This paper discusses the position of Romani minorities in the light of the state dissolution and further citizenship regime transformations after the disintegration of the former Socialist Yugoslavia. While observing closely the repositioning of the Romani minorities in the post-Yugoslav space, it explicates that in the case of state dissolution, the unevenness of citizenship does not only manifest in the rights dimension, but also in uneven access to citizenship with regard to new polities.
This article discusses the position and agency of Romani migrants. It argues that different states often irregularize the status of Romani migrants even in cases where it should be regularized due to their de jure citizenship. This irregularization is possible because of their position as semi-citizens in their ‘states of origin’. Yet, Romani migrants are not mere passive observers of these practices, but react to their irregularized migrant statuses. In doing so, they redefine their national and European citizenships. This article centres around two case studies to analyse the position and agency of Romani migrants The first is Roma with European Union (EU) citizenship and the second is post-Yugoslav Roma without EU citizenship.
The main objective of this paper is to map how Romani minorities were positioned in the context of post-Yugoslav citizenship regimes' transformations and to observe possible trends throughout post-Yugoslav space regarding their positioning. The paper establishes that due to historical as well as contemporary hierarchical inclusions, many individuals identified as belonging to Romani minorities faced specific obstacles in access to citizenship in most Yugoslav states, where they de facto resided. Consequently, it gives an illustration of citizenship constellations in which many Romani individuals found themselves as non-citizens at their place of residence and usually without the status of legal alien with permanent residence as well as with ineffective citizenship of another post-Yugoslav state. Additionally, it also examines the hierarchical positioning of Romani individuals, who are citizens at their place of residence and, at least de iure, enjoy a certain scope of minority rights. Borrowing terms from postcolonial theory and following the latest developments in Romani studies, this paper argues that Romani minorities were caught in-between different processes of post-Yugoslav citizenship regimes' transformation, and therefore cannot be considered as the ultimate Other, but as the post-Yugoslav Subaltern.
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