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Accepted Paper:

Conflicting labels, overlapping discourses and segregating policies: the case of Kosovo Roma refugees living in 'nomad camps' in Italy  
Nando Sigona (Oxford Brookes University)

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the making and maintenance of the 'problema zingari' in Italy. By comparing the settlement experiences of Kosovo Roma in two cities, it discusses the centrality of 'nomad camps' as de facto refugee camps and, simultaneously, as loci for the management of the 'Gypsy problem'.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on the fieldwork I carried out in different stages and locations between April 2005 and February 2006 for my doctoral research on Kosovo Roma refugees in Italy and the management of the "Gypsy problem" in Italy. In order to do an ethnography of social and political processes, the fieldwork had to be designed in a way to comprehend the roles and dynamics of the various agents involved and meet them in different settings and situations. It also required myself to perform different roles, interact according different "rules of engagement" with the people I encountered and adjust my profile to circumstances.

By drawing upon "official" and "unofficial" fieldwork-generated outputs (i.e. transcripts, fieldnotes, diary, emails, fieldwork anecdotes) , the paper discusses the interplay of my "identities" with informants in the field and reflect upon the relationship between the multiple, and sometimes ambiguous, positionality of the researcher and her struggle to address, and cope with, his moral debt/obligation towards informers which goes beyond the writing of a book on them, especially if most of them are illiterate and are by far the most discriminated minority living in Italy.

By comparing Florence and Venice, the paper also investigates the nature of "nomad camps" as de facto refugee camps and, simultaneously, loci for the management of the "Gypsy problem" which, on one hand, enhance and maintain the status quo of segregation and marginalisation of Roma from the rest of the Italian society, on the other, provide a shelter and a place for building and reinforcing community identity and mutual support among its inmates.

Panel W086
The global character of minority questions in the new Europe
  Session 1