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THE GYPSY LORE SOCIETY

Ignasi-Xavier Adiego (U of Barcelona). When George Borrow met Spanish Romani. Despite the vast bibliography on the life and works of George Borrow, to my knowledge no detailed, critical description has been offered of the complex and changing relationship he maintained with Spanish Romani during his travels through Spain, or of the creation of "Borrowian Caló." The sole exception is the rather succinct, clearly contemptuous treatment of the question by Margarita Torrione in her unpublished doctoral dissertation. Here I reconstruct the process in an attempt to understand the reasons that led him to change from his first, more reliable and direct approach to Caló to the purely uncritical compilation of huge numbers of words and texts of a very heterogeneous - even spurious - nature. It seems clear that Borrow's attitude to Spanish Romani was constantly changing. A careful study of this topic can help to establish the different degrees of reliability of the Caló materials that Borrow collected.

Jason Alexander (U of Utah). Gypsies and Jews: Identity Construction in the Diaspora. This study seeks to understand the dynamics of identity formation in a diaspora, and thus speaks to the issue of ethnic identity and ethnic nationalism. First, I will discuss the dynamics of identity creation and ethnic boundary maintenance of the Romanies and the Jews in the diaspora, seeking to show that both of these groups have employed similar "constructivist" mechanisms in their history, and currently still employ them today. What separates these two groups is that the Jews have successfully founded a nation-state as a result of these methods, and although the Romanies may not aspire to this goal, the Jewish methods have proven effective. Largely, this is the result of their boundary maintenance mechanisms and systems leading to ethnic cohesion and unified goals. The Romani, on the other hand, only recently have begun the process of constructing a cohesive identity in which their fellow Romanies can rally around. Secondly, this study will be an attempt to keep with the theory that the Jews and the Gypsies serve as a "middleman minority" in the diaspora, in that they both have been itinerant groups that fall into the paradigm discussed intelligently by Edna Bonacich in her essay titled, "A Theory of Middleman Minorities." I will attempt to use the middleman thesis to articulate that it is the nuances in which the elements of this model are implemented (including through the use of law, language, cultural narrative, and boundary maintenance mechanisms) that actually separates the successes in economic prosperity and ethnic cohesion between the two groups. I argue that that today we see a shift from the Romani school of thought of relative historical passivity (similar to the historic diasporic Jewish population) to a new system leading to ethnic diaspora unification (a Romani "nation"). This system reflects characteristics that either intentional, or coincidentally, is based largely on the Jewish historical paradigm of ethnic identity construction.

Rustem Ertug Altinay. "The Roma Are like This:" The Roma Image in Turkish Comedy. 1981 was an important year for the image of the Roma community in Turkey. In that year, Kartal Tibet made his blockbuster comedy, Girgiriye, on the life of the Roma of Istanbul. The success of the movie resulted in not only a number other Girgiriye movies but also the establishment of the Roma as a comedy element. Today, in 2007, there is still a popular television series on the life of the Roma community, and the image of the Rome is more or less the same with the Girgiriye series. This paper seeks to analyze this image of the Roma society as presented in Turkish comedy since the 1980's, how it has stayed more or less the same, and the dynamics behind.

Ines Arribas (Bryn Mawr Coll). Gitanos in Cyberspace. This paper will examine the impact of cyberspace on the lives of Spanish Gypsies, and their presence on the Internet. The emergence and rapid development of the Internet and cyberculture in the 1990s already shows an enormous political, economic, and social impact on the entire world community. In this respect, it is important to evaluate the scope of this technology's impact on the Gitano community itself. Because they belong to a traditionally oral culture, it is historically known that Spanish Rom or Gitanos have very minimally written for and about themselves. However, as cyberspace is a democratically reachable place, it gives Gypsies the opportunity to build spaces for themselves there. Its low cost and accessibility allow them to create and to initiate a "literary tradition," a voice of their own, where they are both writers and readers. It constitutes a space where they can present their own versions of their history and reality, expose it and debate it. Through cyberspace, a considerable number of Gypsy groups and associations are able to make themselves known to the world, and to offer special services to the entire Gitano community. As a tool for creating and transmitting forms of cultural and racial representations, it is important to ask to what extent cyberspace is affecting Gypsies' lives. Does the Internet represent a significant support in terms of the politics of integration, segregation, and/or discrimination? How are Gitano activists, associations, researchers, and individuals shaping their use of electronic technology? If cyberspace allows for questioning and claiming, can Gypsies talk in terms of cultural and ethnic empowerment? These are some of the key questions this project hopes to answer.

