Home, Migration, and Roma People in Europe

Abstract

Roma people in Europe still suffer from severe housing deprivation compared to the general population. Nevertheless, reducing Roma housing to loss and exclusion risks concealing the strategic and creative dimension of residential micro-practices enacted by Roma themselves, who instead mobilise various resources at national and transnational levels. Moving from these premises, this chapter captures the complexity of the literature on Roma housing by focusing on three main issues. First, it engages with critical scholarship deconstructing stereotyped understandings which commonly shape policy approaches and public opinion on Roma populations and mobility. Secondly, we focus on the different forms of housing segregation in Europe, with specific attention to the spatial device of the camp. Then, we turn to actor-centred perspectives, thoroughly discussing the transnational residential strategies and homemaking practices enacted by Roma migrants. In conclusion, we reflect on emerging avenues of academic and activist research foregrounding intersectionality through feminist perspectives and the nexus with housing rights movements.