'Gypsy Invasion': A critical analysis of newspaper reaction to Czech and Slovak Romani asylum-seekers in Britain, 1997

Outreach programmes for health improvement of Traveller Communities: a synthesis of evidence

“…170 They were a key target of the Nazi extermination efforts in the Second World War, being referred to as the 'Gypsy plague', with Interior Ministry of Württemberg promulgating decrees such as the 'Gypsy Nuisance decree', among others. 171 Although the inclusion of Travellers in the Holocaust is disputed (with regards to whether or not Nazi efforts to eradicate them were as systematic as they were for Jewish people), it remains that they suffered considerable losses.…”

Talking about Gypsies: The Notion of Discourse as Control

“…This theme was not found to be as prominent in the empirical research for this thesis. Finally, Clark and Campbell (2000) examined particular terms used in the media, such as `invasion'. This links with one of the key themes examined later in the chapter.…”

“…This paper looks specifically at the language used in political debate in Britain and it finds the juxtaposition of the romantic Gypsy and the `dirty' Traveller is present in the debate. Clark and Campbell (2000) examine discourse, in the English media in 1997, which…”

“…They were, in the words of one features writer... `fair game' and a group that could help `sell copy'; their perceived `exotic otherness' combined with their `scrounging refugee' label gave newspaper columnists and editors a license to wax lyrical. (Clark and Campbell, 2000: 41) These pieces of work by Erjavec (2001), Leudar and Nekvapil (2000), and Clark and Campbell (2000), demonstrate the presence of discriminatory discourse in the media and they are pertinent to this research. They also focus specifically on the media, rather 165 than any other discourse.…”

“…Some of the descriptions in the statements accord with some of the newspaper statements in the findings of this thesis, however, in this thesis there is more of a negative characterisation around mess and cost, where as in the Czech media Leudar and Nekvapil show more of a focus on crime. Clark and Campbell (2000) examine `most' of the leading British daily and Sunday papers in the last two weeks of October, 1997; this was a time where the media and the public perceived there to be a Gypsy `invasion' at Dover. They openly state that this was a `selective investigation' and it aimed to examine the treatment, in the British press, of Czech and Slovak Romani Gypsies seeking asylum.…”