Roxana Toro Barrientos (U of Chile). Cultural Identity, Gender and Social Processes of the Rom in Chile. Cultural diversity in Chile is enriched by the presence of the Romani or Rom ethnos. The Rom population numbers some 5,000 to 8,000 people. The presence of the Rom ethnos and their processes of cultural transformation have rarely been topics of scientific investigations in our territory. In Chile, Rom people are socially invisible in the academic environment as in society in general. As a result they are not still considered as an ethnic national minority, nor a group included in the political non-discrimination and tolerance measures recently begun by the state apparatus. This paper presents the cultural, social and economic situation of the Rom people from Chile. It refers to many aspects of their situation in the Chilean society, and also it focuses on the changes that the "Rom Chilean" society is undergoing nowadays in many aspects of its culture, such as gender relations, nomadic traits, acculturation, social integration, and ethnic identity. The research work has been done by one of the few scholars dedicated to the subject in the country, and it reveals the tremendous violation to the human rights of which some of the members of the Romani ethnic group in Chile are victims, specially the children of the lower social classes.

José Bastos, André Correia, Elsa Rodrigues (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). "We are Portuguese, but We have a Different Law" - Constants and Vicissitudes of a Failed Interethnic "Dialogue." A twelve- month study carried out by a research team of one senior researcher and two junior researchers of CEMME (Centre for Migration and Ethnic Minorities Studies) will be presented. This work, which was promoted by the City Hall of Sintra, focuses upon the Gypsies living in the second biggest metropolitan area of Portugal, approximately 602 individuals composing 153 families. This study, methodologically close to the field of applied anthropology, encompasses more "traditional" ethnographic fieldwork, based on interviews and participant observation and a systematic collection of a wide range of sociological data. Such data is closely related to the basic social needs of this population (education, lodging; access to health care; etc.). At this level, the research team collected not only the Gypsy population's perspective on these needs, but also the institutional point of view on the ways this population urges them to satisfy these needs. Our methodological approach - that puts side-by-side this long forgotten and discriminated population and the officials responsible for designing the necessary policies of inclusion - reveals new and fundamental elements for the comprehension of the Gypsies living in Portugal. Namely, a supra-family organization, "raças,"that embodies, for example, a hyperterritoriality in relation to the Portuguese national territory. The analysis of the data obtained through this approach, allied to a theoretical analysis of the interethnic relations that constrain the life of Portuguese Gypsies, brought the authors to draw an innovative conceptual construction based in a triple trauma, encompassing an historical, sociological and democratic contextualization of the Portuguese Gypsy population.

Mathias Bhuriya (Gypsy Centre for Culture and Art, India). Oral Traditions of the Bhils and Asivarikaran. The nomadic communities of India are some of the richest ethnic groups in their folk or ancient Indian or indigenous cultures. They have enormous wealth of literature under threat of being lost to oblivion. I shall present a paper on the myths, folktales, legends, folksongs, proverbs, riddles and other forms of sayings, under the scrutiny of adivasikaran, an indigenous method for the cultural survival, revival and study by indigenous scholars. The object is that while preserving, innovating, and promoting their original identity and roots, the nomadic communities of India integrate themselves into the national mainstream of the India society. The nomads, Gypsies and similar types of people, are struggling for their survival. The paper will focus on how they can retain their oral literatures and the other elements of their age old cultures in the wake of modernization, and other influences in the country and globally.

Martí Marfà I Castán (Universitat de Barcelona). Identity as a Religious Performance. Evangelical Pentecostalism amongst Catalan Gitanos of Barcelona. This paper deals with issues of religion and identity in a Pentecostal Evangelical movement amongst Catalan gitanos of Barcelona, Spain. The analysis is based on current fieldwork in the local congregations. The Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia (Philadelphia Evangelical Church) (re)activates an imaginaire of nomadism and marginality, already claimed by Gypsy and pro-Gypsy organizations that have failed to create and represent an alleged worldwide Gypsy community. Thereby gitanos and all Gypsy groups as a whole are depicted as the truest chosen people of God, whose wandering and even diasporic condition in the world will be solved with Christ's second coming and the realization of eternal life. However, the Catalan gitanos have a relatively long history as a sedentary people and a certain degree of integration into the payo (non-gitano) wider society. Furthermore, their identity construction practices evidence the conflictual character of social life. The Catalan gitanos manage a complex set of ethnic differentiations between them and not only the payos, but also the Castilian gitanos and other groups of Gypsies. The Pentecostal cult then appears as a stage where several configurations of communitas are proclaimed and performed, without ever having a real counterpart in common ordinary life, and hence only existing at this symbolic level. The church/world dichotomies reveal that Pentecostal gitanos are not only aware of such a contradiction, but that they reassert it, thereby turning the cult into a negation, even a reversal, of their worldly life.

