Romanian Roma at home

Toma, Stefánia; Tesăr, Cătălina; Fosztó, László

doi:10.4324/9781315295770-3

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…The study of Roma disadvantages using qualitative methods has been the subject of several anthropological monographs (Engebrigtsen 2007;Fosztó 2009;Olivera 2012;Szeman 2017;Racleş 2021). There have also been studies using a complex methodology, combining the sociological survey method with anthropological fieldwork in an attempt to complement the survey data obtained with questionnaires with qualitative data and interpretations (Bădescu et al 2007;Fleck and Rughinis , 2008;Cace et al 2010;Toma et al 2017;Toma and Fosztó 2018). In an extensive research, Cace et al (2010) with combined methods studying urban and rural communities, showed that the employment situation of people in Roma communities can be characterized by low formal employment rates (a low share of those employed with a contract of employment; a lack of work history in the workbook), a high share of those employed in the informal economy or in subsistence agriculture, activities performed without qualification or on the basis of low qualification or non-formal (without supporting documents) based only on experience or tradition.…”

Section: Theoretical Context: the Situation Of The Roma In Romaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an extensive research, Cace et al (2010) with combined methods studying urban and rural communities, showed that the employment situation of people in Roma communities can be characterized by low formal employment rates (a low share of those employed with a contract of employment; a lack of work history in the workbook), a high share of those employed in the informal economy or in subsistence agriculture, activities performed without qualification or on the basis of low qualification or non-formal (without supporting documents) based only on experience or tradition. In the Migrom project (see Toma et al 2017Toma et al , 2018, they studied the international migration of Roma in Romania, including the effects of migration to home communities or return migration. This is very useful information that has the social context in which the Roma returned, forced by the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we will analyze in this study.…”

Section: Theoretical Context: the Situation Of The Roma In Romaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Livelihood Strategies during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Materially Disadvantaged Roma Communities from Covasna County, Romania

Veres

2023

Social Sciences

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The study aims to analyze the livelihood strategies related to the labour market during the coronavirus pandemic in the context of the material and income situation in Roma communities in a multicultural rural area of Covasna County, Romania. The data source comprises adapted sociological research that was carried out using multiple methods in 2021, in three localities: Boroșneu, Ojdula, and Zăbala in Covasna County, Romania. Of the dimensions examined, housing deprivation, material deprivation, and unemployment were of particular importance. Based on these dimensions, we analyzed the local economic situation and social services; we then developed a typology of dimensions to analyze the livelihood strategies of Roma groups from different socio-economic backgrounds during the coronavirus pandemic. We tried to answer questions about the changes and ways of adaptation in the livelihood strategies of Roma communities to the restrictions that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic in Romania from 2020–2021. The results of the research show that during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the material and income situations worsened for people previously employed in the informal labour market, involved in precarious work, and those of very low work intensity in selected rural Roma communities in Covasna County. Neither the regulations and legal measures introduced, nor the social protection system, was sensitive to the needs of the Roma, who were the most vulnerable to the social consequences of the pandemic restrictions.

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Section: Theoretical Context: the Situation Of The Roma In Romaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Context: the Situation Of The Roma In Romaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Livelihood Strategies during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Materially Disadvantaged Roma Communities from Covasna County, Romania

Veres

2023

Social Sciences

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“…As Racles (2018) has highlighted, building or ameliorating a property house 'back home' also represents a response to anti-Gypsist repertoires that construct the 'Gypsy way of living' as bearing a natural predisposition to carelessness towards the inhabited space and the incapacity to overcome deprivation. The construction of new houses closer to the living standards of non-Roma neighbours and possibly closer to their districts is not only changing negative local perceptions of the Roma (Toma et al, 2017): as Tesăr (2015) has thoroughly shown, these practices remain subject to internal cultural elaboration and vividly contribute to the cultural reproduction of the Roma.…”

Section: Homemaking and Social Transformationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home, migration, and Roma people in Europe

