Paper short abstract:

Too often Gypsy, Roma or Traveller perspectives are distorted. Relevant anthropological studies are plagiarised or ignored by the populist media. Yet ethnographic text and film offer rare, grounded insights, while nuanced examination of outsider policies has the potential for conflict resolution.

Paper long abstract:

The Gypsies, Roma or Travellers have been simultaneously exoticised or persecuted. Too often their perspective is distorted or obliterated. Malinowski's plea to examine the 'imponderabilia of everyday life' is ignored in favour of sensationalist voyeurism, alongside the criminalisation of peoples traditionally associated with service nomadism and the informal economy. Individual non-Gypsies or Gajes from the media glitterati, with neither respect for nor knowledge of social science practice, have plagiarised anthropologists' work, presuming that ethnography is mere reportage. Alternatively, as in the TV series 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding', castigated by one Gypsy woman as a 'mockumentary', insights from anthropological texts were entirely ignored. Anthropology's pioneering 'observational' filming tradition was misappropriated and distorted. By contrast, social anthropology's core tradition of long-term participant observation offers insider perspectives and the testimony of individual voices. Such ethnography, emerging from mutual trust, has been open to rare and illuminating filming. Simultaneously, intensive engagement with these most persecuted of minorities may lead to a critical and nuanced re-examination of outsider representations and policies. Such grounded knowledge of interrelations has the potential for productive, as opposed to counter-productive, resolution of constructed and avoidable conflicts.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will present findings from a series of studies examining the transition experiences of formerly nomadic Gypsy/Traveller families now resident in conventional housing. The focus of the paper will be on the relation between settlement and changing working patterns and will explore the role of collective adaptive strategies and cultural resources in mediating the diverse economic outcomes and income strategies for members of these communities.

Paper long abstract:

Gypsies and Travellers are one of the most excluded black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in the UK across numerous domains. Despite the recent preoccupation among anthropologists and sociologists on migrant economies following the increased ethnic diversity of many urban areas in the UK and Western Europe and the increased policy focus on levels of unemployment and economic inactivity among BME groups in recent years, little attention has been paid to the economic position of Gypsies and Travellers. Partly this reflects the dominance of positivistic and statistical approaches to capturing employment patterns and a lack of systematic data on the employment status of these communities and the difficulties of applying conventional categories of employed/unemployed on a group whose economic practices has been characterised by family based self-employment, informality, flexibility and a diversity of income streams. This paper will present findings from a series of related studies that explore the accommodation histories and adaptive strategies utilised by housed Gypsies and Travellers across four locations in southern England. One strand of these studies was concerned with employment opportunities and practices following the transition into housing. We draw on these findings to discuss the role of cultural adaptations in mediating the wider socioeconomic context and how recourse to collective responses helps to shape economic and labour market outcomes for members of this group.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores social relationships between a group of horse-drawn Travellers and the larger host society. Travellers and Gypsies are usually met with antipathy, however the group of Travellers studied here instead elicited a favourable response. I suggest that this is due to their possession of horses and decorated wagons which denote them to be 'traditional' and therefore, 'real' Travellers.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines social relationships between a group of horse-drawn Travellers known as the 'Horse-drawn', and Britain's sedentary population. The occurrence of hatred and hostility directed towards Travellers and Gypsies from the larger host society has been well documented by social scientists. However, the response the 'Horse-drawn' evoke from the settled population, rather than being one of hostility, is often one of acceptance and even admiration. I argue that this response happens due to the 'Horse-drawn' being re-imagined by those who encounter them. The way the social imagination is constructed and communicated, resulting in concrete social effects, is of particular interest here. The 'Horse-drawn' originate from New Age Travellers, a group ascribed with the status of being inauthentic and undesirable. However, rather than being thought of in this way, the 'Horse-drawn' are accepted and admired, as they are imagined to be 'traditional', and therefore 'real', Travellers. This is because the decorated horse-drawn wagon is synonymous with the mythological notion of the 'real' Gypsy in the British cultural imagination. Therefore when outsiders encounter the 'Horse-drawn', the horse and wagon act as symbols which denote the 'Horse-drawn' to be concrete manifestations of the mythological notion of the 'real' Gypsy. It is due to this projection that the 'Horse-drawn' are extended greater acceptance from many of Britain's sedentary population than other Traveller groups.

Paper short abstract:

In the past century the preoccupation with racial makeup led to regulations in the flow of peoples. The paper demonstrates how the processes of boundary-setting in Argentina constructed ‘Gypsies’ as natural groups and how this racial element was produced out of variables peculiar to the area.

