Geography Reference
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dia suggested that Caritas had offered this solution autonomously and, given the
city government's unyielding position, would deal with the needs of the Roma
alone and without any outside funding. Nevertheless, in the following weeks,
rumors circulated that the municipal authorities had participated in finding this
solution, although the exact nature of its involvement behind the scenes remains
unclear. These events were highly significant for the city and especially for the
Roma who had orchestrated one of the biggest and most forceful protests of the
capital's marginalized population, bringing onto center stage the needs of people
who are by definition invisible in their illegal shanties and usually only the ob-
jects of political decisions and police raids. Their achievement in physically and
symbolically occupying the city center and the tenacity which eventually result-
ed in their objectives being met was a watershed in asserting their organizational
abilities, influencing relations with the institutions, and forcing their interlocu-
tors to dwell on the principles and values involved in the practical management
of social exclusion. The confrontation between the municipality and the Catholic
Church did not, however, lead to any alteration in Rome city government's poli-
cies. indeed, just a few weeks later, it resumed its forced evictions of unauthorized
encampments and continued to offer the same inadequate accommodation solu-
tions, while also adding another level of threat by making some mothers sign a
form declaring their understanding that if they did not accept municipal accom-
modation, their children could be taken away from them (see pompeo and Dan-
iele 2011). it thus confirmed its refusal to develop a policy in conjunction with
Roma to make the city accessible and livable for all. furthermore, the long-term
outcome for the Roma who had protested proved to be far from ideal: although
Caritas originally intended to help them find integrated housing, work, and ac-
cess to schools, the need to clear its overcrowded hostel took priority and the
Roma were moved to a complex on the Via salaria where hundreds of Romanian
Roma were already living in conditions of extreme overcrowding and squalor
(associazione 21 luglio 2011).
These two stories are symptomatic of how Roma are drawn into dynamics
currently playing out in the city and redefining its social geographies. The out-
ward relocation of “nomad camps” that were originally positioned in semicen-
tral areas of the city, planned and carried out by both left- and right-wing city
governments, should be read, we argue, as closely connected to the processes
of gentrification affecting many of the neighborhoods near the historic center.
These have often been facilitated by clearing and freeing up areas with potentially
high commercial value, such as vicolo savini or the former slaughterhouse in
testaccio, and developing urban regeneration initiatives that merge public proj-
ects with private interests, in a form of state-complicit market-led gentrification.
when Roma have found themselves in the way of these developments, they have
been forcibly moved into areas which, conversely, have little value or potential in
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