Campzenship: on the camp as a space of membership

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Framing camps and camp-like institutions in terms of exception and emergency is certainly evocative and captures the sense of profound discomfort that many feel for these kind of institutions. However, this vocabulary also obscures the ‘normality’ of these spaces, in other words – paraphrasing Bauman – their being a product of our modernity (and post-modernity) not a one-off exception. It obfuscates the experiences of their inhabitants that the vocabulary of exception relegates in a terrain of indistinction and passivity. In a article just published in Citizenship Studies (an earlier version was delivered as a keynote address at the University of Oxford in March 2013), responding to Bonnie Honig‘s invitation to de-exceptionalize the exception, I draw on my ethnographic fieldwork in camps for Roma refugees in Italy to show the camp as a space of sociality and politics that encapsulate postmodern political membership and the intimate relationship between space and politics…

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The special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration StudiesI edited with Professor Peter Vermeersch (Leuven) has been published and is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. The contributors examine Romani mobilities in the context of contemporary European politics and policies on migration and ethnic minority protection. The articles are interconnected not only because they are centred on the Roma, but also because they are all focused in one way or another on the theme of mobilities. They examine the Roma’s movement across Europe, within and across the borders of the European Union: as ‘illegal’ migrants, and governmental efforts to restrict their mobility; as forced migrants escaping the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, stuck in IDP camps or forcibly returned; or as EU citizens within their country of residence and the EU space. But they also look at the Roma’s efforts to escape social exclusion and…

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Migration Studies is a new multi-disciplinary refereed journal from Oxford University Press (see journal’s webpage). It will publish work that significantly advances our understanding of the determinants, processes and outcomes of human migration in all its manifestations.

Migration has always defined human populations, and today it is one of the most powerful currents shaping global society. In recent decades, the increasing scope, complexity and salience of human migration have inspired new conceptual and policy vocabularies, and stimulated ground-breaking research efforts across many different academic disciplines.

Migration Studies will contribute to the consolidation of this still-fragmented field of study, developing the core concepts that link different disciplinary perspectives on migration, and bringing new voices into ongoing debates and discussions. Drawing on the expertise and networks of a Global Editorial Board of senior migration scholars, the journal will publish articles of exceptional quality and general interest from around the world.

CALL…

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Anti-Gypsyism and the politics of exclusion in Italy

The special issue of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies on contemporary anti-Gypsyism in Italy I have co-edited with Dr Isabella Clough Marinaro is now out! The collection includes work by Sabrina Tosi Cambini, Marco Solimene, Giovanni Picker, Ulderico Daniele, Isabella Clough Marinaro and myself. My article provides an overview of the current situation of Roma and Sinti in Italy, exploring in particular the ways in which recent political debate and policy initiatives have produced the securitization of the Roma issue and argues that the resignification, in the hegemonic discourse, of camps from ethnic enclaves for ‘nomads’ to Guantanamo-like enclosures for latent criminals is exemplary of this process.

View the introduction in pdf

View the table of contents

 

Neoliberalism and anti-Gypsyism in Europe

The latest issue of the French journal ‘Lignes‘ is dedicated to the Roma issue and offers a critical analysis of current discourses, policies and practices to govern the Romani minorities in France and Europe. Contributors include: Etienne Balibar, Jacques Ranciere, Jean-Loup Amselle and Cecile Canut. My contribution (co-authored with Nidhi Trehan) looks at the link between neoliberalism and anti-Gypsyism in Europe.