The Multilevel (Mis)Governance of Roma Migration in the City of Naples

Abstract

The city of Naples incorporates both migrant and Neapolitan actors in a complex system of diverse economies. The chapter shows the role of Roma migrants in the local economy and confronts it with the limits of policy discourses in considering Roma as economic actors. It enumerates interventions from the last few years that intended to position Roma as a 'resource' for the local economy. The analysis reveals discrepancies between these rather ad-hoc interventions and the general management of the 'Roma issue'; showing how diversity as a depoliticized concept and economy-based deservingness frames reproduce Roma as second-line citizens and racialized subjects in an ambiguous relation to informality. The chapter, looking at the multilevel (mis)governance of Roma migration, rereads the findings of ethnographic research on economic strategies in different Roma communities in the region of Campania.