

detailed ase

study

de-

scriptions

which are used as

methodological

re-

search ools across

he wide

array

f social

and

pol-

icy

sciences. Reservations

oncerning

ase narra-

tives

commonly

elate o issues of

transferability

f

research results.

However,

since

generalizing

knowledge

s not

always

a

socially

useful

activity,

the

strength

f

any

case

study,

which of

necessity

incorporates narrativelement, s to be foundnot

in

the

general

but

in

the detail

(Flyvbjerg,

2001).

Hence,

hemain

goal

of

narrative

s to exhibit ather

than

to

demonstrate

Czarniawska,

1998).

The

quality

of this exhibition s enhanced

whenthere s

a

sharpeye

for

detail:

'in

narrative,

he

perceived

coherence

of

the

sequel

(temporal

rder)

of

events

rather han he truth

or

falsity

of

story

elements

de-

termines he

plot

and hus he

power

of thenarrative

as

a

story'

Czarniawska,

998,

p.

5).3

Precisely

his

strictadherence

o

chronology

n

a good narratives quitein accordancewith case

descriptions

f moral

panics

ound n

literature

cf.

Cohen, 1972;

Thompson,

1998; Critcher,

2003).

Moreover,

he

emergence

and

fading

away

of a so-

cial

anxiety,

would

say,

are 'bestunderstood ar-

ratively'

Flyvbjerg,

2001,

p.

137).

Narratives n-

able

the researchero drawconclusions

on the ex-

istence

of

folk

devils,

moral

entrepreneurs

ndoth-

er actorson

stage,

as

well as

on the

articulation f

moral boundaries

nto

spatial

ones. Critcherde-

scribes

the

natural

connectionbetween narrative

and

moral

panics

as follows:

We

do not

have to

apply

formal theories of

narrative

.. to note that most moral panics tail

off

when

Something

Has

Been Done

-

or,

more

accurately,

when

Something

Has

Been

Seen

To Be Done.

If

what we have

here is a

kindof

moral

able,

n

which

retributions

ex-

actedupon heperpetratorsf evil, thenmoral

panics

can be deconstructed

s

narratives.

(Critcher,

003,

p.

141)

Below,

I

attempt

o

produce

such

a

moral

panics

narrative,

drawing

on

parliamentary

ocumenta-

tion,

newspaper

coverage

(news,

backgrounds,

comments),

elevision

andradiobroadcasts

news,

interviews,

documentaries)

s well

as electronic

sources.

An 'alert' Member

of

Parliament

According

o

Critcher,

key triggering

vent

'may

be found

n the middle

rather

han

at the

beginning

of

a moral

panic

narrative'

Critcher,

2003).

I

would

say

thatthe

panic

about

potential

mass

im-

migration

rom new

memberstates after

EU

en-

largement

was launched

by

a Member

of Parlia-

ment

(MoP)

from the

Liberal

Conservative

arty.

When

preparing

or the

parliamentary

ebateover

the

ratification

of the Athens

Treaty,

the

MoP

comes across

the fact that

contrary

o most other

EU member tatesat that ime(summer2003),the

Netherlands ad

not

yet

takena decision

about

a-

bourmarket

ccessfor

this

group

of

immigrants.

n

an

interview

he recalls:

I

had

just

been

appointed

Member

of Parlia-

ment,

assembled

all document

material,

and

foundout that

parliament

ever

really

had

dis-

cussed

properly

about he admittance

f

East-

ern

European mmigrants.

Every aspect

[of

the

Treaty

of

Athens]

had been discussed

and

negotiated,but not this one.4

(Wynia

(2003), Quoted

in

Weekblad

Elsevier,

15

November)

Soon

after,

on

24

September,

he

MoP

participates

in

a debate

n

the DutchLowerChamber

Tweede

Kamer),

which is

about

an amendment f the

so-

called 'Law

on Alien Labour'

oncerning

he

re-

cruitment

f labour rom

states

outside

he

Europe-

an

FreeTrade

Area

(EFTA).

During

he

discussion,

he

points

to the fact that

the

previous

Dutch

gov-

ernmenthad

been

basing

its decision not to close

thelabourmarket or

immigrant

workers romnew

member

tates

on a

reportpublished

n

2001

by

the

Socio-economic

Council,

an

influential

advisory

Geografiska

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ROOSPIJPERS

body

to the

government.5

At that time the Dutch

economy

was still

booming,

and

the

report explic-

itly

assumed these

favourable circumstances to

persist.

