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Romaphobia: The Last Acceptable Form of Racism
Based on first-hand accounts from Roma communities, Romaphobia is an examination of the discrimination faced by one of the most persecuted groups in Europe. Well-researched and informative, it shows that this discrimination has its roots in the early history of the European nation-state, and the ways in which the landless Roma have been excluded from national communities founded upon a notion of belonging to a particular territory.
Romaphobia allows us to unpick this relationship between identity and belonging, and shows the way towards the inclusion of Roma in society, providing vital insights for other marginalized communities.
Romaphobia allows us to unpick this relationship between identity and belonging, and shows the way towards the inclusion of Roma in society, providing vital insights for other marginalized communities.
- GenresNonfictionRacePolitics
304 pages, Paperback
Published February 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 25, 2018
Deportations and evictions, discrimination in terms of education and employment, all-embracing systematic segregation and hate-motivated violence. This is the reality that Roma communities living in the liberal (and not so liberal) democracies of Europe have to endure. Why are Roma still stigmatized throughout every European country as of 2017? And what can be done about it? These are some of the questions Aidan McGarry adresses in Romaphobia: The Last Acceptable Form of Racism
McGarry lays the blame of Romaphobia on nation-states, which exclude Roma communities through constructing them as the deviant «other»; threatening the unity, security and moral fabric of the nation. The way I see it, the main problem isn’t so much the personal anti-Roma bigotry of European citizens (which is dominant and abhorrent) as the structural arrangements that relegate Roma to second-class citizenship, segregated from the majority and in praxis stripped of many of their legal rights. The exclusion of Roma is justified through the convenient (and false) narrative of Roma being itinerant nomads, not willing to settle anywhere, having no roots. Thus, any one country can claim «No, these filthy thieves aren’t from here, they’re from [country x]. It is [x] that should deal with these people». Concomitantly we see a securitization of the issue, a strategy most prevalent in Western Europe. The last few decades the Roma question has increasingly become an EU issue, I guess both as a result of the increased mobility (by virtue of the Schengen agreement) and the states’ aversion to dealing with the issue internally in any constructive manner.
Even though they are an oppressed minority, Roma should not be deprived of their agency as well. McGarry highlights different ways that Roma communites attempt to organize, resist and «thrive» in the face of state-sanctioned structural violence. Through his own research he visits two large Roma settlements: Suto Orazari in Macedonia and Lunik IX in Slovakia, where various attempts at self-governing has been fraught with both imposed and self-induced difficulties, but also seen some successes. He also examines several Roma Pride protests, a novel phenomenon that builds on the successful campaigns of LGBTIQ-communities. While it is too early to say whether these will have an impact – and whether that effect will be positive – it nevertheless works as a way of improving visibility, rasing group conciousness, challenging negative stereotypes and resisting persecution.
This is overall an interesting account of the most overt and accepted form of racism taking place in Europe today. There’s no doubt that more people should familiarize themselves with this issue, be it through reading Aidan McGarry’s book or through searching through relevant articles by themselves. Some things I took issue with here, though, was the sociology academia-inspired way of defining common-sense concepts in ways that are mostly obscuring, and his incessant quotation (APA-style, not footnotes. Arghhh!) of other scholars, hardly ever finishing an argument by his own. Another drawback is I found the text a tad repetitive.
McGarry lays the blame of Romaphobia on nation-states, which exclude Roma communities through constructing them as the deviant «other»; threatening the unity, security and moral fabric of the nation. The way I see it, the main problem isn’t so much the personal anti-Roma bigotry of European citizens (which is dominant and abhorrent) as the structural arrangements that relegate Roma to second-class citizenship, segregated from the majority and in praxis stripped of many of their legal rights. The exclusion of Roma is justified through the convenient (and false) narrative of Roma being itinerant nomads, not willing to settle anywhere, having no roots. Thus, any one country can claim «No, these filthy thieves aren’t from here, they’re from [country x]. It is [x] that should deal with these people». Concomitantly we see a securitization of the issue, a strategy most prevalent in Western Europe. The last few decades the Roma question has increasingly become an EU issue, I guess both as a result of the increased mobility (by virtue of the Schengen agreement) and the states’ aversion to dealing with the issue internally in any constructive manner.
Even though they are an oppressed minority, Roma should not be deprived of their agency as well. McGarry highlights different ways that Roma communites attempt to organize, resist and «thrive» in the face of state-sanctioned structural violence. Through his own research he visits two large Roma settlements: Suto Orazari in Macedonia and Lunik IX in Slovakia, where various attempts at self-governing has been fraught with both imposed and self-induced difficulties, but also seen some successes. He also examines several Roma Pride protests, a novel phenomenon that builds on the successful campaigns of LGBTIQ-communities. While it is too early to say whether these will have an impact – and whether that effect will be positive – it nevertheless works as a way of improving visibility, rasing group conciousness, challenging negative stereotypes and resisting persecution.
This is overall an interesting account of the most overt and accepted form of racism taking place in Europe today. There’s no doubt that more people should familiarize themselves with this issue, be it through reading Aidan McGarry’s book or through searching through relevant articles by themselves. Some things I took issue with here, though, was the sociology academia-inspired way of defining common-sense concepts in ways that are mostly obscuring, and his incessant quotation (APA-style, not footnotes. Arghhh!) of other scholars, hardly ever finishing an argument by his own. Another drawback is I found the text a tad repetitive.
