What is it about?
The recent economic crisis has caused greater inequalities, but why are the European Roma affected more than other groups? This paper takes a critical look at the effects of this crisis both in terms of social tensions but also structural inequalities.
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Why is it important?
My analysis offers a comparative historical perspective to the treatment of European Roma. Although the current plight of the Roma people is not without precedent in European history, the effects of neoliberal policies, now adopted by the majority of Euroepan countries, have much to do with the rising tide of racism and hostility against Roma people.
Perspectives
This paper does not use ethnicity as the main or sole explanatory factor in discussing the socio-economic marginalisation of the majority of Roma people in Europe. Rather, it uses a broader framework that integrates socio-economic considerations along ones based on ethnic, religious and other types of difference. This allows me to link the effects of the 2008/9 economic crisis and the attendant rise in racism and xenophobia, with similar situations experienced in 1930s Europe. While I show how the present is different from the past, I also point to the similarities between past and present, hoping we will benefit from important lessons that recent European history can offer us.
Dr Spyros Themelis
University of East Anglia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The time of the Roma in times of crisis: Where has European neoliberal capitalism failed?, Ethnicities, May 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1468796815584421.
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