Abstract
The Tuscany region of Italy is at the top of the preferences of Romanian immigrants. In this area, there were registered, in 2018, 84,621 Romanians representing 20.72% of the total foreign population, according to the data provided by ISTAT. Based on the theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1978), the paper attempts to investigate how Romanian immigrants are represented in the mass media in Tuscany.
Mass media contributes to a great extent to the formation of a positive or negative perception towards immigrants among the indigenous population, to the crystallization of the collective and individual image regarding immigrants and the construction of new social representations. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to establish which are the elements that lead to the creation of a positive or negative symbolic image of Romanian immigrants, according to the most important online newspapers in the region. We assume that the elements that shape the symbolic image of the Romanian immigrants from Tuscany are rather negative as the isolated actions of some immigrants lead to stereotypes and prejudices towards the entire minority group.
Keywords: migration, social representation, symbolic capital, immigrants, Tuscany, stereotypes and prejudices, mass media.