Paper long abstract:

In the formation of modern Argentina, national identity has been strongly tied to immigration. 'Whitening' via European immigration was linked to the very definition of modernity ('el progreso'). Settlement of the vast pampas and the notion that to 'govern is to populate' was a powerful political discourse and long helped to promote an open immigration policy.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, a growing number of Argentine intellectuals and policy-makers became concerned with undesirable immigrants that appeared to pose a vital threat to the nation state. By focusing on bio-political discourses the paper explores how the notion of 'Gypsies' took shape in Argentine immigration policy (legislation and practice) and how 'Gypsies' became one of the focal points in state politics of control and regulation. The paper approaches 'Gypsies' as a construction in time and place. Races are not preexisting entities but 'social groups produced out of unequal power relations and discriminatory practices' (Stepan 1996: 136).

Although the existence of contemporary Argentine Gypsy communities is often cloaked in silence, according to recent research 'Gypsies' belong to one of the most discriminated groups in the country. In contrast to other minorities, the 'Gypsies' do not easily fit into Argentine racial categories. Neither do they have a place in the current historical narrative. The paper addresses these and other methodological difficulties arising in the study of Gypsies in Latin America.

Paper short abstract:

As a consequence of successive governmental policies, most Gypsy elders are now forced to live on permanent trailer sites. Sedentarisation does have many negative consequences for older Gypsies. However, traditionally Gypsies have always offered a high level of level of intergenerational reciprocity and our research indicates that this continues under enforced sedentarisation. Our research also suggests that while Gypsy elders may have always played an important role in the transmission of Gypsy culture and heritage, this role may become increasingly important as their families are forced into sedentarisation and away from their traditional nomadic life.

Paper long abstract:

This research was conducted by Gypsy and academic researchers with Gypsy elders in the North East of England. Our research suggests that it is impossible to understand the experience of ageing in Gypsy families, without comprehending how the lives of all Gypsies and other Travellers are framed and constrained by the policies and politics of the dominant, non-Gypsy community. As a consequence of these policies, most Gypsy elders are now forced to live on permanent trailer sites. Sedentarisation does have many negative consequences for older Gypsies. However, traditionally Gypsies have always offered a high level of level of intergenerational reciprocity and our research indicates that this continues under enforced sedentarisation. Consequently, loneliness and isolation are not features of ageing in Gypsy communities. Our research also suggests that while Gypsy elders may have always played an important role in the transmission of Gypsy culture and heritage, this role may become increasingly important as their families are forced into sedentarisation and away from their traditional nomadic life.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to problematise the social construction of Gypsy and Traveller identity in British planning law and policy, by examining planning appeal decisions through a theoretical framework of discourse analysis informed by, among others, the work of Foucault, Lacan, Laclau and Mouffe.

Paper long abstract:

Gypsies and Travellers in Britain are marginalised through a social construction of their 'otherness' and their alleged 'flouting' of laws and wider social norms. Attempts are made to construct and fix the identity of Gypsies and Travellers as contra to a wider social good. Popular constructions in political, social and media debate caricature polarising images of 'real' and 'fake' Gypsies (Richardson, 2006) that play out in planning and other public policy debates and which impact on decisions to give or refuse planning permission for sites. Representations of Gypsy and Traveller as legal entities in British planning law are just one aspect of the wider construction of identity; there are also debates in the press and parliament which take on a Lacanian fantasmatic character to allow for enjoyment of political and business goals that can be furthered through this marginalisation and 'othering' of Gypsies and Travellers.

This paper seeks to problematise the construction of Gypsy and Traveller identity in British planning by examining the discourse of planning officers, Gypsies and Travellers, local 'settled' members of the community, councillors and MPs in some key recent planning appeal decisions, as well as in the wider debate on council approaches to planning for future sites in local plans. This analysis will occur in the theoretical paradigm which examines the work of Foucault, Lacan, Laclau and Mouffe on discourse, and the important anthropological work of Okely and of Silverman in the field of Gypsies and Traveller research.

Paper short abstract:

How can anthropology help to explain the effect of EU enlargement for UK Roma? This paper examines changes in flows of people, ideas and funds from Europe to one London borough following enlargement. It identifies some local processes that facilitate Roma attaining their legal entitlements.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how EU enlargement and the subsequent legal change in some Roma's migration status have affected UK policies and service provision, specifically focusing on education services. Before 2004, many Roma in the UK claimed asylum, a status providing limited access to services. After 2004, EU enlargement meant that Roma arriving from A8 countries were economic migrants, with rights of movement, employment, education, retirement, family reunion and welfare.

