Evicting Rome’s Undesirables - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 106

terms of quality of living. The new generation of “solidarity villages” for Roma,
such as Castel Romano, are entirely detached from the urban fabric and from any
long-term urban planning. The Roma's sunday flea markets,which have survived
within the city's symbolic boundaries, are the only small weekly window within
which the Roma's visible presence is still allowed or, at least, tolerated. Thus, we
see, on the one hand, public drives to separate Roma more and more from the
rest of the urban population, similarly to the other “excess” groups which the
city claims it cannot accommodate, such as undocumented migrants and asy-
lum seekers held in increasingly isolated compounds (Rahola 2011). on the other
hand, despite these segregationist forces, Roma are participating in informal
practices to regain public spaces and reestablish social relations in the city. These
attempts are no longer occurring within accessible and amenable urban contexts
such as neighborhoods, though, but are instead restricted to the few remaining
marginal and ethnicized niches of the city that are still available to them. Thus,
the Roma's eviction from porta portese and consequent creation of a distinct
“ethnic” market reflects a political trend within which migrants' identities and
diversities are made publicly recognizable, at the cost, though, of reducing them
to stereotypes and underlining their distinctiveness. Through these urban poli-
cies, the city thus loses the mission of integrating differences that modernity as-
signed it and, rather than facilitating interaction and negotiation, appears to be
reinforcing social distances and divides between migrants and natives, concret-
izing in urban space processes of ethnicization and essentialization of difference.
The Roma's difficulties in accessing shared public spaces are thus connected
to the persistence of stereotypes and prejudices surrounding “gypsies” and “no-
mads” in italy and are matched by the obstacles to their visibility in the political
arena. The few forms of institutionalized representation which Roma have ac-
quired in recent years—such as the nomination of a Romani consultant to the
mayor and recognition of official spokespersons for the authorized camps—are
entirely ethnicized and subaltern roles (Clough marinaro and Daniele 2011). The
local government's strategy of separating Roma issues not only from those of the
native population but also from other immigrants and their demands has re-
sulted in Roma's political mobilization adopting an equally ghettoized approach.
in this context, Roma only obtain brief visibility when tragic deaths occur in
the unauthorized camps or when national institutions and other high-profile ac-
tors such as the Vatican take on the Roma's requests and needs. however, these
moments of public visibility, generally accompanied by emotional expressions of
solidarity and calls for urgent and permanent solutions, serve only to reinforce
the municipal government's approach. at these times, especially, Roma issues
are managed according to the model that foucault (2009) defined as “pastoral
care” in which local institutions treat them as needy of specialized protection
and services, sometimes to protect their lives, while simultaneously construct-