Roma Immigrants in Western Europe – the Example of France and Italy

Authors

  • Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska Jagiellonian University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.31_2.08

Keywords:

Roma, Gypsies, Minority, Immigrants, European Union

Abstract

The expansion of the European Union and the accession of ten new EU member states in 2004, as well as the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, meant that the new borders of the EU came to encompass most of the Roma minorities living on the Old Continent. The Roma, as well as being the largest ethnic group in modern Europe, are also its most marginalised group. They have been and continue to be ostracised, excluded from society, and discriminated against on all possible social levels. I will focus on the mass exodus of the Roma to Western Europe, which was triggered by the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union. Thousands of new Roma emigrants moved to the West in search of a better life, without possessing jobs, health care or social insurance, living en masse in camps on the edge of towns and cities. The beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008 and this massive influx of Roma immigrants living in extreme poverty was an explosive mix which led to a deepening and intensification of Anti‑Roma feeling in Western Europe creating a radicalisation of policy concerning Roma.

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Author Biography

Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, Jagiellonian University

Holds a PhD in anthropology from the Institute of Cultural Anthropology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her doctoral thesis was titled The influence of the EU financial activities on the social situation of the Roma people in Poland. Currently she works as a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in the Institute of Intercultural Studies.A lecturer in the postgraduate studies program – “Totalitarianism – Nazism – Holocaust” created by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with the cooperation of the Pedagogical University in Kraków. Grantee of the European Commission’s program – Marie Curie Conferences and Training Courses – Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-National Approaches to Romani Studies – a Model for Europe (Central European University, Budapest 2009) and nominee to the International Visitor Leadership Programme by US Consul General Alan Greenberg. Grantee of the Gypsy Lore Society Scholarship in 2012.

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Published

2015-02-09

How to Cite

Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, Joanna. 2015. “Roma Immigrants in Western Europe – the Example of France and Italy”. Politeja 12 (8 (31/2):111-21. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.31_2.08.