Alexandra Castro and André Clareza Correia (Centro de Estudos Territoriais of the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabal). Mobility, Gypsies and Others: Uncertain in Relation to the Territory. It is estimated that in Portugal there are around 4000 Gypsies without permanent residence or circulating regularly through the territory. Despite their designation as nomads or itinerants there are multiple factors heading this situation, both those endogenous or exogenous to the Gypsy population. The reproduction of this situation across generations raises several questions about the reasons behind it, namely as to the Gypsies' representations on the territory and space of habitat, the representations on Gypsies of political decision-makers and other agents with responsibility in the management of the social and urbane questions and their attitudes and practices in regard to this population's mobility. This problematic will be illustrated using material gathered in the past five years in terms of conditions (not) offered by the territories where the Gypsies circulate and remain, but also with walks-of-life stories of some families where mobility has been ruling their existence.

Veliyana Chileva. (U of Manchester). Etymology of Bulgarian Gypsy Group Names. The paper will attempt to trace the etymology of communal labels which are used to designate Gypsies in Bulgaria. Bulgarian Gypsies are numerous and quite diverse. Many of them have different degrees of awareness of belonging to a particular community and use various appellations to identify themselves and others (eg. "Kalajdzhi," "Drindari," "Laxo"). The terms that will be considered are emblematic and indicative of Gypsies' historical past, cultural practices and linguistic contacts.

Colin Clark (Strathclyde U, Glasgow). Home or Away? Diasporic 'Otherness' as Economic Niche. It has always been the case that conceptualizing or framing questions of diaspora can be hugely problematic for social scientists, irrespective of what group or community they are researching. In relation to the Roma, it has been shown time and time again that grand homogenizing claims can mask much difference and diversity within and between such geographically spread communities in terms of class relations, in particular, but also much else (language, culture, religious identity, etc.). Common identifiers of diasporic patterns of movement tend to include certain, almost guaranteed, features; for example, movement from a given territory, ideas of 'collective memory,' a strong sense of ethnic consciousness and a nostalgic or mythical connection to an original and idealized 'homeland.' Crucially, for this paper, a key theme is how connections are held with such 'homelands.' What are the transnational ties that bind and how are familial, cultural, economic and political networks operated and played out, remotely, on a day-to-day basis away from the 'homeland'? What makes all this possible in practice? Similarly, in contrast, what socio-economic and political connections are made with the new (destination/receiving) society? Is inclusion on the agenda via integrationist and/or assimilationist strategies? What parts of the diasporic mindset or consciousness are enmeshed into this new life, within a new social world? As an example, this paper will critically examine the construction of diasporic identity or condition and how this often sits side-by-side with select economic activities or niche industries. It is argued that work, in conditions of diaspora, is so much more than a four-letter word - it is at the heart of the politics of diasporic identities. The paper is based on historic fieldwork with Roma in the North East of England as well as more contemporary fieldwork with Roma in Scotland.

Eva Davidová (U of South Bohemia). The Roma's Contemporary Dilemmas in Central Europe. This paper will discuss the continuing problems faced by Roma communities in the Czech and Slovak Republics where a high percentage of Roma face poverty, unemployment, social and structural discrimination that in many cases leads to the development of Roma-inhabited zones and ghettos, which contribute to a worsening quality of life for the Roma community as a whole. This deepening social disintegration of Roma results in a loss of Roma identity as families are separated by migration or emigration. Although most of the new EU states (Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, Hungary and now even Romania and Bulgaria) identify the Roma as a nationality or an ethnic minority group, this is no guarantee of attaining equality or help towards the improvement of their position as a group. Most Roma do not officially declare themselves as Roma, and many even hide their identities. Roma and Sinti will identify themselves as such when their rank no longer equates with "social outcast," used in a derisive tone. Prejudices and strong reactions arise on both sides, especially when referring to each other's ethnicity negatively as "Gypsy" or "Gadja." Until Roma and Sinti gain equal standing amongst the white majority on an economic and social scale, the endless circle of discrimination and marginalization will continue to exist. How can the "Roma question" be solved -- by governmental policy featuring social integration with emphasis on solving social problems, or separation and ethnic emancipation? Romanies take different positions on this question within their group as a whole, based not only on degree of ethnicity, but according to economic status ranging from poverty-stricken and non-adaptive to the highly educated and integrated Roma elite. Social and ethnic aspects are sometimes at odds with one another. Romani studies, in these countries, rely heavily on sociological terminology and concepts such as social exclusion, marginalization and cultural poverty, even though the way of life and culture that many Roma experience does not necessarily apply. As Romistics is an interdisciplinary subject, it is necessary to study cultural and social anthropology, ethnology, history, linguistics, and sociology, as well as other fields to have a fuller understanding. What is really the "living identity" of Roma in these countries in relation to their need of collective emancipation? How do these people preserve their personal identity and its self- expression and, at the same time, remain a part of a greater group that is driving itself towards integration? This paper will address some of these contemporary dilemmas.

