Abstract
Using a combination of a political economy approach for the analysis of housing with a postcolonial approach to mobility patterns of the racialised and impoverished Roma in Europe, we reflect on the relationship between racialisation and the precarious living and housing conditions of the Eastern European Roma who move from the poorer to the richer countries of the European Union. Through a qualitative and multi-sited approach to housing, we reveal the situation of permanent displacement for racialised Romanian Roma groups in both Sweden and Romania. We have followed Roma street-workers who come to Sweden for earning income in order to improve their homes in Romania, but once there, they are exposed to homelessness, harsh weather conditions, racism and discrimination. We found that the super precarious conditions of housing in Romania push the migrant Roma into even worse housing and living conditions in the destination country, completing a vicious circle of forced nomadism in which the lack of right to decent housing and permanent risk of displacement are central aspects. This article merges the interests of urban and housing researchers with those from the postcolonial tradition.
Highlights
Author 1: What would your ideal home look like? If you had money, what would you do first? Tiberius:: Wow, Holy Mother of God! I’d build a house for my children, with 2 or 3 rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, no villa, but a normal house
This paper focuses on Romanian Roma arriving in Sweden as deprived ‘EU migrants’ today, it is interesting to stress Sweden’s own history of anti-Roma racism
The problems mentioned by the participants, i.e. the instability in ownership, the insecurity around the right to stay put in their locations, the hardships in trying to keep the family gathered, and the precarious quality of housing, among other aspects, caused us to reflect that the problem with precarity of life of the Romanian Roma cannot be solved solely by getting a place to live, not even if that place is privately owned
Summary
Author 1: What would your ideal home look like? If you had money, what would you do first? Tiberius: (laughs dreamingly): Wow, Holy Mother of God! I’d build a house for my children, with 2 or 3 rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, no villa, but a normal house. The problems mentioned by the participants, i.e. the instability in ownership, the insecurity around the right to stay put in their locations, the hardships in trying to keep the family gathered, and the precarious quality of housing, among other aspects, caused us to reflect that the problem with precarity of life of the Romanian Roma cannot be solved solely by getting a place to live, not even if that place is privately owned.
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