Lost Between Protective Regimes: Roma in the Norwegian State

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Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss the dilemmas and contradictions between two different protective regimes affecting the Rom (I apply the Oxford Dictionary of English definition: Rom = singular; Roma = plural. These singular/plural forms are also correct usage in Romanes, the Rom language. The adjectival form of the term varies according to whether the noun it describes is singular or plural (i.e. one Rom woman, two Roma women)) population in Norway. Since 1999, the approximately 600–700 Norwegian Roma have been granted the status of National Minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. This means they have a right to maintain and develop their mother tongue and minority culture. Since around 2000, the Child Protectionare Services have been strongly involved in these families and have placed a disproportionate number of children in foster families. Foster families are found among majority Norwegians, and siblings are generally split and grow up far away from each other with little contact. Because of fears that parents will attempt to kidnap their children or have a detrimental influence on their well-being, in some cases they are prevented from seeing their children. In this chapter, I discuss the relationship between the interests of the Child Protection Services as authorized in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in Norwegian law on the one hand, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the interests of the Rom population on the other. I argue that the best interests of the affected children and families are lost in between the two different protective regimes.

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APA

Engebrigtsen, A. I. (2016). Lost Between Protective Regimes: Roma in the Norwegian State. In IMISCOE Research Series (pp. 81–98). Springer Science and Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44610-3_5

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