The Institutional and Spatial Segregation of Romanies in Italy

Abstract

The Romani experience in Italy constitutes a unique case in the European context, as Italy was until recently the only country whose official policy was to institutionalise its Romani population inside urban ‘ghettos’ (ERRC, Campland: Racial segregation of Roma in Italy. Retrieved from http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/media/00/0F/m0000000F.pdf, 2000; Clough Marinaro, Bull Ital Polit, 1(2):265–287, 2009). According to Piasere (I Rom d’Europa: Una storia moderna [The Roma of Europe: a modern history]. Laterza, Rome, 2004, as cited in SCPPHR, 2011), the ‘politics of the camps’ can be dated back to the mid-twentieth century, corresponding with the arrival of Romani people from the then Yugoslavia. Although only a fraction of the Romani people live in camps today – between one-quarter and one-sixth of the entire population of this minority (Associazione 21 Luglio, Rapporto annuale 2016 [Annual report 2016]. Retrieved from http://www.21luglio.org/21luglio/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/RAPPORTO-ANNUALE_2016_WEB.pdf, 2016b) – the ‘Rom/nomade/Zingaro that policymakers have in mind is an abstract person created around the use of stereotypical images’ (Sigona, Lo scandalo dell’alterità: Rom e sinti in Italia [The scandal of otherness: Roma and Sinti in Italy]. In: Bragato S, Menetto L (eds) E per patria una lingua segreta: Rom e sinti in provincia di Venezia. Nuovadimensione, Portogruaro, p 17–32, 2007, as cited in Fiorucci, Un’altra città è possibile. Percorsi di integrazione delle famiglie Rom e Sinte a Roma: Problemi, limiti e prospettive delle politiche di inclusione sociale. [Another city is possible. Integration trajectories of Roma and Sinti families in Rome: problems, limitations and perspectives of social inclusion policies]. Geordie onlus, Roma, 2010: 35). This chapter will trace the history of the Romani peoples’ ‘nomadisation’ and ‘campisation’, while presenting the main stages of the strategy adopted by the Italian Government to deal with the presence of the Romani population.