Immigrant and Native Romani Women in Spain: Building Alliances and Developing Shared Strategies

Abstract

Romani women, both immigrant and native, face a greater risk of social exclusion because of the prejudices that mainstream society has about the Roma, and especially because they are women and some of them immigrants as well. This paper analyses how Romani immigrant and native women are building pan-ethnic identities, sharing alliances and developing common strategies in Spain. Previous studies on Romani women have tended to see them as passive and not active agents. Thus, very few have focused on the specific case of Romani immigrant women and on their modes of incorporation in their new contexts of reception. Drawing on data from two qualitative studies of Roma immigrant women and Gitanas in Spain, the authors demonstrate how everyday-life interactions and shared interests at informal and formal encounters lead to building solidarity alliances and sharing transnational narratives, thus overcoming subgroup ethnic boundaries and stereotypes. The analysis is carried out from the ‘other women’ approach, taking into account the voices of all types of Romani women, illiterate and literate, in the whole research process.