Work as a drama: The experience of former prisoners in the labour market

Abstract

This article is based on an ethnographic study that took place between 2014and 2016 in Romania. We followed up 58 ex-prisoners (of whom 28 were Roma) for one year after release, in order to develop a deeper understanding of what their experiences mean to them, their resources, their symbols, the obstacles they encounter and their strategies in the re-entry process. Using a dramaturgical coding approach (Saldaña, 2005), we have identified different employment routes depending on the participants’ personal and social capital, the opportunities available to them and the environment they live in. It became clear that ex-prisoners lack skills of self-presentation; in particular, they lack ‘personal front’ (Goffman, 1956) – a lack that, in combination with ‘learned helplessness’ (Sullivan et al., 2012), creates problems for employment. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.