Gitano evangelism The emergence of a politico-religious diaspora

Paper presented at the EASA Conference, Krakow, 26-29 July, 2000Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:9024.9751(01-04) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Roma as a political identity: Exploring representations of Roma in Europe

This paper was published in the journal Ethnicities and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796814542182.This article explores some of the myriad representations of Roma in Europe and argues that this proliferation makes it more difficult for policymakers to formulate coherent interventions, for academics to agree on a common conceptual language and for the majority to understand the inter-connected problems facing Roma communities. ‘Representations’ refers to how the community is understood by itself as well as by others. Whilst no community retains an uncontested image of itself and its identity, Roma communities have little or no control over how they are represented in the public sphere. Usually, representations of Roma originate and are sustained by non-Romani actors including international organisations, national governments and the majority. Of course, Roma communities have attempted to influence how they represent themselves externally to challenge negative stereotypes and internally, to raise a political consciousness and foster solidarity. Relatedly, the political representation of Roma is particularly important due to their weak political positioning in local, national and transnational contexts but also because it highlights the disparity between contested questions of who Roma are and devising policy interventions to address socio-economic and political exclusion. This article discusses a select number of prevalent Roma representations and links the representation of Roma identity to the public presence and agency of Romani communities

Trans-national migration and the issue of ‘ethnic’ solidarity: Finnish Roma elite and Eastern European Roma migrants in Finland

From 2007 to 2008, the presence of migrant-beggars from Eastern European countries in Finland has brought about much discussion regarding the status of this group in what is perceived as a model welfare state. The beggars, identified mainly Roma from Romanian and Bulgaria, were not easily fitting within the ideals of work culture within a Nordic welfare society. Moreover, no clear demarcation was made between the groups of migrant Roma and the national, Finnish Roma community. This paper focuses on the views of some of the Finnish Roma ‘elite’ regarding the presence of Roma beggars in the Helsinki area, dealing with the interactions between national and migrant Roma in the city of Helsinki as a consequence of Eastern European Roma migration to this area and bringing into question the limitations of an ethnic approach to Roma migration. The focus is on analysing the contradictions and ambiguities in what could easily (yet problematically) be understood as ‘intra-ethnic’ relations