In

the course

of the

debate,

the

MoP

intro-

duces the following motion:

The

Chamber,

having

taken notice of the de-

bate,

considering,

that as a

consequence

of the

economic

slowdown

unemployment

in the

Netherlands

is

increasing,

that after accession

of 10 new

member

states into the

European

Union a further

distortion of the labour market

can be

feared caused

by

an inflow of

relatively

cheap

labourers,

that the accession

treaty

leaves

open

the

possibility

for the

[present]

member

states

not to

open

the labour market

for these workers

for a

period

of

up

to 7

years,

calls

upon

the

government

to,

if

necessary,

take measures

in

time

by maintaining

or ac-

complishing

a

general policy

measure based

on the Law on

Alien Labour to

keep

the

Dutch

labour

markets closed

to

employees

from

the

new member

states,

for the time

being.

(Official

parliamentary

documentation

at

http://

parlando.sdu.nl,

24

September,

2003)

The

motion is

directed to the

Deputy

Minister of

Social Affairs andEmployment, who is responsible

for

Dutch labour market

policy.

Although

the

Dep-

uty

Minister is

not

completely

convinced of the

im-

portance

of

the

arguments brought

forward

by

the

MoP,

he admits

that

up-to-date

information about

the

numbers

of

migrants

to

be

expected

after EU

enlargement

is

lacking,

as well as

knowledge

about

the

positions

of other Western

European

countries

besides

Germany

and Austria. He therefore

prom-

ises Parliament to come

up

with a

memorandum on

the

advantages

and

disadvantages

of

issuing

free

movement to labourimmigrantsfrom new member

states.

Apart

from labour

market

closure,

he

will

also

consider

the

possibility

of

holding

on

to the re-

quirement

of

work

permits

after

enlargement.

This

memorandum is

due

by

the end of the

year

(http://

parlando.sdu.nl,

24

September,

2003).

Spreading

the word

After

a month of

relative

silence,

the

issue is

picked

up

by

several

other Members

of

Parliament on

both

sides

of

the

political

spectrum.

The

immediate

cause for this is the

appearance

of the

Deputy

Min-

ister

of

Social

Affairs

and

Employment

in

NOVA,

a

daily

current affairs television

programme,

on

28

October.

During

the

broadcast,

the

expectation

is

voiced

that 30

000 labour

immigrants

will

be com-

ing

from

Poland

only.

In

response

to

this,

the

Dep-

uty

Minister

declares

that

'these are

no

numbers to

be worried about' (NOVAbroadcast, 28 October,

2003).

Two

days

later,

two MoPs

of the Christian

Democrat

Party express

their concern

over this

statement,

as

they

doubt the

absorption

capacity

of

the Dutch

labour market for

such a

high

number of

immigrant

workers.

They

demand to

be

told, first,

the effects

of these

expected

developments

for do-

mestic

workers,

the low-skilled

in

particular;

sec-

ond,

an

estimation

of numbers of

legal

and

illegal

Eastern

European employees

currently

working

in

the

Netherlands;

and

third,

how

many

of

these

peo-

ple

are

in

possession

of

a German

passport,

allow-

ing

them free

entrance on to the

Dutch labourmar-

ket

already (http://parlando.sdu.nl,

6

November,

2003).

That same

week,

the

conservative

MoP

who

may

by

now

be considered to be the

instigator

of the dis-

cussion,

increases

his

pressure

on the

Deputy

Min-

ister

by

officially asking

him

to

clarify

his

expec-

tations

on

the inflow of seasonal workers

following

EU

enlargement.

This

question

is based

on

an arti-

cle

in

the

Agrarian Newspaper,

reporting

the

build-

ing

of

hundreds of extra

housing

facilities

for em-

ployees from new member states by anumber of ru-

ral

municipalities

(Agrarisch Dagblad,

30

October,

2003).

The MoP demands the

Deputy

Minister to

examine

unemployment

rates

and labour

supply

in

the

region

in

question,

and whether

the

initiative

taken

by

these

municipalities

is

in

accordance

with

official

Dutch

housing policy

(http://parlan-

do.sdu.nl,

5

November,

2003).

In

addition,

he re-

peats

his

earlier demand to overrule

the

liberal

stance

of

open

borders

taken

by

the

previous

gov-

ernment.

The

Deputy

Minister

responds

that

he is

working on the memorandum which will cover all

the

questions

asked

(http://parlando.sdu.nl,

6 No-

vember,

2003).