Judit Durst (Corvinus U, Budapest). Changes in the Reproductive Strategies of the Ghetto-Poor Gypsies in Hungary. The fertility rate of the total Hungarian population has dropped to its lowest level in history. It does not not even reach the "natural reproduction" rate; and whilst the country's largest minority group, the Roma population, in general has also decreased its number of children in the last two decades, there are some marginalized, "Gypsified" ghetto-villages, where we have registered a significant increase in the number of live births around the years of the Transformation (Gyenei, 1988, Durst, 2002), which seems to have stabilized at a high level nowadays. In line with these findings, some researchers have already begun to speak about not only the deepening of the social gap but of the demographic gap between the socially excluded and the majority of the society. This paper seeks to address the following questions. What are the reasons behind this "demographic split"? Why have the marginalized Romas reacted so differently to changes in the social and economic environment compared to the rest of the society? It will also look at whether the well documented high fertility of the observed rural Gypsy communities can be said to be typical of other "ghettoized" villages or whether the high fertility of some "ghettoized" Roma communities (Durst, 2002) can be seen as a "ghetto-specific" reproductive behavior? In attempting to answer these questions, I conducted a mixed-method micro-demographic research in two "Gypsified" villages in northern Hungary, where the vast majority of the inhabitants are called Roma. In addition to this I have analysed the demographic data of a national survey aiming to scrutinize the interrelation of class and ethnicity (Szelenyi-Ladanyi, 2000). From the latter my most important finding was that, contrary to accepted wisdom and prejudice, specifically that the Roma always have had and continue to have lots of children, I have found that it is only the Roma with the lowest level (less than 8 years ) of schooling who have significantly more children than their non-Roma counterparts of the same amount of schooling. This paper also addresses the puzzle: what aspects of Roma ethnicity can explain this finding? Can it be the very social segregation that explains why those undereducated Gypsy women have high fertility rates? Or are there some aspects of their "subculture" which helps us understand their reproductive behavior?

Robert D. Egbert (Walla Walla Coll). An Examination of the Role of Non Orthodox New Protestantism on Roma Acculturation in Romania. In the post-socialist instability in Romania, attempts at some sort of social equilibrium are being made. In the face of determined and continued discrimination, segregation, and other intolerances that freedom from political restraint seems to bring, the Roma are joining New Protestant church groups in record numbers. The intent of this study of Roma "converts" would be to ascertain what the role of membership might be. Is the motive for membership to enhance social status and acceptance from the broader cultural context or is it truly a search for something spiritual? Is membership an attempt to backdoor the mainstream culture?

Melissa Elliott. The Use of Hip Hop in Diasporic Romani Music Making in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In the city of Ostrava, at the eastern edge of the Czech Republic, Roma make up an estimated 10% of the population, the vast majority descended from post-World War II migrants from rural East Slovakia. Since the fall of Communism in 1989, this rapidly urbanized group have suffered unemployment and discrimination in many areas of their lives. There is a tendency for both Roma and non-Roma in Ostrava to explain Roma's socio-economic circumstances and cultural differences in terms of `race' politics that often essentializes Roma and ethnic Czechs into a binary system of black and white stereotypes. Music making provides contexts in which more ambivalent and subtler interpretations can be negotiated alongside more prevalent extreme positions. Whilst some of the older generation remain highly connected to Romani life in East Slovakia, often nostalgically expressed in the singing of traditional folksongs and multigenerational parties featuring Rompop, many of the younger generation are turning their back on their diasporic roots in favor of connections with the black diasporic music, particularly hip hop. For many young Ostrava Roma, hip hop is strongly associated with a self-assured, internationally fashionable and successful "black" culture with which they wish to identify. Based on fieldwork conducted between August 2003 and July 2004, this paper explores the use of hip hop in Romani music making in Ostrava, drawing on emerging diasporic discourses that challenge traditional approaches to connections between music making and racial ideas.

Laura Fantone (Istituto Universitario Orientale). Roma Underdiaspora: Neither Refugees nor Migrants. It is a well-known fact that Roma live in conditions of extreme poverty, high levels of family instability (with especially negative effects for women) and without a state to protect/control them. Recent Italian policies aimed at the social integration of new immigrant populations seem to have affected the Roma by shifting them to levels of marginality below even the various immigrant groups. They are fundamentally not recognized as a diaspora, not refugees nor migrants. My study attempts to criticize a strictly bureaucratic notion of refugee and migrant, starting from the social dimensions of the Roma Gypsies' life in Italy. Many Roma Gypsies have low literacy, experience discrimination and lack of material resources. Some scholars have theorized their so-called "pariah syndrome," a self-hatred developed by an internalized negative image (Hancock 1987), which has consequences in all spheres of their lives, including their dependent relations with European institutions. This essay is concerned with the case of Kosovar Roma youth growing up in a few refugee/Gypsy camps in central Italy. The specific group is part of the second larger group arrived from the former Yugoslavia (estimated to total 30,000 in Italy) in the last decade. As a consequence of the wars in the 1990s, many of them cannot go back to their families and towns in the Balkans. This fact makes their sense of investment in both Italian society and in Roma culture and community different from the previous generations of Roma that have established themselves in Italy during the last 30 years and earlier, especially in central and northern Italy. Until the 1990s, Roma had been considered an old marginal group, not a diaspora, nor refugees. They had no similarity with any other communities, yet now comparisons can be made to new immigrant communities and migrant groups from Eastern Europe. Also, in the last decade, persecuted ethnic groups in Europe have successfully mobilized and received reparations and restitution. Roma Gypsies however, despite the fact that they have moral claims on many European nations, do not have the political and cultural status to make similar demands in Italy. Many studies tend to explain the lack of improvement of Roma Gypsies' condition over the last 30 years as the result of material constraints in the Roma community. This study intends to address issues that are beyond the usual focus on economic disadvantage and on a "culturally different" tradition. I intend to conclude outlining the scarcely recognized value of Roma culture, its ability to mediate different instances and create a complex creolized culture, rarely valued in Europe.

