This article examines the recent evolution of Rome's city administration's policies for Roma after the Italian government's declaration of a 'nomad emergency'. We analyze the policies as they are formulated by the city government and examine ambiguities in their application and their effects in various Roma communities. We focus on two elements, which, we argue, introduce a new political paradigm not only for the capital but for the management of Roma issues in the country generally. By using a human rights discourse and involving new social actors such as the Italian Red Cross, Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, is redefining the Roma issue as a humanitarian problem. This process supports a new form of political representation from within Roma communities. But in contrast to the discourses of both Alemanno and the Roma leadership, we argue that these new developments in practice result in the erosion of Roma citizenship, legitimizing instead experimental forms of segregation within Italian society.
This article examines novel spaces for Roma political participation that opened up under a right-wing municipal government in Rome between 2008 and 2013. Three channels were created through which Roma could engage with policy-makers and, in theory, make their voices heard: a ‘Mayor’s Delegate for Roma Issues’; a forum for debate among Roma groups and elected representatives in two official camps. Based on in-depth interviews with protagonists of this key period of mobilisation, we evaluate the successes achieved and obstacles faced. In particular, we highlight the differentiations which emerged among Roma actors, concluding that, following an initial period of enthusiasm and cohesion, most participants withdrew, achieving few of their initial goals. While the analysis demonstrates the heterogeneity of Roma groups and interests in this process, it also underlines the constraints created by the external political opportunity structure which ultimately worked to co-opt activists in order to maintain the status quo.
Roma migration from Eastern countries has been one of the main topics of public debate in Italy in the last decade. Roma people have been depicted as the biggest threat to citizens’ safety, especially in the biggest cities, and have become the target of special securitarian measures that revive old stereotypes. At the same time, thanks to various European bodies, Roma people have also became the targets of ad hoc inclusionary policies, such as the National Strategy for Inclusion. The deconstruction of the camp system for nomads was one of the basic targets of all the interventions. This article describes what happened to Roma migrants during the last ten years – from the ‘Nomad Emergency’ of 2007 until the present-day dismantling of the nomad camp system. It focuses on Roma migrants who live in the two Italian cities where most of the Romanian Roma have settled since the beginning of the 21st century: Milan and Rome. The paper analyzes the public policies that were implemented by national and local authorities, and highlights some of the strategies that Roma migrants use to cope with the dismantling of the nomad camp system.
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