On 19

November,

the

Lower

Chamber

again

dis-

cusses

the ratification of the

Treaty

of Athens.

Al-

though

the

topic

of free movement of

labour

is but

one of the

many topics

on the

agenda

in the after-

noon

and

evening

of the

day

on

which this

much en-

compassing

debate

takes

place,

it turns

out to

be the

most controversial

one. Pim

Fortuyn's

Party6 oins

the Liberal Conservatives and the Christian

Demo-

crats in their wish

that,

due to the

already

disadvan-

tageous

and

worsening

economic situation in the

Netherlands,

and due

to the fact

that several

neigh-

bouring

member states have

already

decided

to

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'HELP

THE

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ARE

COMING':

NARRATING A

CONTEMPORARY

MORAL

PANIC

close their

borders,

the

Dutch

position

should not

be reconsidered. The

left-wing

Labour

Party,

Dem-

ocrat

Party

and

the Green

Party oppose

this rather

firmly, evaluating

such

reconsideration as

'being

not very decent' and 'breaking a promise already

made'


19

November,

2003).

Nevertheless,

in case

expected

immigration

numbers

will

prove sufficiently

large

to be a cause

for

concern,

all

parties

declare to

put

aside their

ob-

jections.

The far

left-wing

Socialist

Party

and the

conservative Christian

Parties

share this view.

Enter the media

Although

the

heated

discussion does

not

bring

the

actual decision

any

closer,

since all

the

political

parties prefer

to

await the memorandum

prepared

by

the

Deputy

Minister

of

Social Affairs

and Un-

employment,

it causes a storm

of

media

attention,

particularly

in

the various national

newspapers.

In

the

days

after the

debate,

several

MoPs are

quoted

repeatedly,

most

notably

the Liberal

Conservative

MoP,7

who fears that 'the Netherlands

will

become

the lowest drain

on

the

European

labour

market'

8

if

borders are

kept

open

(quoted

in De

Volkskrant

on

20

November,

and

in

Dagblad

Trouw

on 22 No-

vember,

2003).

The

spokesman

for

the Labour Par-

ty and the spokeswoman for the Democrat Partyin

turn

accuse the

right-wing parties outright

of

'arousing

negative

sentiments' outside of Parlia-

ment in

appearances

to the

general public

(De

Volk-

skrant,

20

November,

2003).

More

specifically,

they

are

referring

to the visit of the

Dutch

Minister

of

Finance

to a conference of his Conservative Par-

ty. During

this conference he declares himself to be

'against

cheap

Poles',

as

the

headlines

of

an article

covering

the conference reveal

(NRC

Handelsblad,

18

November,

2003).

The Minister

says:

In

case

Germany,

for

instance,

decides to tem-

porarily

close its labour market for Polish

em-

ployees, they

will flow

to the Netherlands. We

should not want that.'

(Quoted

inNRCHandelsblad,

18

November,

2003)

More

important

even than the

supposedly

provoca-

tive words uttered

by

the Minister of

Finance,

both

spokespersons

are

tempted

to draw

the conclusion

that the

free

movement issue has been discussed and

perhaps

even decided

upon by

members of the ad-

ministration

already,

albeit behind closed doors.

They

are

suspicious

of a hidden

agenda

in favour of

closing

the labour

market,

in

imitation

of

Germany,

Austria

and other countries


19

November,

2003).

During

the

debate,

however,

the accusation

is denied

by

his

fellow

party

mem-

bers. In the

aftermath,

the Democrat

Minister

of

Economic Affairs relaxes the 'hidden agenda' the-

ory,

since he turs out to

be a fierce advocate of

free

movement

(De

Volkskrant,

6

November,

2003).

In

fact this is not all

that

surprising,

since

the Minister

of

Economic

Affairs is

generally

known to take

pro-

European

standpoints.

The discussion

in Parliament

between,

most

notably,

the

Liberal

Conservatives,

the Christian

Democrats and

Pim

Fortuyn's

Party

on

the

one

hand,

and

the

Democrats,

the

Labour

Party

and

the Green

Party

on the other manifests

itself

within the

government

between the

Minister

of Fi-

nance

and

the Minister

of

Economic

Affairs.

Contrasting opinions

With deadlock

between two

powerful

members of

government

thus

reached,

the

last

two

weeks of

No-

vember

and the first two of December

witness the

rise of the

public's

voice

in

the media.

Whereas me-

dia

coverage up

until

now

consisted

mainly

of

re-

ports

of

debates

in

Parliament

and

relatively

short

news

flashes,

comments

on the issue of labour

im-

migration

from

new member states

may

be

found

increasingly in opinion sections, columns and

background

articles.

