Un/Free mobility: Roma migrants in the European Union

Abstract

This special issue showcases work that theorises and critiques the political, economic, legal, and socio-historical ('ethnic' or 'cultural') subordination of the European Roma (so-called 'Gypsies'), from the specific critical vantage point of Roma migrants living and working within and across the space of the European Union (EU). Enabled primarily through ethnographic research with diverse Roma communities across the heterogeneous geography of 'Europe', the contributions to this collection are likewise concerned with the larger politics of mobility as a constitutive feature of the sociopolitical formation of the EU. Foregrounding the experiences and perspectives of Roma living and working outside of their nation-states of 'origin' or ostensible citizenship, we seek to elucidate wider inequalities and hierarchies at stake in the ongoing (re-)racialisation of Roma migrants, in particular, and imposed upon migrants, generally. Thus, this special issue situates Roma mobility as a critical vantage point for migration studies in Europe. Furthermore, this volume shifts the focus conventionally directed at the academic objectification of 'the Roma' as such, and instead seeks to foreground and underscore questions about 'Europe', 'European'-ness, and EU-ropean citizenship that come into sharper focus through the critical lens of Roma racialisation, marginalisation, securitisation, and criminalisation, and the dynamics of Roma mobility within and across the space of 'Europe'. In this way, this collection contributes new research and expands critical interdisciplinary dialogue at the intersections of Romani studies, ethnic and racial studies, migration studies, political and urban geography, social anthropology, development studies, postcolonial studies, and European studies. Central to our approach in this special issue is a desire to re-situate questions of Roma mobility, and the consequently fluid and contradictory sociopolitical dynamics of Roma racial subordination, at the heart of any critical enquiry regarding 'Europe'. Roma mobility is particularly central to questions concerning EU-ropean citizenship, the borders of EUrope, the so-called 'migrant crisis' in Europe, and the rise of far-right, anti-immigrant racist populism across the space of Europe. That is to say, rather than fetishise research about 'the Roma' as such, as an essentialised 'ethnic group' to be studied in isolation, we insist that there can be literally no adequate investigation into the very meanings of 'Europeanness' or the politics of 'European' identity in the presumably wider field of

Kényszerű mobilitás: migrációs utak hátrányos helyzetű vidéki terekben

“…Ehelyett egy jóval inkább kritikai kutatási irány látszik kibontakozni, amely a mobilitási pályák elemzése helyett/mellett azoknak a mobilitási rezsimeknek az elemzésbe való beemelését hangsúlyozza, amelyek kondicionálják, korlá-tozzák és különböző nemzetbiztonsági politikákra hivatkozva, nemkívánatossá teszik a (prekárius) romák térbeli mozgását (Yildiz-De Genova 2017, van Baar 2017, Kóczé 2017. A főleg terepmunka módszerével tájékozódó kutatások másik fő jellemzője, hogy úgy vélik, a migráció fogalmát újra kell gondolni a mobilitás nyelvezetén keresztül (Glick-Schiller-Salazar 2013, Kalir 2013, Acuna 2016, Nagy 2016, Ciasci 2017, McNevin 2014.…”

When “Inclusion” Means “Exclusion”: Discourses on the Eviction and Repatriations of Roma Migrants, at National and European Union Level

“…In this context, the European Union Framework and its focus on inclusion can be interpreted as yet another example of how particularism of the member states is stretched at the level of the entire Union. Roma policies seem to produce a group which in itself is Bthe problem^, Ba European problem^in this case (Yıldız and De Genova 2017).…”

“…Critics of the European Union policy on the Roma (Yıldız and De Genova 2017;van Baar 2011;Sigona 2011) point out that discrimination and exclusion, and the various forms of subordinate Binclusion^, seem to reinforce each other. By defining the policy target group mainly through social criteria such as poverty, exclusion, and marginalisation, the social stigma invoked by these criteria falls on the entire Roma minority (Mirga-Kruszelnicka 2017).…”

What's in a Name? Causes and Consequences of Labelling Minorities as “National” or “Migrant”: Roma in Italy and Spain

“…In his 2016 book Those Who Count: Expert Practices of Roma Classification, Mihai Surdu makes a convincing case that, rather than studying Romani culture, language or traditions, the most effective way to make sense of the current socio‐political standing of the Roma in Europe – and of what Yildiz and De Genova call “their production (and reproduction) as a distinctly racialized “group’” (Yıldız & Genova, ) – is a study of the ways in which policymakers classify Roma people.…”

“…Recent scholarship has started to recognize the need to overcome such “splendid isolation” (Willems, , pp. 305–306), acknowledging that the framing of the Roma as a minority “in need of integration” is relevant not only for minority protection but also for issues revolving around European citizenship, the surge in populist xenophobic parties and the so‐called “migrant crisis” (Kostka, ; Sardelić, ; Sigona & Treheran, ; Vermeersch, ; Yıldız & Genova, ).…”