Conclusion: A ‘People’s Europe’ for Romani Citizens?

The Roma In New Millennium Italian Fiction Films: Dissensus, Liminality, Emancipation

“…11 Similar presuppositions can be traced back to the Enlightenment and social Darwinism, and in an Italian context, Sigona and Trehan note how the writings of the anthropologist Cesare Lombroso linked social deviance and racial identity with the inference that gypsies 'were by nature predisposed to crime'. 12 They also cite a statement from 1852 in which the Home Office minister, Giovanni Galvagno, argued in favour of keeping gypsies under surveillance. In the 21 st century, the Roma continue to run a high risk of criminalization as a consequence of the tendency of Italy's political institutions to target them for special police scrutiny; phenomena such as the Berlusconi administration's Emergenza Nomadi in 2008, which involved the fingerprinting and profiling of thousands of Roma and the searching and closure of camps, contributed significantly to the negative stereotyping of Roma communities.…”

“…This representation effectively reinforced the engrained prejudices that lead nearly half the Italian population, when interviewed, to associate the Roma primarily with delinquency. 83 Within the context of radical politics, despite the well documented contemporary problem of the 'lack of a revolutionary subject' and the ongoing search within Western Marxism for other groups 'who could play the role of the revolutionary agent, as understudies to the indisposed working class', 84 the Roma are unsuited to this task. Although much could be learned from their community solidarity, which has resisted what Mazierska and Kristensen call the 'atomisation' of the working class 85 and from their 'social capital' -the networks that afford them some protection from the welfare cuts that have impacted upon vulnerable groups across Europe, the Roma remain sceptical towards any form of organized political struggle and towards the ambiguities surrounding 'the rhetoric and instruments of emancipation' that are offered to them.…”