Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ing them as a threat to order and security in the city, to be distanced and con-
trolled through surveillance and regimentation in order to protect our lives and
proper t y.
The two cases we analyze here clearly show the complementary relationship
between the two faces of Rome government's policy for managing Roma through
a perpetual state of emergency (agamben 1998, 2005). The global profile of the
eternal City is today being created through a continued dynamic of exclusion
and inclusion of Roma and many other marginal groups. moreover, Roma's at-
tempts at participation, through informal practices within the city's hidden spac-
es and economies, are being carried out primarily in response to local govern-
ment's actions explicitly aimed at isolating them. Reading global Rome through
the experiences of the Roma reveals a city in which public apparatuses continue
to exert fundamental power over spaces and people; a power, which through its
forced evictions and transfers, directly determines the Roma's right to the city. in
contemporary Rome, Roma are the ultimate “redundant population” (bauman
2004), relegated to specialized dumping grounds by the politics and economics
of modernity.
Notes
1. The neighborhood of esquilino, and its famous piazza Vittorio in particular, was the
first public setting for encounter and conflict (both physical and symbolic) with the autoch-
thonous population. similarly high concentrations of immigrants' homes and businesses sub-
sequently became visible in other parts of the city such as anagnina, torpignattara, and Via
magliana, generating transformations which were often perceived by Romans as “invasions”
in those areas too. a sensitive picture of these dynamics is provided by lakhous in his novel
Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator at Piazza Vittorio.
2. Notable exceptions have been the forced evictions of immigrants from pantanella in
1990 (a former industrial building subsequently converted into high-value apartments) and
Residence Roma in 2007 (see lombardi-Diop, chapter 15).
3. we use the Roma as a shorthand term to refer to a very complex reality of different
Roma and sinti groups in italy who often do not see themselves as a single or even related
ethnic group. although there are some similarities in their languages and cultures, the issue
that most connects them is a history of stigmatization, widespread poverty, and their frequent
residence in camps rather than in standard housing (see Clough marinaro and sigona 2011 for
a brief overview). Rome is the city with the largest Roma population (approximately 12,000),
the vast majority of which live in camps. These are divided into state-built “villages” (see our
discussion of Castel Romano) where about a quarter of the Roma population reside; legally
ambiguous encampments made of shacks and caravans, where a further 2,500-3,000 live; and
illegal shanties which are home to more than half of the city's Roma. The last two types of
camps are vulnerable to frequent forced evictions. a small minority of Roma were given pub-
lic housing in 1981 following the first major camp eviction, and a few hundred live in private
houses. although nationwide about half of Roma and sinti are italian citizens, the majority of
camp residents in Rome are foreigners, mainly from the former Yugoslavia and Romania.
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