A

telling example appears,

for

instance,

in

NRC Handelsblad

on 21

November,

when an

anonymous

reader

argues

that the fear

of

Eastern

European

immigrant

workers

stealing

jobs

from

domestic workers

is

completely

out of

place.

S/he

points

at the fact that seasonal

migration

from

accession

countries,

mainly

from

Poland,

has

been

a common

phenomenon

in

the Netherlands

in

the

last

decade

and a

half,

and

to 'mutual

satisfaction

of

employers

as

well

as

employees':

Employers

are

happy

because

Poles

work

hard,

don't

complain

and

hardly

fall ill.

With

an old-fashioned work-ethic

they

pluck

ger-

beras,

prune

tomatoes or cultivate

asparagus

in Brabant and

Limburg9

in

spring.

Finding

Dutch

employees

for these

jobs,

which

are

known to be

quite

harsh

has

been

impossible

for

many years

now.

(Quoted

in

NRCHandelsblad,

21

November,

2003)

Subsequently,

the reader

argues

for

combating

il-

legal

immigration

rather han

excluding

legal

work-

ers.

Although

his or

her

background

is

unknown,

it

would

seem that

s/he has a

substantial

amount of

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ROOS

PIJPERS

background knowledge

on

the

subject.

In

general,

public

comments about

the

issuance of free move-

ment to labour

immigrants

from new member

states come

from

people

who

may

be

regarded

as

experts in the field. Among them, for instance, a

professor

of

public

finance,

who

expresses

his

con-

cern over the

competitive

position

of

domestic low-

rated workers

when

the labour market is

opened.

He also

emphasizes

a

potential

increase

in

govern-

ment

expenditure

on social

security following

en-

largement

(Verbon,

n Het

Financieele

Dagblad,

21

November,

2003).

The

professor's

concerns are

contradicted

by

MoP's

from

the Labour

Party

who

accuse him of

'elementary

school

calculating'

(Het

Financieele

Dagblad,

10

December,

2003).

Obvi-

ously

irritated

by

these

words,

the

professor

in

turn

accuses

the

Labour

Party

of

engaging

in

'ostrich

policy'

(Het

Financieele

Dagblad,

19

December,

2003).

This is

an

illustrative

example

of

political-

public

interaction

in

the media.

From

29

November until 13

December,

the re-

gional

newspaper

Limburgs

Dagblad publishes

a se-

ries

of

articles aboutPolish

immigrant

workers n

the

Netherlands and

Germany,

and more

specifically

in

the

province

of

Limburg.

In

eight background

arti-

cles,

a

wide

range

of

related

topics

is

covered,

rang-

ing

from

the existence

of

'malafide' labour

market

intermediaries taking advantage of immigrants to

the

negative

consequences

of

young

men and wom-

en

draining

away

from Polish

villages.

Although

the

series

provides

a

realistic and

by

no means

over-

dramatized view

of

the

issue,

the

objective

reader

cannot but conclude from it that

there

are

indeed

many immigrants

to be

expected

after EU

enlarge-

ment. One of the articles

is

dedicated

to German

Poles from areas

in

southern Poland

which,

prior

to

the Second World

War,

belonged

to

Germany,

who,

still

having

German

passports,

will be

able to

freely

enter the Dutch labour marketregardlessof the de-

cision of the

Dutch

government.

Most of

the

many

Poles

in

possession

of German

passports

are,

ac-

cording

to

the

article,

quite willing

and indeed

pre-

paring

to

migrate

after

enlargement.

Similar

conclu-

sions are

drawn

by

the writers of anotherseries of

ar-

ticles

in

Het Financieele

Dagblad

entitled 'The

neighbours

are

coming'.

Apart

from

sharing

the

con-

cern

over

Poles

with

German

passports being

mis-

used

by

illegally operating

labour market

interme-

diaries

(6 December),

they

call

in

the

expertise

of a

migration professor

(28

November

and 10 Decem-

ber),

several economists

(28

November)

and the

president

of the

largest

labour union in

the Nether-

lands

(16

December).

Producing

factual

evidence

Determined

to come

up

with

a well-informed

policy

decision,

the

Deputy

Minister

of Social

Affairs and

Employment asks a renowned government-affiliat-

ed research

bureau

to

conduct an

in-depth

study

into

the

advantages

and

disadvantages

of

admitting

la-

bour

from new member states. This Netherlands

Bu-

reau for Economic

Policy Analysis

delivers the main

'ingredient'

or the

Deputy

Minister's memorandum

on

14

January,

2004.

