Identitary Transformations inside a Roma Community Following the Accession of Romania to the European Union

AuthorEnache, R.
PositionFaculty of Communication and Public Relations, National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest
Pages145-150
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov
Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013
IDENTITARY TRANSFORMATIONS
INSIDE A ROMA COMMUNITY
FOLLOWING THE ACCESSION OF
ROMANIA TO THE EUROPEAN UNION
Radu ENACHE1
Abstract: The paper summarizes a preliminary research part of a boarder
project of studying identitary transformations in the last decades in
Romanian Roma communities. We supposed these transformations are
influenced by the change of the general political and economic frame, and,
particularly, by the integration of the country in the European Union.
Starting from the general question “what has changed in your lives during
the last years?” 27 in-depth interviews with Roma ethnics were focused on
four main themes: identitary values, relationship with the authorities,
Europe’s image and the expectations towards the European institutions, and
opinions on personal development.
Key words: Ethnic identity, Roma communities, identitary transformations,
European integration.
1 Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, National School of Political and Administrative Studies,
Bucharest.
1. Introduction
The fall of communism in Eastern
Europe also meant the opening of a
Pandora’s Box of ethnic (but not only!)
identities. Suddenly, the individuals of
former equalitarian societies found
themselves very different and belonging
to almost forgotten or, at least, neglected
groups. A rush in the quest and/or
remembrance of identity values has
begun, not without (often harsh) tensions
between majorities and minorities. At the
same time, phenomena like globalization
and European integration (re)shaped these
features, mainly by means of mass media.
The Roma people were not an exception.
While during the communist period the
official statements spoke about them only
as “other nationalities”, in the last decades
the “Roma people issue” became a top
theme in the agendas of both public
debate and academic research.
Unfortunately, about Roma in the public
debate the spoken and written materials
are mostly negative, be them either
economic migrants in the Occident whose
way of life shocks, or when it is about
inter-ethnic conflicts in Eastern countries.
This is the consequence of historic
discriminations, as well as of the fact that
Roma do not own a territory and until the
modern times they were lacking a
democratic political representation in
almost all countries. [1]
For non-Roma, these news and images

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