A particularly striking element has been the strong support coming from the European diaspora for candidates promoting national-sovereignist views and anti-EU rhetoric. Alina Dolea, head of the Department of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University (UK), and a specialist in communication and diaspora studies, offers a lucid and nuanced analysis of this seemingly paradoxical phenomenon.
“Why are Romanians living in Europe voting for a sovereignist project?” – that’s the question which prompted a wide-ranging answer from Alina Dolea. One of the underlying explanations is the disenchantment with Western Europe. Once idealized in Romania as a land of prosperity and opportunity, the West has, for many Romanian migrants, become the stage for overlapping crises: economic, social, post-pandemic, and geopolitical.
This encounter with reality – often lacking any institutional support to help navigate cultural differences – leads to disappointment, frustration, and ultimately a retreat into identity: a symbolic return to “home” and a growing support for political messages centered around sovereignty, protection, and roots.
The need for belonging and the impact of propaganda
In the diaspora, Dolea explains, the need for belonging intensified during the isolation brought on by the pandemic. In a context of social exclusion or anti-immigration rhetoric in host countries, some Romanians sought refuge in a national-identity-based “shelter.” Here, Russian propaganda found fertile ground. Anti-Western, conspiratorial, and anti-diversity messages were pushed by algorithms that reward negative emotions and polarization.
“We are in the midst of a hybrid war,” warns Dolea, “and the weapons are narratives – anti-European, anti-science, anti-human rights – circulating on TikTok, Telegram, and Facebook.” These narratives exploit the traumas of migration and post-communist transition, the romanticization of the past, and unresolved cultural rifts.
Culture, identity, and the failure of the Romanian State
Another key factor is the absence of a coherent public strategy to support cultural integration. The Romanian state has failed to offer information campaigns, civic and media education, psychological support, or tools for intercultural negotiation to its diaspora. In this vacuum, the Church – especially in the diaspora – has filled the symbolic space of identity, but often in a conservative key, reinforced by fear of otherness and closed worldviews.
Dolea points out that the forced “Romanianization” of the past has erased not only cultural diversity but also the capacity to understand and manage difference. As a result, many Romanian migrants not only fail to integrate – they no longer wish to: they retreat into an imaginary project of a “pure” Romania, untainted by the values of liberal Europe.
What can be done?
Faced with this complex landscape, any solutions must be multidimensional: media literacy programs, the development of intercultural competencies, mental health support, civic education, and genuine reconnection between the Romanian state and its citizens abroad – whether temporarily or permanently.
“We also need programs that inform Romanians about their rights and responsibilities in the countries where they live,” says Alina Dolea, “as well as civic education and the development of intercultural navigation skills — skills that help Romanians preserve their identity through interaction with other identities, ethnicities, and cultures.”
Romanians in the diaspora are not simply “manipulated”; they are reacting to direct experiences of alienation, to unresolved crises, to a lack of support and meaning. Understanding this dynamic is essential for anyone seeking to build a functional democracy and an authentic relationship between the state and its people – wherever they may be.