Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2019

The Securitization of the Roma in Europe

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Reflects on the mechanisms through which the Roma and their situation have increasingly been securitized in post-1989 Europe
  • Investigates Roma problematization not only in the context of (regimes of) bordering-crossing and mobility, but also in that of development, neoliberalism, racialization, racism and visuality
  • Shows that development programs focusing on the social inclusion of the Roma and neoliberal policies concentrating on gentrification or conditional access to housing and employment have ambiguously contributed to the current Roma-related political impasses and the renewal of anti-Roma racism

Part of the book series: Human Rights Interventions (HURIIN)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxii
  2. The European Roma and Their Securitization: Contexts, Junctures, Challenges

    • Huub van Baar, Ana Ivasiuc, Regina Kreide
    Pages 1-25
  3. Marketization

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89
    2. The Invisibilization of Anti-Roma Racisms

      • Ryan Powell, Huub van Baar
      Pages 91-113
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 311-319

About this book

This book discusses how Europe’s Roma minorities have often been perceived as a threat to majority cultures and societies. Frequently, the Roma have become the target of nationalism, extremism, and racism. At the same time, they have been approached in terms of human rights and become the focus of programs dedicated to inclusion, anti-discrimination, and combatting poverty. This book reflects on this situation from the viewpoint of how the Roma are often ‘securitized,’ understood and perceived as ‘security problems.’ The authors discuss practices of securitization and the ways in which they have been challenged, and they offer an original contribution to debates about security and human rights interventions at a time in which multiple crises both in and of Europe are going hand-in-hand with intensified xenophobia and security rhetoric.

Reviews

“Many will think, why bother for another book on Roma, I am not one of them? Reading the book will change their views. Everybody can become a Roma by proxy and live what they live, but more lightly. What is at stake in the superb study has not much to do with the diverse peoples categorised as Roma, but with anyone who is captured by processes of (in)securitisation and politics of security that connect a potential suspect with certain suspect activities of mobility, of market, of visuality, of human rights, of freedom. In that sense we are all Roma without knowing it. This is a lesson for all those who do not see the sacrificial part of security and associate too quickly security and protection for all.” (Didier Bigo, International Relations, Sciences Po, Paris; King’s College London, UK)


“This innovative and timely edited volume on Roma and their (in)securitisation across Europe brings together an impressive mix of scholars, both established and emerging. At the heart of this text is a dedicated and rigorous belief in the benefits of interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to examining issues of concern to Roma communities and the social, economic and political challenges they face. The historical and contemporary evidence presented in this book illustrates, whether in Germany, France, Spain or Romania, that Roma are the neighbours no one wants and their pathologised cultural and visual representations have material, felt consequences for those families at the sharp end. This volume begins to address and interrogate such matters with sensitivity, reason and an engaged commitment. It is a very welcome contribution to the contested field of critical Romani Studies.” (Colin Clark, Sociology and Social Policy, University of the West of Scotland, UK)

“At the intersection of critical security studies, minority studies and citizenship studies, this collection of essays develops nuanced and careful analyses of the multiplicity of exclusionary and violent practices that target the Roma people in Europe. The Securitisation of the Roma in Europe helps us untangle the heterogeneous connections between securitisation, marketisation, neoliberalism, development and visuality. The book is also vitally important for understanding the tensions and struggles over the making of precarious populations today.” (Claudia Aradau, International Politics, King’s College London, UK)

“This is a splendid book. It is a theoretically fine-tuned volume that examines the plight of a minority population in Europe at a time when a new politics of security takes central stage. But the authors provide so much more here. Through a range of perspectives on the perplexities of securitization, they analyse a key dimension of Europe’s current predicament. This not only concerns minorities—it concerns all.” (Peter Vermeersch, Political Science, University of Leuven, Belgium)



Editors and Affiliations

  • Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Huub van Baar, Ana Ivasiuc, Regina Kreide

About the editors

Huub van Baar is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, and Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.


Ana Ivasiuc is Researcher at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. 


Regina Kreide is Professor of Political Theory at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. 



Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access