Lorely French (Pacific U). Beyond the Wearing of the Pants and the Skirts: Roma Writers from Austria and Switzerland Transform Stereotypical Gender Roles. Many generalizations and stereotypes exist to describe gender roles in various European Roma groups and how these roles affect men's and women's everyday lives in their respective communities. Stereotypical images usually derive from centuries-old observations that place the women in a restricted position within the private sphere of home life while the men appear more active members of the public community. In the past three decades, scholars have begun to point to the necessity of understanding gender roles within the context in which those roles and the ensuing stereotypes developed both inside and outside of the Roma spheres. Added to scholarly investigations has been a growing body of first-hand accounts by female Roma and ethnographic studies that detail women's and men's everyday life and interactions. The purpose of my paper is to expand on this body of secondary and primary literature by analyzing writings by a group of Roma men and women writers who have received little attention outside their own countries, namely Ceija, Mongo, and Karl Stojka; Simone Schönett; and Mišo Nikolic in Austria; and Mariella Mehr in Switzlerland. These writers have published autobiographies, poems, songs, novels, essays, and folktales. Given the large scope of their creative oeuvre, I will limit my investigation to their autobiographies and novels. First, I wish to stress the diversity of the Roma groups in which these writers have their roots and focus on the multifaceted histories, customs, and cultural traditions of the three main Roma groups to which they belong. Understanding their cultures already works to dispel detrimental stereotypes that result from overgeneralizations about the Roma as a collective. Second, I want to examine the ways in which gender roles have changed throughout the eight decades portrayed in the works. Having perspectives from both men and women is advantageous for an analysis of the ways in which gender roles are both perceived and manifested in everyday life. The works of those writers who survived extremely traumatic events depict the large role that gender plays in victimization. The necessity to build lives outside constructed gender paradigms in the face of catastrophes becomes equally apparent. Third, the more recent works of the women writers reveal numerous developing complexities that raise theoretical concerns about rigidly identified gender roles in general, regardless of the ethnic group. Such concerns manifest themselves in the portrayal of the intricacies of gender roles within a transforming family dynamic and the depiction of the disturbing manner in which the violence wrought against Roma women and children threatens to become self-inflicting and self-perpetuating.

Victor A. Friedman (U of Chicago). Turkish Verbs in Balkan Romani: Toward a Typology of Integration. Turkish influence is one of the defining features of the Romani dialects of the Balkans. The role of Turkish in these Romani dialects has varied from limitation to lexical borrowing through calquing and grammatical borrowing to complete language-shift in some formerly Romani-speaking groups. Turkish influence on Romani dialectal grammatical systems is considerably more varied than is the case for the influence of other Balkan languages on Romani, with the exception of Byzantine Greek. The integration of Turkish grammatical structure in various Romani dialects thus provides important examples of the possibilities of grammatical borrowing and at the same time gives test cases for numerous variables in bi- and multi-lingual adaptation. This is especially the case in the integration of Turkish verbal conjugation of verbs of Turkish origin into Romani grammar. This varies from the use of Turkish conjugational forms limited to those categories that fit into the inherited Romani tense/aspect system (two oppositions that give present, simple preterite, imperfect, and pluperfect) to dialects where the Turkish optative is used in subjunctive and, sometimes, future clauses to those where even the Turkish infinitive is used for verbs of Turkish origin. In this paper, I shall attempt a comparative typological dialectology of Romani in the Balkans based on the degree of the integration of Turkish into Romani linguistic structure. In so doing, I shall contribute to both the understanding of Balkan Romani, the position of Turkish in the modern Balkans, and the theoretical literature on the effects and possibilities of language contact. At issue will be particularly questions of stability versus language shift and relative hierarchies of contact-induced language-change.