April 10, 2020
3/5 stars, maybe 2.75/5
I picked up this book having lived in Eastern Europe and my family having worked to help the Romani people in Slovakia, so I've also had firsthand experience, meeting this wonderful people group. I'm currently doing a university presentation project on Romani people and their artistic culture, so I needed a base to start the project. I picked up this one to start, and for the most part, it's been helpful, despite a few personal qualms with it.
Pros:
The author brought some great attention to an overlooked, highly oppressed minority group, and really did his research well. I appreciated that he didn't simply read other works on the topic of the Romani people, but he investigated for himself the culture, visiting Eastern and Central Europe, and interviewing advocates for Roma rights and Romani peoples.
Cons:
While this book's earlier chapters were pretty informative and helpful, chapters 4 or 5 and onwards felt very much like the author hadn't organized his argument well enough to present. He did his research, and yet I felt he didn't show it enough in the examples he gave. When explaining concepts regarding racism toward Roma, he continually only made comparisons to the LGBT community (This makes sense since I found out his other main research area is the LGBT community). Whatever you believe about LGBTQ rights, I felt it didn't help get his point across to repeatedly make the same comparison to only one other minority group, especially when I felt it not a strong enough comparison. If he'd made more comparisons with other oppressed minority groups, I wouldn't have cared much, but that, paired with poor editing at times (lots of unnecessarily long, strangely worded sentences with nouns-turned-verbs for no reason) made it a bit annoying.
I picked up this book having lived in Eastern Europe and my family having worked to help the Romani people in Slovakia, so I've also had firsthand experience, meeting this wonderful people group. I'm currently doing a university presentation project on Romani people and their artistic culture, so I needed a base to start the project. I picked up this one to start, and for the most part, it's been helpful, despite a few personal qualms with it.
Pros:
The author brought some great attention to an overlooked, highly oppressed minority group, and really did his research well. I appreciated that he didn't simply read other works on the topic of the Romani people, but he investigated for himself the culture, visiting Eastern and Central Europe, and interviewing advocates for Roma rights and Romani peoples.
Cons:
While this book's earlier chapters were pretty informative and helpful, chapters 4 or 5 and onwards felt very much like the author hadn't organized his argument well enough to present. He did his research, and yet I felt he didn't show it enough in the examples he gave. When explaining concepts regarding racism toward Roma, he continually only made comparisons to the LGBT community (This makes sense since I found out his other main research area is the LGBT community). Whatever you believe about LGBTQ rights, I felt it didn't help get his point across to repeatedly make the same comparison to only one other minority group, especially when I felt it not a strong enough comparison. If he'd made more comparisons with other oppressed minority groups, I wouldn't have cared much, but that, paired with poor editing at times (lots of unnecessarily long, strangely worded sentences with nouns-turned-verbs for no reason) made it a bit annoying.
January 21, 2021
An eye-opening study of the situation of the Roma Community in the EU. This book delves deep into the role of nation-states and the majority in the exclusion, demonization, and discrimination of the Roma from mainstream society. This academic work not only offers an interdisciplinary approach to an incredibly poignant problem by understanding belonging and identity from territorial, social, economical, and political perspectives but also gives a glimpse into the different tools and strategies that are being used at the moment by Roma and non-Roma activists to enforce Roma agency and create a positive visibilization, both inwards and outwards.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the text was the emphasis on space in the exclusion of the Roma and how space and identity engage into a relationship of reciprocity and can lead, unfortunately, to a downwards spiral of stigmatization. It is through space, as well, that Roma communities can improve their position within the social hierarchy. The author makes a very interesting comparison between LGBTQ pride movements and how a similar appropriation of public space to emphasize the aforementioned positive visibilization can lead to a more relevant and impactful presence within the political realm and therefore, improve the chances of creating legislation that favors the Roma.
I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone that would like to have a better understanding of the Roma struggle since it offers a transversal view that goes from the supranational to the local.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the text was the emphasis on space in the exclusion of the Roma and how space and identity engage into a relationship of reciprocity and can lead, unfortunately, to a downwards spiral of stigmatization. It is through space, as well, that Roma communities can improve their position within the social hierarchy. The author makes a very interesting comparison between LGBTQ pride movements and how a similar appropriation of public space to emphasize the aforementioned positive visibilization can lead to a more relevant and impactful presence within the political realm and therefore, improve the chances of creating legislation that favors the Roma.
I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone that would like to have a better understanding of the Roma struggle since it offers a transversal view that goes from the supranational to the local.
October 27, 2021
I found this to be a great place to start reading into Romaphobia and what deems it an "acceptable" thing to be. It's easy to read and while some language is a bit academic it's not inaccessable! It does repeat itself a few times but I found that to be pretty fine since it's very information dense. Generally would reccomend!
November 1, 2025
Important topic covered in an extremely disorganized and haphazard way. The same, generalized points keep getting repeated while actual facts and examples are rare. I was hoping for much more and much better.
August 6, 2019
Its hard to rate this book as my knowledge on this subject is quite limited. This book is a good starting point to learn more about Romaphobia and understand the issue in a geo-political context.
February 20, 2022
A much more academic book than the one promised in the blurb with significantly less testimony from Roma people than advertised. Nonetheless a good (and worrying) read.
August 26, 2024
this was fine and a decent intro into anti-Roma discrimination/anti-gypsyism but this was v repetitive and found the pseudo academic nature of this a bit exhaustive.
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February 2, 2018305.8914 M1451 2017
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews