‘They clip our wings’: studying achievement and racialisation through a Roma perspective

ABSTRACT

This article presents data gathered among Bulgarian Romani communities during a project investigating the educational hardship of Roma people. Major social inequalities affect the educational and life chances of Roma students. Despite European Union political frameworks, the perspectives of Roma themselves remain undocumented. This paper addresses this gap by reporting on data from interviews with Roma parents and students, which reveal practices of discrimination racialising Roma in Bulgarian schools. Reporting on modes of racialisation, the author shows the direct impact of experiences of discrimination on Roma students’ educational and career prospects. The findings are relevant to building knowledge of how racialisation, which has shaped the societal discourse surrounding Roma groups, remains integral in contemporary Europe, reinforcing racialised social hierarchies. This article informs further our understanding of the limitations of concentrated political efforts to bring actual change in the lives of Roma if destructive social constructions, such as racialisation, are not sufficiently addressed.     

Different and unequal: the educational segregation of Roma pupils in Europe

This article analyses and welcomes the decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights which held that the use of special schools for Roma pupils was contrary to the right to an education coupled with the prohibition on discrimination. The decision has wide ramifications for the education of minority, particularly Roma, pupils who are often sent to remedial schools or special classes as an alternative to mainstream, integrated education. It is argued that such segregation, whilst it may arise from a legitimate intention to address educational disadvantage, cannot achieve such a goal in a climate of separation and intolerance which permeates the wider society. The Grand Chamber’s willingness to scrutinise the wider societal context and to allow statistical evidence to suggest a prime facie case of indirect discrimination, will be welcomed by those seeking a more pro‐active non‐discrimination platform from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).     

NGO Strategies for Hungarian and Roma Minorities in Central Europe

NGOs sponsor a variety of innovative projects relating to the Hungarian and Roma minorities in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, as well as for the Roma in Hungary. However, a study of 33 NGOs in this region reveals that the strategies behind these projects tend to vary according to the particular group being addressed. NGO projects emphasizing Hungarian minorities tend to utilize network strategies to increase contact between Hungarians and titulars (Romanians, Slovaks, and Ukrainians), while projects for Roma tend to avoid network strategies, focusing exclusively on status-raising strategies. This paper presents the promises and shortcomings of both approaches, and concludes with an analysis addressing why NGOs should be less hesitant to apply network strategies to Roma projects as well as to Hungarian projects.     

The contextual effect of trust on perceived support: Evidence from Roma and non-Roma in East-Central Europe

In recent years, trust has been conceptualized as an important source of social capital, setting off cross-disciplinary research on both the benefits and predictors of trust at the individual and contextual level. In this paper, we turn to the individual outcomes of living in a trustful context, and explore the relationship between trust, itself one of the main components of social capital, and social support, seen as one of the most important effects of social capital. In particular, we ask how social capital—and the relationship between trust and social support—functions in the context of unequal societies. We model perceived support as an outcome across three levels, from no support to proximate to distal support, and using a cross-national study of Roma and non-Roma across 12 European countries, we track the relationship between trust and support across both mainstream and marginalized populations. Our findings suggest that living in contexts with more trust has protective effects particularly for members of marginalized groups: the Roma are more likely to have distal support in contexts with higher trust. We conclude that contextual trust helps to broaden the circle of support beyond family and friends; thus, trust can indeed be a synthetic force that binds individuals together in broadened structures of support.     

Becoming tolerable: subject constitution of Roma mediators in Finnish schools

Although Finnish politics relating to the Roma tend to be perceived internationally as fairly successful, several obstacles exist for the Roma in education and the labour market. Training of Roma mediators has been actively promoted in Finland to improve the school performance and equality of Roma pupils. This article, based on ethnographic research, focuses on exploring how the current discursive terrain around the topics of tolerance and prejudice functions in the everyday work of mediators. It is argued that the present discourses in school expose the mediators to unequal power relations of tolerance. The terms for being tolerated are set by the potential tolerating actors, the school community. The mediators aim to supply knowledge about the Roma and try to address prejudices as representatives of the Roma. The study identified three different strategies that the mediators used when encountering prejudice: making sure one does not seem too different, parody and feigning naivety. The analysis suggests that the present discursive terrain creates obstacles to addressing inequalities, discrimination and racism in educational contexts. The responsibility for tackling discrimination is placed on the shoulders of individual Roma – not the whole school community.     