To explore the effects of this change, the paper uses a theoretical framework based on flows of people, ideas and funds through European institutions, national governments and local service providers.

First, it examines how the change in Roma's status at the EU level has been incorporated into UK national policy, including differences in the use of the term 'Roma' in policy documents. Focusing on education policy, it will then explore the link between these changes and the effects for local-level service provision. By examining different patterns in flows of people, ideas and funds it highlights disjunctures in the interacting changes resulting from EU enlargement, with some increasing Roma inclusion and others creating new barriers.

Interviews, conversations, legal cases and policy documents are used to demonstrate that acquiring legal entitlements is a necessary, but not a sufficient, foundation for Roma migrants' full economic and social participation.

Paper short abstract:

Since the 1990s many Roma families have migrated to the UK from the Czech Republic. This paper addresses the complexity and dynamics of the communication and interaction between service providers working with Roma families and Roma immigrants in England.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on Czech Roma immigrants in England and their interaction with service providers, with an emphasis on services aimed at families and children. Czech Roma have been migrating to the UK since the 1990s and some local authorities now have services designed specifically to work with Eastern European Roma. These services offer help with getting children into schools, benefit applications and with housing issues. Yet, as various services are designed according to the values of the providers and the perceived needs of the Roma, their effectiveness is limited. In this paper I examine the complexity and dynamics of the communication and interaction between service providers and the Roma. The Roma and service providers differ not only in their perception of correct parenting, family structure or health and illness, but also in their understanding of available opportunities. The opportunities and possibilities that people perceive they have in life depend on the ways of being that they can imagine. The conditions the Roma have experienced are so different from the lived experience of the service providers that it is difficult for the service providers to comprehend them. Therefore, personal circumstances are interpreted in terms of personal decisions, achievements, failures and moral values, rather than being placed within a wider structural and social context. These become overlooked and disconnected from the circumstances of families that the service providers deal with.

NOTE: This paper is based on work in progress and while it uses insights gained from personal experience, fieldwork is yet to be conducted (planned to start in autumn 2012).

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores UK Gypsy/ Traveller women and young people's perceptions of the barriers they face in accessing employment, exploring the strategies utilised to minimise anti-Gypsy racism in the work place, as well as considering work settings which instil confidence in revealing their ethnic identities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws upon a number of employment related studies undertaken by the author to examine UK Gypsy/Traveller women's and young people's experiences and perceptions of anti-Gypsy racism and discrimination in the workplace. Participants in a number of projects have indicated that they believe that membership of their community increases the likelihood of experiencing the 'ethnic penalty' (employment disadvantage) common to many minority ethnic individuals seeking work, despite the fact that they can potentially 'pass' by virtue of their 'whiteness'. The most common strategies utilised by potential workers are to 'disguise' their ethnicity; seek to 'pass' as members of the mainstream population or 'deny' their origins if challenged. The impacts of these strategies on participants'sense of identity and engagement with 'mainstream' society can be profoundly dislocating leading to a reluctance to enter into discourse with other populations, including those from other minority communities. In contrast, settings where participants worked with other Gypsies/Travellers or felt empowered to 'stand proud' increased the likelihood of retention of employment and access to additional training. This paper considers the policy and practice implications of the findings in relation to inter-community relations, perceptions of membership of wider society and Gypsy/Traveller identity formation.

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates Roma family intergenerational transmission of migration processes, and in turn children’s representations, perspectives and identity construction. This double process produces different ways of portraying and understanding families, ethnicity, migration and identity, articulating imagination and reality.

Paper long abstract:

If the struggle for social and cultural transmission is present in all minorities, this is particularly difficult when it comes to the identity of romanès because of the very negative stereotypes and moral judgments surrounding these minorities. Moreover, migrations and displacement make it more complex. Roma migrant communities had to re-negotiate relationship with the host society and new generations are growing up in new environments, although living in rather segregated settlements. Our aim is to investigate Roma family intergenerational transmission of migration processes, and in turn children's representations, perspectives and identity construction.

Common representations of Roma often lead those communities to develop strategies in order to appear morally worthy. To preserve their identities Roma parents need to transmit to their children a strong sense of belonging to their community while, at the same time, teaching them how to hide their identity. This has a decisive influence on child rearing and educational practices.