Piemontese,

Maestri

2023

Handbook on Home and Migration

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With 10-12 million people, the Roma are considered the largest ethnic minority in Europe. It includes various groups commonly known as Gypsies, Travellers, Manouches, Ashkali, Sinti and Boyash, among others, which are often wrongly represented as nomadic. Historically, Roma have faced discrimination and unequal access to fundamental rights, and today 80 per cent of them still live below the poverty threshold and suffer from severe housing deprivation (FRA, 2018).This chapter focuses on Roma migrating from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to Western Europe. Their international mobility strongly contributed to the Europeanisation of the so-called 'Roma issue' (Vermeersch, 2012), especially after the 2004 and 2007 European Union (EU) eastward enlargement. Roma migration played a crucial role in convincing EU institutions to adopt the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies. Unfortunately, however, besides inclusion policies, it also prompted a proliferation of restrictive measures, mainly in the form of administrative regulations, voluntary return programmes, begging bans, and forced evictions implicitly aimed at this population: 'exclusive but not explicit' initiatives that both flip and disrupt the 'explicit but not exclusive' approach advocated by European institutions (Piemontese & Magazzini, 2019). In the context of growing concern over the arrival of CEE Roma, advocates and researchers have often focused on the institutional discrimination and racism that relegate Roma migrants to government-sponsored camps, informal settlements, and sub-standard squatted buildings in destination countries. Although we acknowledge the many ways European governments marginalise and discriminate against Roma (Fekete, 2014), we argue that reducing Roma housing to loss and exclusion risks concealing the strategic and creative dimension of residential micro-practices enacted by Roma themselves, who instead mobilise various resources at both national and transnational levels.Given the diversity of the housing situation of Roma in Europe, it would be challenging to give a complete overview. This chapter, therefore, attempts to capture the complexity of the literature on Roma housing by focusing on the following main issues. First, we engage with critical scholarship deconstructing ethnic labels, the discourses on nomadism and Roma exceptionalism, which commonly shape policy approaches and public opinion on Roma populations and mobility. Second, we focus on the different forms of housing segregation in Europe, with specific attention to the spatial device of the camp. Then, we turn to actor-centred perspectives, thoroughly discussing the transnational residential strategies and homemaking practices enacted by Roma migrants themselves. Finally, we reflect on emerging avenues of scholarly and activist research foregrounding intersectionality through feminist perspectives and the nexus with anti-eviction and housing rights movements.

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“…Few of the adults have access to health insurance because they are unemployed. Most families are dependent on remittances sent from family members abroad to cover basic subsistence costs (Ravnbøl, 2020; for other studies on EU mobile Roma, see Humphris, 2018; Toma et al, 2018). These conditions prevent most residents from accessing the banking system because they have neither the income nor the savings to open a bank account or be approved for credit and loans at the bank.…”

Section: Aim and Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Accessing cash(lessness): Cash dependency, debt, and digital finance in a marginalized Roma neighborhood

Ravnbøl

2022

Economic Anthropology

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This article contributes to contemporary ethnographies concerning poverty and digital financial inclusion in Europe. More specifically, it explores how poor Roma families engage with digital banking cards at home in Romania and when they travel to work in the informal economy in Denmark. The analysis conceptually unfolds “access” as a framework for financial inclusion and applies it to an empirical case of three brothers in a Roma family. On this basis, the article argues that cashless initiatives can, perhaps unintentionally, be a driving element in new practices of social exclusion. Without a comprehensive approach toward ensuring “de facto access” for the marginalized communities, which takes all dimensions of access into account, digital financial initiatives can potentially push them further to the periphery of the global economy.

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Romanian Roma at home

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Livelihood Strategies during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Materially Disadvantaged Roma Communities from Covasna County, Romania

Livelihood Strategies during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Materially Disadvantaged Roma Communities from Covasna County, Romania

Home, migration, and Roma people in Europe

Accessing cash(lessness): Cash dependency, debt, and digital finance in a marginalized Roma neighborhood

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