Romani Politics In Contemporary Europe

This book examines experiences of Romani political participation in eastern and western Europe, providing an understanding of the emerging political space that over 8 million Romani citizens occupy within the EU, and addressing issues related to the socio-political circumstances of Romani communities within European countries.

Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of radically diverse kinds of identity politics, including anti-migrant, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim and anti-establishment movements, this book analyses how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged, racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately articulated. In part, the contributors argue, the answer lies in a movement beyond classic identity politics and any opposition between essentialism and constructivism.

The collapse of communism and the process of state building that ensued in the 1990s have highlighted the existence of significant minorities in many European states, particularly in Central Europe. In this context, the growing plight of Europe's biggest minority, the Roma (Gypsies), has been particularly salient. Traditionally dispersed, possessing few resources and devoid of a common "kin state" to protect their interests, the Roma have often suffered from widespread exclusion and institutionalized discrimination. Politically underrepresented and lacking popular support amongst the wider populations of their host countries, the Roma have consequently become one of Europe's greatest "losers" in the transition towards democracy. Against this background, the author examines the recent attempts of the Roma in Central Europe and their supporters to form a political movement and to influence domestic and international politics. On the basis of first-hand observation and interviews with activists and politicians in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, he analyzes connections between the evolving state policies towards the Roma and the recent history of Romani mobilization. In order to reach a better understanding of the movement's dynamics at work, the author explores a number of theories commonly applied to the study of social movements and collective action.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence, development and implications of the Roma political phenomenon in contemporary Europe. It also challenges the conventional epistemological basis to political claims of distinct Roma people and argues that the contemporary politics of Roma is better understood as the public application of Roma identity. In recent times a new word has entered the political lexicon across Europe and beyond: Roma. Thirty years ago it would have been hard to encounter the public use of the word outside of a small number of academics and activists. In the second decade of the new millennium, Roma has become a dynamic political identity championed by hundreds of organisations, thousands of activists and applied to millions of people across Europe and beyond. Roma has become an agenda item for local and national authorities, as well as being taken up by the European Union and other international organisations. In challenging the conventional epistemology, this book examines the principal interests and processes that are constructing Roma as a public, political identity encompassing highly differentiated groups of people. This book brings together critical race theory and theories of ethnic mobilisation to provide a new critical framework for understanding Roma identity, history and transnational politics. It will be of particular interest to students and academics within the fields of global racialization and ethnicity studies.

The situation of the Roma in Europe, especially in the former communist states, is one of the more important human rights issues on the agenda of the international community, especially in the Euro-Atlantic bodies of integration. Within European states that have Roma populations there is a growing awareness that the matter must be confronted, and that there is a need for a concentrated effort to solve social problems and ease tensions between the Roma and the European nations among which they dwell. This volume is the result of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in December 2002. The conference, one of the largest held among the academic community in the last decade, served as a unique forum for a multidisciplinary discussion on the past and present of the Roma in which both Roma and non-Roma scholars from various countries engaged.

For the last three decades, the international response to the adverse conditions of Roma has been intensive, producing a plethora of educational policies, reforms, and strategies that have been developed and implemented. This edited volume gathers together prominent international scholars, advocates and activists, with the purpose of offering a comprehensive and integrated understanding of how historical, political, and cultural forces shape educational experiences and social policy for the Roma population in Europe. The book uses theoretical and empirical lenses to understand the formal and informal education of Roma. Through the contextualised theorisation of Roma education it illustrates, illuminates and discusses issues of wider concern. Interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks bind the chapters together and offer an in-depth examination of the questions and issues relevant to the field of education, structuring the book around three central themes: -schooling and social policy; the promises and pitfalls of multiculturalism, integration and inclusion and the deconstruction of educational policies and law -education inside and outside schools; empirical accounts of life in school and the achievements and missed opportunities of the Decade of Roma Inclusion -participation, activism and advocacy; investigating the responsibilities of Roma and non-Roma intellectuals, educators, activists and advocates. Roma Education in Europe grapples with uneven economic and political developments, and as a result, with the possibilities and shortcomings of integration, social justice, and the role of supranational agencies in changing the course of schooling and education. The book will be key reading for those researching or studying Romani studies, education, sociology, and cultural, ethnicity and immigration studies.

Going beyond race-blind approaches to spatial segregation in Europe, Racial Cities argues that race is the logic through which stigmatized and segregated "Gypsy urban areas" have emerged and persisted after World War II. Building on nearly a decade of ethnographic and historical research in Romania, Italy, France and the UK, Giovanni Picker casts a series of case studies into the historical framework of circulations and borrowings between colony and metropole since the late nineteenth century. By focusing on socio-economic transformations and social dynamics in contemporary Cluj-Napoca, Pescara, Montreuil, Florence and Salford, Picker detects four local segregating mechanisms, and comparatively investigates resemblances between each of them and segregation in French Rabat, Italian Addis Ababa, and British New Delhi. These multiple global associations across space and time serve as an empirical basis for establishing a solid bridge between race critical theories and urban studies. Racial Cities is the first comprehensive analysis of the segregation of Romani people in Europe, providing a fine-tuned and in-depth explanation of this phenomenon. While inequalities increase globally and poverty is ever more concentrated, this book is a key contribution to debates and actions addressing social marginality, inequalities, racist exclusions, and governance. Thanks to its dense yet thoroughly accessible narration, the book will appeal to scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and equally to activists and policy makers, who are interested in areas including: Race and Racism, Urban Studies, Governance, Inequalities, Colonialism and Postcolonialism, and European Studies.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND. Drawing on Roma community voices and expert research, this book provides a powerful tool to challenge conventional discourses and analyses on Romani identity, poverty and exclusion. Through the transformative vehicle of a ‘Social Europe’, this edited collection presents new concepts and strategies for framing social justice for Romani communities across Europe. The vast majority of Roma experience high levels of exclusion from the labour market and from social networks in society. This book maps out how the implementation of a new ‘Social Europe’ can offer innovative solutions to these intransigent dilemmas. This insightful and accessible text is vital reading for the policymaker, practitioner, academic and activist.