In a

brief

though

detailed re-

port,

the

bureau concludes

that

in

spite

of other

member states'

decisions to

temporarily

shut down

the labour

market,

a

relatively

small

number of

im-

migrant

workers from new member states

may

be

expected

after

enlargement. Drawing

on an

analysis

of several scientific

migration

forecasts,

the

bureau

estimates an

additional inflow of between 3500 and

8500

immigrant

workers

(De

Mooij

et

al.,

2004).

This

range

does not include seasonal

migration.

Moreover,

the

majority

of these

immigrants

are like-

ly

to fulfil still

existing

job

vacancies in the bottom

segment

of

the labour market.

In that

case,

no sub-

stantial 'harm'

will

be done to the Dutch

welfare

state

(De

Mooij

et

al.,

2004).

For

the

Liberal Conservative

Party,

the

report

is

convincing

enough

to

let

go

of the demand

to close

the Dutch labour market. Their spokesman says

that numbers

'look

good'

(De

Volkskrant,

15 Janu-

ary,

2004).

The Minister of Finance

however,

also

a

Liberal

Conservative,

still holds on to

his

prefer-

ence

of

closing

the labour

market. The

same

is

true

for

the Christian Democrats and

Pim

Fortuyn's

Par-

ty,

who seem to be determined not to issue free

movement

regardless

of the

report

and the

forth-

coming

decision

of the

Deputy

Minister of Social

Affairs

and

Employment

(De

Volkskrant,

15 Janu-

ary,

2004).

In a

thirty-page

letter

published

on

23

January,almost a month later than initially fore-

seen,

the

Deputy

Minister informs Parliament

about this

decision,

which turns out to

be a

com-

promise

between

opposing

parties.

Instead

of

fully

opening

or

closing

the

Dutch

labour market on

1

May,

a limited number

of 22

000

immigrants

will

be allowed access


23 Janu-

ary,

2004).

This

figure

is

based

on the estimate

made

by

the

bureau,

complemented

with

numbers

of

seasonal

migration.

In

case more than

22

000

people

enter,

the labour market will

be

closed. The

letter

explicitly

states that

caution

is in order:

In

this

respect,

it is

important

to

keep

in mind

that,

as the Netherlands Bureau for

Economic

Geografiska

Annaler

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98


10/14

'HELP

THE

POLES

ARE

COMING':

NARRATING CONTEMPORARY

ORAL

PANIC

Policy

Analysis

annotates,

the estimations

are

surrounded

with

insecurities.

This

insecurity

about

the actual

number

of labour

migrants

contains

a risk

that

gains

weight

when

unem-

ployment in the Netherlands rises.


23

January,

2004)

For this

reason,

the

government

leaves

open

the

possibility

to take

further

restricting

measures

if

real

numbers of

migrants

following

EU

enlarge-

ment indicate the

necessity

to do so.

Asked about

his reaction to the

letter,

the

Dutch

Prime Minister

firmly

replies:

We do

acknowledge

free movement of

per-

sons,

but we will

not overlook

the effects

for

our labour

market.

(Quoted

in

De

Volkskrant,

23

January,

2004).

Herewith,

one would

expect

the

issue

to be

'dealt

with'. To the

surprise

of

many,

however,

not least the

Deputy

Minister of Social

Affairs and

Employment,

the last words

have

not

all

been voiced. When

dis-

cussing

the

letter

in Parliament on 3

February,

the

majority

of

parties

(the

Liberal

Conservatives,

the

Christian

Democrats,

Pim

Fortuyn's

Party

and the

Socialist

Party)

evaluate

the

proposed

limit as not

being strictenough. Still convinced of a greatermi-

gration

threat than

forecast

by

the Netherlands

Bu-

reau

for Economic

Policy Analysis,

these

parties

in-

troduce no

less than

five

motions

in

the course

of the

debate,

either

highlighting

a

specific aspect

of the

free

movement

issue

or

proposing

an alternative

so-

lution


3

February,

2004).

There

is,

for

instance,

a demand that official

require-

ments for

receiving

a work

permit

for

immigrant

workers

from new EU countries be as

strict as those

for non-EU

(and

non-EFTA)

employees.

Another

motion questions the migrants' ability to integrate

into Dutch

society,

and

consequently

asks that

they

become

acquainted

with Dutch

language

and culture


February,

2004).

