Abstract
Gypsy, Roma’s and Traveller’s (GRT) adaptation to outside challenges, while simultaneously retaining their strong cultural and social traits, is one of their most intriguing cultural features, from a long-term historical perspective. The challenges they have faced – and continue to face – are locally and historically grounded, stemming not only from economic and social exclusion, racism and the changing conditions of the welfare state in the 20th century, but also from pressures from within due to, for example, the erosion of traditional sources of authority, negotiations of gender relations, power structures and cultural values.
This book presents a wide array of issues related to the GRT peoples across Europe, the Americas and Australia. Readers interested in Romani Studies will find the contributions insightful from several perspectives as the authors discuss GRT’s cultural and psychological resilience in response to state and societal oppression and assimilatory attempts in the fields of care, health, housing, education and social work. The editors strive to theoretically and empirically shed light on how GRT populations and their counter-assimilatory practices have changed over time and across space, coming to differ not just between European and non-European contexts, but within Europe itself. Various chapters will also be informative to those interested in migration and ethnic relations. Nevertheless, there are also topics that – given the theme of the book – are deserving of greater attention than they have received. All in all, though, these are minor issues that do not change the fact that this is an excellent publication and a valuable contribution to the field.
The book is divided into three parts, each of which is prefaced with a short introduction linking the chapters to the main theme of the book. The first part opens with a chapter that introduces the notion of resilience and cultural transmission. The second part presents the European context, focusing on resistance to external pressures and simultaneous adherence to GRT cultural values. The concluding two chapters of the book’s third part draw on the presented evidence regarding GRT relations with mainstream society, states and their institutions, and analyse the conditions for social integration and cultural resilience.
The authors apply a transnational perspective – in the sense of transnational living of Roma migrants, some of whom have undertaken transatlantic journeys, yet managed to maintain and reproduce their cultural and ethnic distinctiveness; and in the sense of transnational resilience, meaning the ability to perform and maintain their identities, regardless of structural constraints. However, transnational resilience is not adequately – if at all – conceptualized, while transnationalism is only briefly mentioned in reference to migration. A more in-depth discussion of transnationalism (e.g. transnational living, forms of organizations or the construction of politics of memory) would be useful in advancing the discussion on resilience in transnational contexts given the fact that migration and social change play an important role in a number of chapters.
To a certain extent, migration studies applying the gender lens have discussed how migration lessens social control and provides opportunities for behaviours otherwise unacceptable for the community. This brings me to the role of gender (and gender relations) and class or group hierarchies within GRT communities, all of which receive relatively little attention. While the authors of several chapters touch upon the paradoxes of the sedentary bias towards the GRT from within the group and from the majority society, it would be interesting to deepen the gender aspects of cultural resilience in the discussed contexts. For example, among the persons who had lived in state care institutions or in foster care with Gadje (non-Roma) families, it is the women who experience particular difficulties in reintegrating with GRT communities. For Finnish Roma, adherence to cultural practices and moral codes is crucial in the manifestation of their Romani-ness, although the relevant chapter limits the discussion to the ritual purity of women. Based on these cases, one could therefore plausibly make reference to theories of nationalisms, where women, as bearers and transmitters of culture to the next generations, are subjected to extensive social control. Another chapter discussing individual resilience and responses to grief provides a brief description of the greater vulnerability of males to stress but does not advance the discussion on the gender aspect in coping with loss. These, in turn, raise questions about the construction of masculinity and the expectations towards men in GRT communities (and, comparatively, about the construction of masculinity/ies in majority society).
Deeper analysis of the phenomena relating to gender issues, construction and changes in masculinity and femininity ideals in the ever-changing social, cultural and political environment could bring yet another interesting angle to the resilience debate. To integrate these categories, the authors could make use of the intersectional approach which, if applied more thoroughly, may well prove fruitful in refining GRT responses to hierarchies, inequalities and challenges coming both from the outside, and from within their own communities.
