Learning How to Squat: Cooperation and Conflict between Refugees and Natives in Rome

The Nomad, The Squatter and the State: Roma Racialization and Spatial Politics in Italy

“…Following this separation, in 1998 the Rome branch of radical social centres, together with Urban Coordination of Housing Struggle (Coordinamento Cittadino di Lotta per la Casa), created an organization called Right to Housing (Diritto alla Casa, or DAC), which used squatting both as a form of protest and as a ‘practice that in itself allow[s] the production of what was being claimed’ (Nur and Sethman, : 82). Although separate from squatting groups, movements for housing rights had been active in the city of Rome since the 1960s (Belloni, ) and used the occupation of public buildings in a similar way as a strategy to call for affordable and social housing provision ( ibid .). By linking housing demands to wider policy, social and economic issues, Right to Housing managed to overcome the isolation of housing rights groups to forge a new alliance with the squatting movement ( ibid .).…”

When the phone stops ringing: on the meanings and causes of disruptions in communication between Eritrean refugees and their families back home

“…The above considerations are relevant to the analysis of my case study. Although the Eritrean refugees with whom I spoke in Italy faced many structural problems, including limited access to the labour market and lack of adequate housing (Belloni 2016c), they were deeply immersed in their transnational relationships. Phone calls from friends and relatives from around the world were a characteristic feature of their everyday lives; during their free time they would often go to one of the local internet points close to the Roma Termini station to look at pictures of their friends living in other European countries on Facebook.…”

“…One of my Eritrean friends, Alazar, a 28-year-old refugee from Asmara, was living in a squat on the outskirts of Rome. Through him, I gained access to a variety of the informal occupied buildings in which Eritreans often live in the city alongside Italians and other migrants (Belloni 2016c). I also met many other Eritrean refugees, mostly men in their late twenties like Senay, mentioned above, and Gabriel.…”

Interventions in urban geopolitics

“…Building upon this work, in this intervention we argue for an urban geopolitics of refuge that places questions of refugees and forced migration at the heart of today's urban experiences, struggles and The mass migration and refugee crisis affecting Europe has generated outright political hostility and a resurgence of nationalist and far right parties across the continent, with calls for international border closures, patrols, and walls. At the same time, it has generated new forms of solidarity and hospitality: from citizens welcoming refugees at railway stations to the proliferation of squats in which migrants and refugees live and mobilize politically alongside locals (Belloni, 2016), the ethical and political potential of hospitality is transformative for hosts and guests, and for cities themselves. Refugees can extend welcome too: at the Magdas Hotel in Vienna, refugee employees welcome tourists to their adopted city (Rose, 2016; see also Ramadan, 2008).…”