The

argu-

ment

proposed

by

the

spokesman

of

Pim

Fortuyn's

Party

is

particularly

ively,

since it refers to the

am-

bivalent

relationship

between

the Dutch and water:

Driven

by

a dead-end situation

in

their home

country

and

hoping

to

receive a

royal

income

here,

workers

will

massively

go

westward. It

is like

water,

always flowing

to the lowest

point.

Coincidentally,

the

Netherlands

is the

lowest

country

in

Europe,

which means that

we

need

to be

prepared.

If

the flow turns

out

to

be

high

tide,

we will

be too

late,

because

we

failed

to take

appropriate

measures

by

digging

a canal

and

building

dikes.


3

February,

2004)

Upon

receiving

so

much

criticism,

the

Deputy

Min-

ister

of Social

Affairs and

Employment

promises

to

discuss

the issue

within the

government

once

again.

A

climax

at last

After almost

five months

of

intense,

sometimes

heated debates

and

discussions

in

parliament

and

the various

media,

the 'fear

of mass

migration'

nar-

rative reaches

its

climax

when the

government

de-

cides

upon

a final

solution

on 13

February,

2004.

In

a

second,

much

shorter

letter to

Parliament,

the

Deputy

Minister

announces

that

instead of

install-

ing

the

22 000

maximum,

migrants

from new

mem-

ber states

will be

granted

access

to

only

a

very

small

number of

jobs

in

designated

sectors

of the

econo-

my (http://parlando.sdu.nl,

13

February,

2004).

In

these

sectors,

labour

shortages

should

be

perceived

as

structural

and

not

likely

to be

fulfilled

by

Dutch

workers


13

February

and

De

Volkskrant,

14

February,

2004).10

The

majority

of

sectors

will be

closed

until

2006

however.

Hav-

ing achieved this result, the demanding political

parties clearly

emerge

as

overall winners

of

the de-

bate. The most

important opposing

actors,

the

Democrat

Party

and the labour

union,

declare

they

are

very disappointed.

They question

the

feasibility

of the

proposed

measures,

especially

with

regard

to

the

drawing up

a shortlist of

'open'

sectors

to be

adapted

and

updated

according

to

the needs

of the

moment

(De

Volkskrant,

14

February

and

Dagblad

Trouw,

14

February,

2004).

However,

the

govern-

ment continues

to

explicitly keep

open

the

possi-

bility to further restrict free movement in case ei-

ther the number

of

immigrants

coming

exceeds

ex-

pectations,

or the

enlargement process

of the

Euro-

pean

Union

enters

a new

stage.

By

the

time the

Dutch decision

is

finally

through, yet

another

immigration-related

issue has

taken over

the media headlines

and

political

and

public

debate.

The Minister

of Alien Affairs

and

In-

tegration

launches

a

highly

controversial

proposal

to

expel

26000

rejected

asylum-seekers.

Heavy

protests

arise from

immigration

interest

groups

as

well as

local

policy-makers,

designated

to

put

these

harsh measures into

practice.

This

protest

is fuelled

by

the

media,

eagerly portraying many

individual

asylum-seekers,

which causes the

issue

to com-

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11/14

ROOS PIJPERS

Table 2. The 'fear of mass

migration'

narrative

in

headlines.

Stage/event Principal

characteristics

and/or actors

Emergence

Claims

making

Elite consensus and

concern

Media

inventory

Expert

involvement

Coping

and

resolution

Fade

away

Legacy

A MoP from

the Liberal

Conservative

Party

introduces a motion in

Parliament's Lower Chamber.

The Liberal Conservatives

(most

notably

the Minister of

Finance),

the Christian

Democrats,

Pim

Fortuyn's

Party

and the Socialist

Party

claim a threat

to the labour

market,

the welfare state and Dutch cultural

iden-

tity.

All

political parties agree

to await a

clarifying report

to be

prepared by

the

Deputy

Minister of Social Af-

fairs and

Employment.

The

Minister of Economic Affairs holds on

firmly

to free movement

throughout

the debate.

Numerous stories

appear

in

newspapers

and on

television,

the radio and the

Internet,

covering

news and

backgrounds.

Some

experts

in the

field

express

concern over the

immigrants'

influence on

the Dutch welfare

state.

Oth-

ers relax this

influence

by pointing

to the

need of labour

migration

in

ill-functioning

labour market sectors.