As a matter of fact, familyhood is not a unidirectional process, but a mutual one. Therefore, another major aspect of our focus is children's subjective representation of their roots and background, as well as of their parents' pathways. This double process produces different ways of portraying and understanding families, ethnicity, migration and identity, articulating imagination and reality. Moreover, they reconstitute and redefine their social identifications over time. However, the values and strategies of the parents are not automatically reproduced by the children. Quite on the contrary, the youngest generations redefine the social boundary between the self and other.

Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses forms of anthropological engagement and dilemmas in the case of ethnographic study of a particular network of Slovakian Roma and state institutions dealing with Roma migrants in their UK migratory destinations.

Paper long abstract:

Following Slovakian accession to the EU in 2004 many Slovakian Roma migrated to Great Britain. Unlike other Roma groups migrating to Western Europe, Slovakian Roma frequently adopted various strategies of invisibility. They entered the labour market alongside other Eastern European migrants and were frequently categorized as Slovaks. However, within several years a category of Eastern European Gypsies emerged as a highly problematic identity label in several British cities related to issues of poverty, education, health care, housing and welfare. Various local institutions, practitioners, NGO workers, activists and journalists started to classify the migrants as Roma/Gypsies and singled them out as a particularly challenging population.

Drawing on fieldwork among Slovakian Roma migrants and state workers, the paper discusses forms of anthropological engagement and dilemmas. While many anthropologists of Roma successfully challenge some of the stereotypes, their own representations might risk a similar danger of contributing to re-configuration of another type of reified visions of social world and essentialism. The paper discusses some of the tensions stemming from studying simultaneously state and Roma migrants. It situates ethnographic practice within a social field in which 'Roma culture' becomes a highly contested concept.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will examine how Roma as victims of the Holocaust during WWII are, if at all, incorporated into learning schemata in Romania post-communism, and what institutional forces, internal and external, influence this process.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will examine how Roma as victims of the Holocaust during WWII are, if at all, incorporated into learning schemata in Romania post-communism, and what institutional forces, internal and external, influence this process. In 1942, the Romanian regime, allied with Nazi Germany, deported over 25,000 Roma to camps in occupied Ukraine. Two categories of Roma to concentration camps in occupied Ukraine: all nomads and settled populations of Roma deemed "dangerous" by the regime. Less than half of those Roma deported returned home as most died from malnutrition, disease and brutality. The postwar communist regimes would silence the Romanian crimes of genocide, blaming their German allies for the heinous acts. To understand the incentives and the obstacles in including the Romani genocide into history courses, I closely follow training seminars offered to Romanian teachers on Holocaust education, as well as distributed materials. Regarding Roma, some important questions that need to be answered are: Why are most teachers ignorant about the Holocaust and how do they view it today? What attitudes and perceptions do some teachers have about Roma? Why do some teachers resist learning about Roma as former victims? Moreover, I ask whether this is an issue that is unique in the Romanian education system or, alternatively, whether it is more widespread throughout Europe. Briefly, I will delve into the historiography of the Holocaust in Romania, exploring the avenues of silences immediately following the war, through communism and the transition to democracy until today.

Paper short abstract:

As of 2002, field researches of the Roma, Ashkali and Bayash communities have been conducted in different areas of Serbia, both in urban and rural areas. For this occasion I will present the work of the research team of the Institute for Balkan Studies as well as mine, researched areas in Serbia, methodology the team uses, and some of the photos from the field.

Paper long abstract:

The Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) has been working on establishing a Digital Archive since 1998. Field research studies are focused on researching the linguistic situation under the conditions of multiethnicity and multilingualism, multiconfessionality and multiculturalism. As of 2002, field researches of the Roma, Ashkali and Bayash communities have been conducted in different areas of Serbia, both in urban and rural areas. The result of these studies is an extensive corpus of interviews about the Roma and with the Roma in the Digital Archive of the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA, therefore different interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary qualitative studies of the Roma and Roma communities are possible today.

The Digital Archive of the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA contains interviews conducted with Roma of different social status, different generations, confessional and religious affiliation, as well as with members of various Roma groups. In our corpus the interviews conducted with Roma have different topics, such as: traditional culture, biographical and autobiographical stories, current and general problems of the community and the like. Besides the interviews archived, the Digital Archive contains films, recorded on occasional Roma feasts - weddings, funeral customs, celebrating St. George day and the ritual of animal sacrifice. There is a great number of photos, taken during the field researches in Roma settlements.

