Articulating 'otherness' within multiethnic rural neighbourhoods: encounters between Roma and non-Roma in an East-Central European borderland. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Creţan, Remus; Covaci, Raluca Narcisa; Jucu, Ioan Sebastian
• Is Part Of: Identities. Volume 30:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 93
• Page End: 111
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Rural Roma communities -- otherness -- social constructionism -- multi-ethnic neighbourhoods -- Romanian Banat region -- East-Central European borderland; Ethnic groups -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Ethnicity -- Periodicals; Group identity -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2021.1920774
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1070-289X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The issue of otherness in the social construction of ethnicities and rural multiculturalism has long attracted the attention of scholars. By following a postcolonial background, this paper investigates the social construction of Roma as 'other' in a multicultural landscape (the Romania-Serbia border) using interviews with participants of different ethnic groups. This paper addresses the following questions: (i) Is the Roma population in this area completely spatially segregated? (ii) How do different kinds of prejudice against Roma operate within this multicultural context? (iii) How does discrimination against the Roma interface with power relations, in particular political power in the area? The findings indicate that, alongside ethno-nationalist racism, Roma face prejudice from apparently more 'progressive' groups, who accept multiculturalism, yet blame the Roma for their own disadvantaged social and economic position on the grounds of a failure to integrate that is pictured as 'backward'.