In the midst of the global financial crisis and in the ‘anti-race era’, Europe has witnessed a revival of deeply racialized discourses targeting the Roma, leading to new discriminatory practices and legitimating existing ones in many social domains. While westward Roma immigration has spurred these discourses, it has also favored the emergence of invisible grassroots reactions against them that need to be further analyzed. Drawing on interviews with migrant Romani women, this article aims to shed light on these unknown processes, as experienced by women in Romani women-based solidarity networks. Data show that these networks help the women to access basic social facilities, while also challenging the abovementioned racialized discourses.
Beck-GernsheimEButlerJPuigvertL (2003) Women and Social Transformation. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
2.
BelloBG (2009) Multiple discrimination between the EU agenda and civic engagement: The long road of intersectional perspective. Roma Rights Journal of the European Roma Rights Centre2: 8–19.
3.
BituNVinczeE (2012) Personal encounters and parallel paths toward Romani feminism. Signs38(1): 44–46.
4.
BrooksEC (2012) The possibilities of Romani feminism. Signs38(1): 1–11.
5.
Cavalli-SforzaFCavalli-SforzaLL (1994) Quiénes somos. Historia de la diversidad humana. Barcelona: Crítica.
6.
ElbojC (2004–2006) MESTIPEN ROMÍ. Mujer gitana y asociacionismo en España. Retos y contribuciones. National RTD Plan, MTAS/Instituto de la Mujer, Spanish Government. Unpublished research report. Huesca: Universidad de Zaragoza.
7.
European Commission, Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs (2004) The Situation of the Roma in an Enlarged European Union: Fundamental Rights and Anti-discrimination. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
GarcíaCFerradaDRuizL (2011) Other women in research: Overcoming social inequalities and improving scientific knowledge through the inclusion of all voices. Qualitative Inquiry17(3): 284–294.
12.
GelbartP (2012) Either sing or go get the beer: Contradictions of (Romani) female power in Central Europe. Signs38(1): 22–29.
13.
HancockIF (1975) Some contemporary aspects of gypsies and Gypsy nationalism. Roma2(1): 46–55.
14.
HancockIF (2002) We Are the Romani People. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
15.
IzsakR(2008) The European Romani Women’s Movement – International Roma Women’s Network. Association for Women’s Rights in Development. Available at: www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Changing-Their-World (accessed 12 July 2013).
16.
KendeÁ (2000) The Hungary of otherness: The Roma (Gypsies) of Hungary. Journal of European Area Studies8(2): 187–201.
LazaridisG (2001) Trafficking and prostitution: The growing exploitation of migrant women in Greece. European Journal of Women’s Studies8(1): 67–102.
19.
LentinA (2008) Europe and the silence about race. European Journal of Social Theory11(4): 487–504.
20.
LucassenLWillemsWCottaarA (1998) Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups: A Socio-historical Approach. London: Macmillan Press.
21.
MacíasFRedondoG (2012) Pueblo gitano, género y educación: investigar para excluir o investigar para transformar. International Journal of Sociology of Education1(1): 71–92.
22.
MatrasY (2002) Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Ministry of Science and Innovation (2009–2011) DROM-IN. Roma immigration in Spain: The challenges of social inclusion and coexistence. National RTD Plan, Spanish Government. Unpublished research report. Bellaterra: Autonomous University of Barcelona.
24.
OkelyJ (1983) The Traveller-Gypsies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25.
OpreaA (2004) Re-envisioning social justice from the ground up: Including the experiences of Romani women. Essex Human Rights Review1(1): 29–39.
26.
OpreaA (2005) The arranged marriage of Ana Maria Cioaba, intra-community oppression and Romani feminist ideals. European Journal of Women’s Studies12(2): 133–148.
27.
OpreaA (2012) Romani feminism in reactionary times. Signs38(1): 11–21.
28.
OSCE/ODIHR (2008–2009) Roma migrants in Spain, project 1300442, IAA no 463/2008. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
SaloMT (1979) Gypsy ethnicity: Implications of native categories and interaction for ethnic classification. Ethnicity6(1): 73–96.
32.
SchultzDL (2005) An intersectional feminism of their own: Creating European Romani women’s activism. Journal of Politics, Gender, and Culture4(8/9): 243–277.
33.
SchultzDL (2012) Translating intersectionality theory into practice: A tale of Romani–Gadzë feminist alliance. Signs38(1): 37–43.
34.
SenAK (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
SigonaN (2005) Locating ‘the gypsy problem’. The Roma in Italy: stereotyping, labelling and ‘Nomad camps’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies4(31): 741–756.
36.
SilvermanC (2012) Agency, and power among Macedonian Muslim Romani women in New York city. Signs38(1): 30–36.
37.
SordéTMuntéAContrerasAPrieto-FloresÒ (2012) Immigrant and native Romani women in Spain: Building alliances and developing shared strategies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies38(8): 1233–1249.
38.
SordéTFlechaRAlexiuTM (2013) El pueblo gitano: una identidad global sin territorio. Scripta Nova. Revista electrónica de geografía y ciencias socialesXVII (427). Available at: www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-427/sn-427–3.htm (accessed 20 January 2013).
39.
Spanish Congress (2005) Proposición no de ley relativa al reconocimiento de los derechos del pueblo gitano 162/000320 [White Paper on the recognition of the rights of the Roma population]. Madrid, Spain: Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados.
