‘The Romanians are coming’ sparks debate

A British documentary series on Romanians seeking work in the United Kingdom has sparked debate about how its subjects are depicted. Although the series’ directors maintain that they are presenting a number of different stories – including the lives of nurses, students, Roma and people who have successfully found work – hundreds have created a Facebook group to protest what they consider an insult to Romanians, as one of the episodes portrays them as troublemakers, thieves and beggars.

A demonstration with the slogan “Silent protest @Channel4” took place on 22 February at the headquarters of Channel 4, the public broadcaster airing the documentary. To combat the stereotypes, the protesters – many of them young – came dressed in suits and ties.

While the Romanian ambassador in London sent a letter asking the producers to present the lives of Romanians objectively, and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta expressed his solidarity with the protestors, this point of view was by no means shared by everyone in Bucharest. An editorial titled "Je suis Channel 4" judges the Romanian community’s reaction to be “embarrassing”:

To go by the reaction of the Romanian diaspora and of our ambassador, we are the most intelligent nation in the world and the only community in the UK made up exclusively of highly qualified workers: doctors, engineers, nuclear physicists. We cannot accept that the English are depicting us dressed in anything other than suits and ties. For we all know that no Romanians beg, sweep London’s streets, or claim benefits, because they are all proud, clever and beautiful. […] If this film offends us, it is because real life offends us; as beautiful and intelligent Romanians, we cannot reconcile ourselves to it.

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