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The figure of the “Polish plumber” crystallized within the “no” camp in the midst of the French referendum campaign on the European constitutional treaty in March 2005. Thereafter the metaphor gradually spread beyond the context in which it had initially emerged. Although the manner in which the “Polish plumber” was interpreted differed subtly from one national public space to the next, in each national public space it built upon dominant imaginaries of the “East”/“West” polarity. This paper explores the Hungarian and Romanian interpretations of the “Polish plumber” as they bring to light the weight of symbolic geographies, as well as their recent reconfigurations.

Keywords: European identity, EU integration, migrations, Hungary, Romania