Title: Between infra-right and public hospitality: ambiguity in local policies towards Roma migrant families in France

Authors: Milena Doytcheva

Addresses: Univ. Lille, EA 3589 – CeRIES, Centre de recherche «Individus Epreuves Sociétés», F-59000 Lille, France

Abstract: Drawing on data collected during fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2014, the article aims to explore, through an in-depth case study and process tracing centred analysis, the influence of EU policies on Roma and Gypsies 'integration' and mobilities. Building on a multi-level analysis and focusing on local policies addressing migrating Roma in France, we show that these populations, formally citizens of the EU, are nevertheless targeted by actions belonging to specific, dispensatory or exceptional schemes. At the national level, the politics of Roma securitisation enacts logics of racialisation and othering, renewing a long-lasting anti-Gypsyism. At the local level, while some municipalities took steps to mitigate the predicament of Roma people and oppose only rejectionist policies, the repertoires of action we observed re-inscribe these operations within the frameworks of the temporary (which lasts), of what we term an infra-right and public hospitality. The result is a situation of considerable ambiguity, also contributing, though in a different way, to the construction of a vulnerable otherness, to which correspond specific obligations.

Keywords: Roma migrants; gypsies; immigration; France; racism; discrimination; public policy; racialisation; EU; European Union; public hospitality; ambiguity; local policies; migrant families; gypsy immigrants.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2016.079342

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2016 Vol.2 No.4, pp.365 - 381

Received: 01 Apr 2015
Accepted: 24 Sep 2015

Published online: 27 Sep 2016 *

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