Western Gypsies and Travellers’-‘Eastern Roma’

The creation of political objects by the institutions of the European Union

Bibliographic Data

ID7930969
AuthorsKATRIN SIMHANDL (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume12
Issue1
Pages97-115
Publication date2006-01-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNations and Nationalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1469-8129.2005.00232.x
OpenAlexW2171774312
LanguageEN
Citations received28
References cited17

This article considers how the discourse of EU institutions on 'Gypsies' and 'Roma' has developed over time and how political space was and continues to be opened up in the process. It reveals that the evolution of that discourse contains a radical break. A dividing line separates a debate, now largely marginalised, on the situation of 'Gypsies' in Western Europe held in the European Community in the 1970s and 1980s from a high-profile discussion of the situation of 'Roma' in Eastern Europe carried out in the course of EU Enlargement. It shows how this divide allows for the inscription of ethnicity as a category relevant to 'Eastern Europe' while avoiding this with regard to the 'Western' part of the continent. In substantiating these claims, the article reveals how two different interpretative patterns have consecutively channelled the discourse of EC/EU institutions

Economics · Ethnic group · Ethnology · European union · International trade · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resizing · Sociology · Western europe · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Law · Romani and Gypsy Studies

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