Tatiana Gabrielson (Austin Community Coll). Romani Renaissance in Ukraine. This paper explores the collective experience of Romani educational and cultural leaders in post-Soviet Ukraine, investigating how far and through what mediating structures they have acted as agents of cultural and educational change, implementing projects in the fields of media production they called the "propaganda of Romani culture." These projects were aimed at constructing the "Roma of Ukraine" identity-battling prejudice by educating the mainstream about Roma and preparing for the move from cultural-educational pilot programs toward policies and systemic solutions governing Romani education and integration in the context of profound economic, political, and cultural transformations in Ukraine. Based on fieldwork (2002-2003) with Romani intellectuals, this study adopts a cultural studies approach and chronicles the work of the first Romani poet, first Romani theater director, first Romani ethnographer, and a number of community activists engaged in the production of culture and knowledge that created the uplifting archetype of the "Roma of Ukraine." Romani activism in Ukraine showed multidimensional commonalities with the earlier stages of African American and Native uplift in the United States, which I review in my paper under four headings: (a) inserting Romani uplift issues into Ukrainian national format; (b) ambivalence of Romani elites toward integration; (c) performance, media, and education; (d) art, propaganda, and artistic integrity.

Elisabetta Di Giovanni (Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy). Gypsy People in South Italy: An Anthropological Perspective. This work focuses on the case of a nomad camp in Palermo, a town in south Italy, where three groups of "Gypsies" have lived for fifty years, in ghetto conditions. This nomad camp constitutes a world out of the city, better an encompassed microcosm, without contact with citizenship nor public administration, excepted the voluntary association. This means that there are no interrelations between the camp and the rest of the external space. On the contrary, the three different groups represent for the outside a generic nebulous whole, confined in a green area, surrounded by a high wall. "Don't see them" signifies "don't care about them," about their living conditions, about their culture and about their identity. The only interaction between "them" and "us" happens when Romanì leave the camp every morning and cross the municipal streets. Children roam alone, asking for food, some little boy is disguised as a girl in order to provoke more compassion among passing people. Adults, instead, prefer traffic lights for begging charity. And so Gypsy children are seen as abandoned, while adults are considered as unemployed who don't want to search for work, always "producing" children. In the people's imagery there is prejudice in terms of exclusivity, above all, the idea that their occidental space is invaded by this unpleasant microcosm that must stay within its boundaries.

Kimmo Granqvist (Research Institute for the Languages of Finland). Research Institute for the Languages of Finland. The new developments include a major paradigm shift from lexicography and compiling dictionaries to core linguistic studies in morpho-syntax. Two Master's theses were finished on verbs in Finnish Romani in 2001 and 2002 at the Department of General Linguistics in the University of Helsinki (Brandt-Taskinen 2001, Pirttisaari 2002). Furthermore, a number of articles have been published, in particular on phonology and morphology. At the time of this writing, a comprehensive account on Finnish Romani morphology and phonology is in press (Granqvist, in press). I my paper, I will summarize some of the advances. The focus will be on methodological-theoretical issues related to writing grammars, phonological and morphological models and treatment of variation. One of the goals of Finnish Romani linguistics is to study the dialect in a pan-European context. To shed light upon on the recent work I will present a number of results based on the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS, created by Yaron Matras and Viktor Elsík) Database, including certain phonotactic constraints, prosodic features, adjective derivations, and morphophonological processes. Syntax is becoming the main area of emphasis in the work conducted on Romani at the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland. A HPSG (Pollard & Sag 1987, 1994) based account is currently being prepared by Granqvist. The outcome of the project will be placed thematically between Romani Linguistics and Fennistics, and methodologically between Generative Theory and variationist tradition. Due to the scarceness of the resources fewer achievements have been made in other areas such as sociolinguistics, language sociology, study in language politics, and language planning. Many issues of language usage and the attitudes of the Roma towards their language have been nevertheless surveyed by Hedman (forthcoming.).

Nevin Turgut Gültekin (Gazi U). Divided Cities: Social and Residential Segregation in a Gypsy Neighborhood in Edirne, Turkey. The `undivided city' has become a major policy concern of urban governments faced with problems of segregation based on social and ethnic divisions. Within this perspective ethnic structuring and identity are taken in the related literature as a reaction to the processes of modernization or as a criterion of describing oneself as different or as a means of solidarity. Some see ethnic differences as the elements of multi-culturality which have to be preserved and respected. Taken to be positive, segregation facilitates solidarity in a living area and provides the continuation of social relations. Social solidarity networks on the other hand, provide preservation of cultural identity, and to be a member of an ethnic group decreases loneliness in an organized defense area and facilitates entrance into the labor market. However, segregation reinforces exclusion as well. Residential segregation reflects the limited choices in the housing market for people living in enclosed areas and so prevents them from participation in the majority society. The majority is scared of large spatial concentrations; living in a closed community brings a `multi-culturalism of fear' rather than a `multi-culturalism of rights.' The paper will be based on research since 2005 in a Gypsy neighborhood in Edirne, Turkey in order to discuss sustainability and segregation in space based on ethnic identity.

