Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
some are inhabited by a few dozen people, while others accommodate over a hun-
dred residents. They have developed in many of the spaces that have historically
sheltered Rome's precarious populations: the banks of the tiber and the aniene
Rivers, scraps of wasteland close to the center, unused and abandoned structures
in its built-up areas. from the Roma's point of view, the main criterion in choos-
ing a location is that it must guarantee a high level of invisibility from non-Roma
neighbors and police forces so that residents can live there undisturbed for as
long as possible. another fundamental factor, especially in terms of providing
a marginally improved quality of life, is proximity to sources of water and par-
ishes or NGo headquarters where the Roma can have access to bathrooms and
some minimal form of aid. The stability of the encampments largely determines
the kind of homes within them. The most basic form of shelter is a tent, known
among Romanians as
kortine,
often bought in the shopping malls dotted around
the urban periphery. shacks built from recycled wood planks and plastic sheet-
ing, which can be heated with wood stoves and divided into separate areas or
rooms, constitute a more stable type of housing. many Roma families instead
live in the same van that they use to collect scrap metal and often move from one
parking area to another every night. in all of these settlements, the hygienic con-
ditions are dire and hazardous: the lack of water, toilets, and spaces for garbage
collection; the proximity of the river; and distance from services cause a wide
range of health problems in all the encampments. some of them have also seen
tragic deaths such as those of five children between 2010 and 2011.
for many of these individuals seeking to settle in the city, the greatest hope is
to be given a home in one of the municipality's authorized camps, which they see
as a haven of permanence and safety. indeed, the migratory experiences of most
Roma are marked by the constant fear of the authorities destroying what little
stability they manage to build for themselves, since municipal policy establishes
that all unauthorized camps must be evacuated and the homes within them bull-
dozed, forcing Roma onto the streets without any shelter and with all the mate-
rial goods that they were able to save from destruction held in suitcases and plas-
tic bags. This precariousness has been a central element in the condition of most
Roma in the capital since 2007, when a policy of forced evictions began, aimed
at pushing them to repatriate and discouraging the creation of new settlements.
mayors of both the left and right wings have persevered with this zero-tolerance
approach to unauthorized settlements—galvanized both by residents' protests
and the deaths in camps—flaunting statistics about evictions and repatriations as
evidence of their success but without opening any discussion about the effective-
ness of the evictions and potential alternative strategies. Despite the continuation
of these demolitions, which consume many of the funds formally earmarked for
integration policies, the phenomenon of unauthorized camps has continued un-
abated and their residents have generally not fled the city. These families are con-
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