mercredi 11 mars 2009

romanians and poverty

The Romanians seen by The French
One of the prejudice concerning the Romanians is linked to their appearance. Usually we say that Romanians have dark skin and dark hair. As we associate dark skin with “dirty” and “ugly” this is equally the case for the Romanians. Some people say that children in Romania are sweet which is is a good thing but we know that the majority of the population is formed by adults who are apparently excluded from this category.
Moreover, having dark skin is not the big problem, these people migrate and we say in general that they are as many abroad as in their country. In France we have created some terms with pejorative connotation which point out the Romanians as : “romano”. When the French say “ romano” they think immediately at “ caravan” and the concept of “house” is rarely associated for these people. Some of stereotypes concerning the Romanians are so institutionalized that they created jokes such as : “ Romanians are sending their children to beg at the red light.
Being done that there are a lot of tramps from Romania , French people have the tendency to think that they don't have no honor and that they live shameless. Another stereotype joining the list is the connexion that we do between Romanians and prostitution, between Romanians and thefts. In addition to these we can say also that during the fall of the communism in 1989 the execution of Ceausescu which has been transmitted directly on television shocked the foreign opinion. So now people associate directly Romania with communism and the image of the dictator.

2 commentaires:

  1. Thanks for this post Nico. I've found a video of a guy from "Les robins des bois" who used these kind of prejudices. Very cynical.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp7hIxLrV6g&NR=1

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  2. unfortunately I know what you mean Nico..

    good English by the way - very good! Just a few small tips:
    "they think immediately *of*"
    "is rarely associated *with*"
    "being done that there are a lot.." - you you mean something like "étant donné que..."? If so, try "given that there are..." or even simpler "as there are a lot of..." or "since there are a lot of..."

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