In

spite

of a

comforting

risk assessment

study,

the

government

decides to

introduce a

limit

to

the

number

of

migrants

to

be allowed

access;

upon protests,

it restricts labour

market access

altogether

with the

excep-

tion of a very small number of jobs in appointed sectors.

Controversy

over 26 000

asylum-seekers

to be

expelled overpowers

fear of mass

migration.

Immediate

consequences

will

become known in the

period following

EU

enlargement. Long-term

legacy

is

expected

to become manifest in

discussions

about the EU's future

geopolitical expansion.

Source: 'events'

drawn from Critcher's

extended model of

moral

panics

(2003,

pp.

151-153).

pletely

overpower

fear of mass

migration

from

new

member

states.

In

NOVA,

the

Minister of

Alien

Af-

fairs

herself

speaks

of a true

'media

hype'

(NOVA

broadcast,

3

February,

2004).

On 11

February,

nev-

ertheless, NRC Handelsblad opens with the head-

ing

'Inhospitable

Europe

makes Poles

feel

bitter',

introducing

a

story

about

feelings

of

unpleasant

surprise

and

resentment

among

policy-makers

and

citizens

in

Poland as an

immediate reaction

to the

decision of so

many

member states

to

impose

tran-

sitional

periods

on free

movement of

labour.

Boundary-drawing hrough politics

of

fear

A

recapitulation

in main

findings

The narrativeshows that claims-making activities

by politicians

in

Parliament,

opinion-makers

and

experts

in

the fields

of

migration

and

labour

mar-

kets

have been both

frequent

and intense. In

gener-

al,

one could

certainly

conclude

that elite

actors

rather han the

voxpopuli

have

shaped political

and

public

debates over the free

movement issue in

the

Netherlands.

Newspaper

coverage

and

television

broadcasts

were

brought

by 'upper-class'

media

in

the form

of

opinion

sections,

article

series,

discus-

sion

programmes

and

documentaries.

Far-reaching

stereotyping

and

exaggeration

was

not

found,

with

the

exception

of some

provocative

headlines

('Help

The Poles are

coming',

'Polish

hordes')

and

denigrating quotes

('Cheap

Poles',

'Eastern

European drooping

moustaches').

Moreover,

sup-

port

for

immigrants

from new member states

was

expressed

both

by politicians

and other

contribu-

tors to the

discussion,

although

an

apparent

need

for risk assessment, carried out by the Netherlands

Bureau for Economic

Policy Analysis

accordingly,

was

widely

felt. The narrative faded

away

follow-

ing

the final introduction of

transitional

arrange-

ments and

through

the

upsurge

of other social anx-

ieties

(for

an overview see

Table

2).

On

(ir)rationality

and

opportunism

Fear of mass

migration

in

Parliamentand the media

was about the

potential ousting

from the labourmar-

ket of domestic workersby immigrantworkers from

new member states.At first

then,

the

resulting

labour

market shut-down would seem a

straightforward

e-

action to the fact that almost

all of the otherEU mem-

ber

states restrict free movement and decided to do

so well

before the Dutch

government.

Indeed,

con-

cerns about the labour market and

the

welfare state

are

not all

morally

flawed

regarding

he current

prob-

lematic circumstances

in

both

of these

'segments'

of

Dutch

society.

Yet what most labour market

experts

agree

upon

is that

immigration might

(and

in

many

cases

already

does)

alleviate structural abour short-

ages

into

more sectors of Western

European

econo-

mies than the

only

very

few

which

are

currently

opened

up

for

job competition

in the Netherlands.

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'HELP

THEPOLES

ARE

COMING':

NARRATING CONTEMPORARY

ORAL

PANIC

Workersfrom Poland

and other accession countries

have

been

contributing

to

the

Dutch

economy

in

many

ways

for

many years;

on the

asparagus

and

strawberry

fields,

at

construction

sites,

and

in

the

packaging industry. Transferringresponsibility for

the

ill-functioning

of

these

sectors

(in

terms

of find-

ing

motivated

employees)

on

to labour

immigrants

constitutes

political

opportunism

in

favour

of eco-

nomic

protection

of

domestic workers.

The

surpris-

ingly

easy way

in which the otherwise

comforting

re-

sults

yielded by

the bureau's

risk

calculation

were

bypassed

once

more

exposes

the

intrinsic

ambiva-

lence of

spatial

morality:

freedom of labour

should

be

fundamental to EU

citizenship

but it

should

not

pose

a threatto

an

even more fundamental

'right'

to

retain

accumulated

wealth

within national borders

(Van

Houtum and Van

Naerssen,

2002).