For this occasion I will present the work of the research team of the Institute for Balkan Studies as well as mine, researched areas in Serbia, methodology the team uses, and some of the photos from the field.

Paper short abstract:

The fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the division of Czechoslovakia into two independent states brought many changes in identity of its citizens. We will discuss identity of some Roma/Gypsies who form a transnational group/network in this Central-European space.

Paper long abstract:

The division of the former Czechoslovakia established new borders, and, in some cases, new forms of identity of the inhabitants of these two Central European countries. Roma/Gypsies have for decades formed a minority which migrated between these two countries extensively, and many of their families today resemble a kind of transnational kinship network, extended, after the EU access, by many European countries. Their identities have, however, usually formed on a slightly different basis than identities of the non-Roma population, although they are attached to the country/countries where they were born. We will discuss the problem of identity of a Roma/Gypsy group we have studied for past almost ten years, whose members live (not only) in both the Czech and Slovak Republics, and the effect the social and political changes of the last 20 years had on their perceiving of who they are. The core of our investigation concerns the questions of identity (local identity, kinship identity, state identity, European identity or a trans-national Roma identity?). We will discuss interrelationships between various strata of identities and the extent to which these relationships are influenced by the division of Czechoslovakia and the processes of EU integration.

Paper short abstract:

This essay aims to examine the place of Romani studies in the fight against anti-Gypsism from a both epistemological and ethical point of view.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last 10 years, researches on Roma/Gypsies have considerably developed in Europe. The fall of communist regimes, the establishment of market economies in Eastern Europe and, more generally, the deep inscription of social and economic crisis in the European horizon have brought the "Roma issue" as a central concern of national and international institutions, this leading to the inflation of the production of "knowledge" about these groups. These studies are usually more quantitative than qualitative, and generally avoid to question the validity of the object itself: the Roma/Gypsies are considered as a meaningful and natural category. However, many recent ethnographies highlight the malleability and the dynamism of local or national ethnic categorizations at work, as well as the socio-cultural diversity of those called Roma/Gypsies. In other words, the more we ethnography them, the less the Roma/Gypsies category makes sense. Yet, by its current political and media over-representation, the "Roma issue" topic motivates the proliferation of field researches... this confirming the idea that the Roma are a problem to be addressed. Therefore, can the Romani studies do anything against anti-Gypsism?

Paper short abstract:

Suspicion between a non-Roma researcher and her Roma interlocutors has been chosen as subject for this paper. Besides describing a story of unsuccess, major factors responsible for mistrust are revealed and discussed. Subsequently, it is highlighted, how suspicion towards a researcher is embedded in different perspectives on institutions, and create a social distance between Roma from a ghetto in Romania and the non-Roma outer world.

Paper long abstract:

Contrary to the Mead-controversy where suspicion in fieldwork has been attributed to lack of competence or failure, the present paper considers suspicion as important ethnographic data. Through re-telling the difficulties of a research carried out among the Roma residents of a Romanian shantytown, I try to reveal all the mechanisms that are responsible for suspicion and distancing the researcher from her/his informants. Embedded in Eastern-European social and political changes, mistrust in this field goes back to an initial territorial stigma attached to the locals in the early 1990s. My research site, "the Green block of flats" has become a ghetto due to massive unemployment and differences in living conditions, where isolation from the outer world has been enforced by misunderstandings with local institutions. Being "used" by NGOs and subjected to unfulfilled treatment under the label of "helping the Roma", shantytown-residents could but reject the newcomer researcher who seemed to be one of "them".

Paper short abstract:

Scottish Gypsy Travellers are recognised as being one of Scotland's most marginalised communities. This paper seeks to identify continued discriminatory practices that this community experiences and the social, physical and psychological impact on this ethnic minority group.

Paper long abstract:

Scottish Gypsy Travellers are recognised as being one of Scotland's most marginalised communities.

The paper discusses continuing efforts taken to establish in law that this community are an ethnic minority group.

It will:

Identify continuing discriminatory practices in delivery of services and recent policies that are discriminatory

Identify future actions required and provide an example of 'building connections'

Main findings

Attitudes of our Scottish communities continue to cause major concerns about the treatment of this ethnic minority group

The issue about ethnicity is still unresolved

Our prejudices are impacting negatively on the mental health of this community

Conclusion

Continued discriminatory practices exist at all levels of policy and practice.

Impact

Impact has been negligible. This community continues to suffer from discriminatory and exclusionary policies from public bodies.