Disempowered by the media: causes and consequences of the lack of media voice of Roma communities

ABSTRACT

Roma communities have experienced widespread historical exclusion in most European countries. The media can be a powerful instrument of a group’s inclusion into the mental map of a society, or, on the contrary, it can contribute to the group’s exclusion and disempowerment. This article builds on a series of content and discursive analyses of the news media’s coverage of Hungarian Roma communities since 1993, interviews with stakeholders and focus group discussions in Roma communities. It scrutinises media reporting about Roma and argues that, in general, the scope and the agenda of Roma’s portrayal coincide with mainstream society’s stereotypes about the group. The article will additionally look at the media’s disempowering role from two perspectives: on the one hand, the extent to which Roma have access to influencing media content, and on the other hand, it will consider the role of minority communities in challenging stereotypical images.     

Exploring the unknown aspects of Roma community in Cyprus and the role of social work practice

The status quo of Roma communities in Europe is strongly marked by marginalisation and discrimination. Roma people tend to face social exclusion and segregation leading to lack of education, chronic unemployment and limited access to healthcare, housing and public services as well as widespread poverty. Very few studies have been conducted as far as Roma community in Cyprus are concerned and almost none has explored quality of life of this ethnic minority. Therefore, this article examines quality of life dimensions in approximately half of the population (n?=?156) residing in the catchment area. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed poor standards of living, high school dropout rates and high levels of marginalisation. Social work as discipline can foster a more empowering and coordinating role as to enhance Roma’s distinctive identity and improve standards of living.     

Abnormalising minorities. The state and expert knowledge addressing the Roma in Italy

This article expands the research on abnormalisation and the construction of social deviance of minorities. It focuses on the relationships between state practices, policies and expert knowledge addressing the Roma in Italy; it does so by first contextualising recent ethnographic findings on Turin authorities’ social inclusion practices addressing Roma within the history of national and regional policies for Roma; it then contextualises those policies within the history of expert knowledge about Roma. Unlike what other studies on abnormalisation suggest, we argue that the abnormalisation of Roma in Italy is not primarily predicated upon the idea that they are at present unfit to follow the norms of the majority; rather, it stays upon a historically rooted representation of Roma oscillating between the poles of potential re-educability and potential dangerousness. In the conclusion we encourage further comparative research on abnormalisation, especially including practices and knowledge addressing other European minorities such as the Jews.     

Diversity vs. equality: Why the education of Roma children does not work

This article takes up the question of why recent efforts to reform Roma education have been largely unsuccessful. Using case studies, the authors identify and discuss situations that have produced poor results: good intentions and bad realisations, good intentions and good realisations, and misguided intentions and bad realisations. They suggest in conclusion that as long as underlying cultural and structural conditions are not transformed, Roma education reform will not produce the desired results.     

The Roma Voice in the European Union: Between National Belonging and Transnational Identity

This article examines the response of Roma activists to the Italian Roma crisis in 2007 and 2008. The Roma community has become targets of discriminatory policies in Italy, such as forced evictions and ethnic profiling by the authorities, which construct Roma as distinct from the Italian nation. Roma activists increasingly circumvent national political structures and instead regard the European Union (EU) as an ally in redressing discriminatory policies in member states. In the absence of a kin state to lobby and advocate on their behalf, Roma activists, working in the transnational political context, articulate their voice and demands to the institutions of the EU. In doing so, they construct a transnational identity which on the one hand reifies Roma to a homogeneous group, whilst on the other hand contributes to the idea that Roma are not a constitutive component of the dominant nation. This article uses the Italian Roma crisis as a particular episode in which transnational Roma activists responded to a nationally based crisis and explores the impact of this on issues of national belonging.     

Shifting visibilities: the social implications of a Roma aesthetic

ABSTRACT

This paper is a personal reflection by a Roma artist upon the mutual influence of Roma social relations and Roma visual culture. Strategies of art making are considered via analyses of contemporary Roma art works. It is suggested that historic marginalisation and continuing discrimination have determined the contingent nature of the Roma aesthetic resulting in keen facilities for adaptation and obscured visibility. Roma artefacts are shown to employ these resistant characteristics of Roma visuality to convey social, cultural, artistic and political agency via visual and performative means. The conclusion calls for a reconceptualisation of Roma visibilities so that we as Roma might forge new political unities and new forms of politics to more effectively challenge embedded Romaphobia.     

Moving images of exclusion: Persisting tropes in the filmic representation of European Roma

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the most prominent tropes in the earliest and most recent filmic representations of Roma. Stereotypical images of Roma abound in many fictional features as well as documentaries, from the representation of Roma as eternal nomads to racially prejudiced depictions of Roma women and the alleged innateness of music to Roma. Because images and modes of representation change over time, the paper juxtaposes the earliest portrayals of Roma with those produced in the last 15 years. The analysis particularly centres on two dominant reoccurring tropes: types of spaces typically occupied by Roma in film, that is the lack of a place or so-called placeless-ness of Roma; the gendered other, or the Roma woman and the culturally and ethnically othered Roma musician. Ultimately, by analysing how these tropes have persisted in varying forms over 100 years, this work points to the filmic imagery that perpetuates antiziganism, but also how the same has changed over the years to offer possible counter-narratives.     

