Abstract

The late 2000s saw the European Union face a significant financial crisis, unprecedented in its history. Almost a decade after the introduction of the single currency in January 2002, a debt crisis hit the Eurozone, leading to financial recession, fiscal austerity, social upheaval and political tensions, especially in the most indebted countries. Often referred to by Anglophone media in the early 2010s with the derogatory acronym PIGS, these countries—with the ambivalent exception of the “I” that could equally stand for Ireland—all belonged to European South: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. An implicit internal border between the ostensibly diligent and thrifty North and the lazy and profligate South surfaced, reproducing deeply entrenched stereotypes.