Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

The free movement of the Roma minority has become questioned within the European Union. This study seeks to understand why this question has reached disproportionally importance in comparison to the number of Roma migrants within the union, and to understand the great attention given to the question. Based on the Copenhagen’s school of securitization, the purpose of this study is to show how this magnification of the question occurs due to the framing of the Roma migrants as a security problem. Focusing on the speech act of the securitization theory, this paper contains a study of political actor’s statements concerning Roma migrants. Using a framing methodology combined with the conditions for a successful securitization, speeches and statements are analyzed to determine how the Roma migrants are framed as societal threats in politics of France, Sweden and the European Commission. The result of the study show that a securitization has taken place in French politics, similar signs of the beginning of the securitizing process can be found in the Swedish political discourse. The Commission’s speech act concern the member states treatment of the Roma migrants, and especially the questioning of their right to free movement.