In their

classic

definition,

moral

panics

are con-

sidered

of

limited

duration,

as

they 'heighten

bound-

ary

consciousness

but...

are,

by

definition,

episodic.

Fears

die

down and

people

subsequently

rub

along

with each other'

(Sibley,

1995,

p.

39).

This

may

be

because

society

and

more

particularly

the

panic-in-

stigating

actors

on

stage

consider

policy

measures

undertaken to be

appropriate

or sufficient.

In

addi-

tion,

and also

applying

here,

new

threats

may

emerge, posing

another

or

a

greater

challenge

to

boundariesof moralityandidentity.Whereasthelat-

ter reason

clearly

reflects the

contingency

of con-

temporary

moral

panics

over

immigration

and mi-

nority

integration,

the issue of recurrence seems

highly

relevant

as

well. As was

agreed

in the

course

towards

enlargement,

restricting

countries such as

the

Netherlands are

obliged

to review the

free

move-

ment theme

in

the

spring

of

2006,

with the extension

of transitional

periods

as

a

possible

and

perhaps

ike-

ly

outcome.

For,

capitalizing

on the

economic

risk of

low-skilled domestic

workers,

indeed one

of socie-

ty's most vulnerablegroups,claims-makers such as

those identified in this narrative

are

sure to celebrate

once

again

the

argument

that

open

borders

lead,

phrased tellingly

by

Erik

Snel,

'to

uncontrollable

consequences,

to

overstretch

threatening

our

socie-

ty's

character'

(Snel,

2003,

p.

15).

Conclusion

Although

limited

in

its

scope,

the case

study

narra-

tive elaborated in this article

supports

the view that

political decision-making

with

regard

to sensitive

migration

issues is

grounded

in and caused

by

fears

of

becoming

'flooded'

by

mobilities of

an

uncertain

size

and

impact.

Notwithstanding

the

temporary

na-

ture

of

the

transitional

arrangements

currently

im-

posed,

since

free

movement

of labour

will eventual-

ly

be

issued

to inhabitants

of new

member states

at

some

point

in

the

(nearby)

future,

attention

s drawn

to EU-enlargement rounds still to come. Starting

with

the

striven-for accession

of

Bulgaria

and

Ro-

mania

in

2007,

the

question

arises whether

migra-

tion

fears

in

member states

will co-determine

where

the

geopolitical

expansion

of

the

European

Union

ends. Recent

progress

in accession

negotiations

with

by

far the most

controversial

candidate member

state,

Turkey,

instantly

caused rumours

of massive

flows

of

Turks

to

be

expected.

Boundary-drawing

n

the

European

Union is

ongoing,

as are

the efforts

to

keep

out labour

immigrants.

With

the

exception

of a

few who

are directed towards

clearly specified

sec-

tors in orderto fulfil well-demarcated

jobs,

most are

denied access

as

politically

undesired

strangers

and

folk

devils

in

spite

of their sometimes

obvious

mar-

ket

desirability.

Images

of

moral overstretch

in the

reporting

media

feed and will continue

to feed

this

politics

of fear and

therewith

reinforce the

perceived

need for

boundary-drawing.

By way

of a

conclusion,

this

suggests

that fear of

(mass)

migration

from

new

member

states

is rooted

in a

complex

interplay

of

(ir)rationality

and

political opportunism,

which

oth-

erwise remains

open

for

furtherdeconstruction.

Acknowledgements

I would

like

to

express

my

thanks

to Frans

Boekema,

Martin

van

der

Velde,

Henk van Houtum

and three

anonymous peer

reviewers

for

critically reading

and

constructively

commenting upon

an

earlier

version

of this article.

This

previous

version was

presented

at the NETHUR School

'Discourse

Analysis

in the

Social

Sciences:

Theories

and

Methods',

at

Utrecht

University,

the

Netherlands,

on

19

May,

2004.

Roos

Pijpers

Department

of

Human

Geography

and

Nijmegen

Centre

for

Border

Research

Radboud

University Nijmegen

The

Netherlands

Contact

information:

Radboud

University Nijmegen

Nijmegen

School

of

Management

Thomas van

Aquinostraat

3.2.24

P.O. Box

9108

6500 HK

Nijmegen

The

Netherlands

E-mail:

[email protected]

Geografiska

Annaler

?

88

B

(2006)

?

1

101


13/14

ROOS PIJPERS

Notes

1. Provocative

help! the poles are coming'- narrating a contemporary moral panic

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