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The Economic Crisis as Opportunity: How Austerity Generates New Strategies and Solidarities for Negotiating Roma Access to Housing in Rome

Maestri, Gaja

The Economic Crisis as Opportunity: How Austerity Generates New Strategies and Solidarities for Negotiating Roma Access to Housing in Rome Thumbnail


Authors

Gaja Maestri



Abstract

The paper investigates how the economic crisis and austerity politics affect the strategies of pro-Roma non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and movements that fight for Roma access to housing in Rome. In the last 20 years, the main social housing policy for the Roma adopted by the City of Rome consisted of the so-called ‘equipped villages’, that is, equipped areas with Portakabins and basic facilities. Designed as a temporary housing solution to accommodate the Roma population living in the slums of the Italian capital, these villages nonetheless persist, hosting an increasing number of Roma evicted from informal settlements. As a result, these villages are now harshly criticised for being highly segregating, for being overcrowded with worsening sanitary conditions and for not enabling integration. Furthermore, the recent economic recession and austerity politics are putting a strain on Roma integration policies. The increase of social tensions and unrest, the rise of populist parties and of anti-immigration (and anti-Roma) attitudes do not facilitate the inclusion of the Roma minority, in Italy as in other European countries. What effects are these dynamics having on the capacity of pro-Roma associations arguing against the segregation of the equipped villages and for the development of alternative social housing for the Roma? Although it may seem that the crisis has mainly negative effects on the possibility of insisting on Roma integration, the pro-Roma NGOs and movements considered in this paper show how post-crisis austerity can be mobilised as a new resource for action. The paper focuses on two strategies using the crisis as a frame and base for contesting the segregation of the Roma: the first is to highlight the costs of segregation and the second is to mobilise a new form of solidarity based on the housing crisis.

Citation

Maestri, G. (2014). The Economic Crisis as Opportunity: How Austerity Generates New Strategies and Solidarities for Negotiating Roma Access to Housing in Rome. City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 18(6), 808-823. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.962895

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Nov 28, 2014
Publication Date Nov 28, 2014
Deposit Date Nov 10, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action
Print ISSN 1360-4813
Electronic ISSN 1470-3629
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 18
Issue 6
Pages 808-823
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.962895
Keywords Slum clearance policies, Access to housing, Roma and Travellers, Economic crisis, Austerity, Pro-Roma advocacy groups, Housing crisis, Solidarity.

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.




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