Dieter W. Halwachs (U of Graz). Language Change, Linguistic Repertoire and Migration. During the second half of the twentieth century east-west migration of European Roma intensified and brought Roma i.a. into the consciousness of both the wider public and social sciences. Many Roma changed their way of life and were exposed to new social challenges in the new host countries; e.g. the change from isolation in separated living quarters, limitations in working possibilities and closed social networks to urban open network societies with new job and income opportunities, etc. These changes affected not only the traditional socio-structures which the migrants brought with them from their countries and regions of emigration but also the linguistic repertoires of every single Romani speaking community involved in the recent east-west migration. Changes in the linguistic repertoire of these communities are not only limited to the acquisition of new functional varieties of the language of the country of immigration for public and semi-public use but also affect the linguistic varieties brought from the countries and regions of origin. By migration in connection with the social changes the single groups undergo repertoire dynamics is intensified and affects the linguistic varieties in all domains; from the social microcosm, via the social macrocosm to the acrolectal varieties used in formal domains. Furthermore migration and the resulting changes in the linguistic repertoires become obvious in language change on various linguistic levels; most obviously in the lexicon but also on structural levels. The paper will examine and demonstrate both structural changes and changes in the linguistic repertoires of working migrants who migrated from south-eastern Europe to Austria during the 70s and 80s of the 20th century.

Gernot Haupt (Institut für Sozialarbeit, Austria). Antigypsism and Social Work. Fearing mass immigration of Roma from the Eastern European countries antigypsy attitudes and politics have risen again in Europe. To cope with this antigypsism an approach of a social work science is suggested, which takes account of the transdisciplinarity of the social problems of Roma and considers the results of historic, sociological, political, pedagogical, medical, socio-psychological, etc. research from the point of view of socially discriminated Roma. Along the analytical framework of exclusion/inclusion different social systems are investigated. Total exclusion by extermination during the NS-regime but also by recent pogroms, expulsion in the Middle Ages but also by deportation of asylum-seekers today, repression and assimilation in the fields of poverty, work, housing, health, language and culture, politics and public opinion, and at last inclusion by integration only in some special cases. There will be no automatic evolution to a better social inclusion of the minority of Roma into their societies by integration of eastern European countries like Romania into the EU nor will the Roma communities be able or be demanded to reach this integration by their own means. As identity, be it individual or ethnic, always emerges and subsists in interaction, inclusion can only be achieved in a reciprocal process and can never be understood as task and responsibility of the excluded minority. This is why this paper pleads for a change of perspective, for an inductive procedure. A science based social work that acts in a transdisciplinarian way and enables seizing possibilities of action and development together with the Roma on an individual and local level, seems appropriate to reach this purpose. If these possibilities don't yet exist, such a social work will reach out for them and will take the initiative for self-organization of individuals and groups in the sense of empowerment. And a growing inclusion into the local societies will minimize the need of mass-migration.

Jonathan Hogstad. Roma and Black Americans: Comparison and Lessons Learned for Roma from the Struggle of Another Marginalized People. Both Roma and Black Americans have suffered through a history of marginalization. The complex combination of lack of opportunity, tradition of perceived inferiority and second-class citizenship contributes to two cultures marred by poverty, low initiative and high crime and disease rates. Though Roma progress has been sporadic and insufficient, it is still possible to make progress to restore dignity to a race as blacks have shown. By comparing the two histories and cultures we may see how Roma can learn from the successes and falters of the black struggle. A history of slavery ending in the mid 19th century, severe stigmatization and mass lay-offs targeting the minority are similar for both groups (Roma slavery leading to late 19th century Diaspora). However, the black Diaspora homogenized the varying identities whereas Roma today are divided into a myriad of sub-identities. Also, many Roma can claim to be majority while blacks do not have that option. Roma can learn from black leaders who led a reassertion in positive black identity, conscientiously restored dignity by researching history and tradition, and led blacks to unite and support each other economically. Moreover, Roma may also examine current black issues to avoid the same pitfalls. As many urban Roma neighborhoods are becoming known as drug centers, Roma may find themselves in the same situation as blacks with exorbitant numbers imprisoned on drug-related offenses. Roma are struggling to rise up and restore dignity. Examining black history can show new strategies and help guide where efforts should be increased.

