Hygienic Boundaries: Roma Communities and the Racialisation of Public Health Discourses during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Public health measures instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic included both social distancing measures (including lockdowns), as well as personal hygiene measures (i.e., washing hands, wearing masks), with the purpose of preventing the spread of the virus. Using primary data obtained from stakeholder interviews, surveys, and desktop research from seven non-EU countries in Eastern Europe, this article shows how a new discursive fault line with hygiene as its core emerged across these countries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, symbolically (and sometimes physically) separating the Roma from the non-Roma. Lockdowns reduced the ability of the Roma people to earn a living, due to the often-informal nature of their employment; as a result, many faced difficulties in covering basic living costs. These difficulties were compounded by poor living conditions, which limited the extent to which Roma people were able to follow social distancing rules and the measures regulating personal hygiene. All these factors were used to depict Roma communities as both lacking in personal hygiene and as wilfully non-compliant with public health rules. Public discourses emphasised the gap between the (self-perceived) clean and rule-observing non-Roma, and Roma communities, constructed as lacking in discipline and personal hygiene. These discourses, centred on hygiene, reinforced social boundaries and justified abuse and exclusion.