In liberty's shadow: the discourse of refugees and asylum seekers in critical race theory and immigration law/politics

This article addresses the potential that a kind of engaged research can have in current battles for social justice and in the transformation of college curricula as a way to recover the original critical spirit of ethnic studies. Building on critical race theory, I discuss the work of NGOs such as Human Rights First and Americans for Immigrant Justice on behalf of Haitian refugees and the role of literature in inspiring human rights actions that might redefine practices of citizenship and belonging. At a time when the United States recognises the rights of refugees but criminalises the search for asylum, coalition building between ethnic studies discourse, the legal academy and the community is vital to affirm and protect the internationally recognised rights of refugees. Crucial in this process is the role played by stories as a way to humanise the often impersonal topic of the immigration debate.     

Intercultural policies and the contradictory views of teachers: the Roma in Catalonian schools

In this article, we examine the contradictions and lack of consistency between various levels of discourse relating to Roma educational policies. Policy-makers have claimed that political interventions would positively impact the progress of Roma. However, the results have been mixed. We argue here that teachers need to re-evaluate their roles as politically aware and culturally informed agents in order to guarantee social justice to a historically disadvantaged ethnic minority. Based on ethnographical fieldwork carried out over a two-year period with Spanish Roma children, both in schools and in their families, this study shows how intercultural policies have failed to impact the educational realities of Roma children.     

Visualising everyday ethnicity: moving beyond stereotypes of Roma minorities

ABSTRACT

The visual image of Roma people in the media is mired in racialised notions of ‘the other’. Whilst we know what Roma stereotypes look like, there is little clarity as to how a ‘non-stereotypical’ image might be constructed. In order to examine the non-stereotypical, two sources of images are analysed: (1) entrants from an anti-stereotype Roma photography competition and (2) self-representations produced by Roma participants during ethnographic research. The findings show that if ‘Roma’ is foregrounded as the subject, even a non-stereotypical approach can reproduce ‘difference’ (from a supposed ‘norm’). ‘Roma’ is thus, at the moment, still strongly linked to a notion of ethnicity that is seen as different and racialised. However, when ethnicity is not emphasised, but rather self-representations and the ‘everyday’, such orthodoxies are challenged. These sources provide a unique opportunity to create a deeper understanding of ‘non-stereotypical’ images in order to challenge misrepresentations and racism.     

The politics of neoliberalism in Latin America: dynamics of resilience and contestation

Over the last two decades, academic debates around neoliberalism in Latin America have shifted from evaluations of the drawbacks and virtues of the application of neoliberal policies for achieving socioeconomic development, towards discussions imagining and implementing alternatives. After thirty years of neoliberal reform, even neoliberal advocates have increasingly recognised the pernicious effects that the process of neoliberalization have had on people's lives. The fleeting left and centre-left moment brought renewed hopes and expectations of a post-neoliberal future. However, post-neoliberal states could not solve the contradictions of neoliberalism and told us much about its resilience and adaptability. This article offers an overview of the dynamics of neoliberalism's resilience and contestation in Latin America as treated by extant literature as a way to account for the politics of neoliberalism in the region, its rise and its current status.     

Shaping the right to education for Roma children: a case study of present practices in Ghent,Belgium

Western European cities are increasingly confronted with Roma immigrants. Societal changes associated with this phenomenon create new challenges for schools. Using a case study, this article sheds light on present practices that shape the right to education for Roma children. Three principal success factors are distinguished: boundary-blurring practices, a lifeworld-oriented approach and commitment. Finally, the relation between promising practices and a rights-based approach to educational justice is discussed.     

Social mobilizations and the question of social justice in contemporary Russia

ABSTRACT

Notwithstanding stereotypes of Russian apathy, long-term field research reveals that there have always been grassroots and labour protests in post-Soviet Russia, even as the shock of ultraliberal reforms led to mass precariousness and social disorientation. However, the social mobilizations that do occur are scattered, weakly publicized and mostly small-scale. This paper conceptualizes them as ‘everyday activism’, that is, an activism embedded in everyday life experience and pragmatic sense. Only recently, and in a paradoxical relation to the populist and patriotic Kremlin discourse, some new trends have emerged towards other popular variants of the new discourse that includes social equality claims and what the paper calls ‘social critical’ populism. However, this populism from below does not automatically lead to mass mobilization, although it provides the necessary background for it.