Martin Holler (Humboldt U, Berlin). Towards a `Socialist Gypsy State': Plans for an Autonomous Region for Romanies in the Early Soviet Union. After the October Revolution, Soviet Romanies experienced the whole ambivalence of the Bolshevik nationalities program. Affirmative action for so-called `backward nationalities' and repression went hand in hand. Romanies were a small ethnic group and belonged to the 2% of the extraterritorial people that were spread all over the USSR. Nevertheless, a relatively great effort was made to include `Gypsies' into the building of socialism. Collectivisation, `political education' and alphabetisation were the catchwords, which resulted, among other things, in the creation of a `Gypsy alphabet' and the foundation of the Moscow `State Gypsy theatre "Romen"'. One of the most surprising Bolshevik projects was the founding of a socialist `Gypsy state,' with a cultural and (limited) political autonomy and Romanes - the `Gypsy language' (tsyganskii iazyk) - as the official language! `Gypsies' from all parts of the Soviet Union would have been settled in a compact, ethnically pure territory. Romani activists demanded parts of the Crimea, Southern Ukraine or the Northern Caucasus as areas for resettlement, while the Soviet authorities preferred Western Siberia or the Far East. Both the Romanies and the Bolsheviks referred to the Jewish example, especially to the `Jewish Autonomous Soviet Region of Birobidzhan.' Scientific expeditions in search of suitable territories were made and a special commission was set up. My paper presents the genesis and ideological background of the astonishing autonomy project and asks why it finally came to nothing. It is based on unpublished materials from post-Soviet archives.

Lynn Hooker (Indiana University). Hungarian Music or Gypsy Music? The Case of Pista Dankó (1858-1903). The relationship between Romani (Gypsy) musicians and Hungarian national music has long been problematic. Audiences and composers abroad often understood that music to be a symbol of Gypsy, not Hungarian, identity. Meanwhile, Hungarian musicians and critics have tried to correct that notion. From the pamphlet war that followed the publication of Liszt's 1859 book Des bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie to recent research in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century into the multiple musical roles of the Hungarian Roma, Hungarian scholars, critics, and audiences have alternately celebrated and abused "Hungarian Gypsy music" and its so-called "Oriental" performers. Yet scholars have not yet investigated the creative contribution of Romani performers to Hungarian vernacular music of the past. In this paper, I use the case study of Pista Dankó (1858-1903), the most popular songwriter and bandleader in Hungary around the fin de siècle, to address what it meant to be a Gypsy composer in fin-de-siècle Hungary. In particular, I examine his musical play Gypsy Love, first performed in Budapest in 1898. The script was published the following year, with a dedication to the Archduke Joseph von Hapsburg, Palatine of Hungary and a cofounder of the Gypsy Lore Society. This play, I argue, offers a rare window into the lives of Hungarian Romani musicians at the turn of the twentieth century, and in particular into the problems introduced into their community by their role as prominent performers in Hungary and throughout Europe.

Fabian Jacobs (Leipzig U, Germany). Horizontal and Vertical Forms of Mobility among the Gabor People in Transylvania. The paper outlines the results of my current dissertation project that analyses horizontal and vertical forms of mobility that exist within the Gabor People, a Roma group concentrated in the Tîrgu Mures area of Transylvania, Romania. Horizontal mobility refers to spatial movement within a geographical region. Vertical mobility refers to social movement, i.e. the change of social status and roles within the community hierarchy. In order to link the spheres of geographical and social space, mobility will be ascertained by analyzing the following criteria: 1. Service nomadism in the economic domain, 2. Marriage mobility and family relocation in the domain of social organization, 3. Church attendance and pilgrimages in the religious domain. These must looked at in conjunction with three key factors which measure social stratification: wealth, ancestry and religiosity. The paper intends to show the varying uses of these factors while negotiating individual and collective positions inside the group-internal system of social stratification. It reveals how the Gabor People adapt with service nomadic strategies to Modern Europe concurrently to conservative retention of social patterns as well as to progressive annexation of neo-evangelical value systems. The exploration of interrelations between horizontal and vertical mobility among the Gabor People attempts to contribute to the general discourse in Gypsy/Romany studies about internal differentiations and demarcations of Gypsy/Roma groups.

Lenka Budilová and Marek Jakoubek (J.E. Purkyne U). Migration and Kinship. The Case of "Czecho-Slovakia." Gypsies presently living in the Czech Republic are to a large extent descendants of those who moved from Slovakia after World War II. Migratory movements between the Czech and the Slovak Republic have continued since that time up to the present. Kin relationships between the people who live in the eastern part of Slovakia in Gypsy "osadas" and the people who live in the Czech Republic have not yet been forgotten and abandoned. As time passes they are either strengthened by marriages and new alliances appear, or they are manipulated so that the previously existing kin groups split up. Frequent contacts and movements between these two countries within extensive Gypsy kin groups still take place. People move for various reasons, to work, to live near their relatives, to find a marital partner, or to move together in marital alliance. Our paper focuses on interrelationships and mutual interferences between migratory movements and kin group structures, with further consequences for the concept of "Roma community" both in the Czech and in the Slovak Republic. The article is based on fieldwork between 2000 and 2007 both in Slovak Gypsy settlements, or "osadas", and in Czech urban suburbs settled by Gypsy populations. The authors study one particular kin group, or more precisely one specific kin web, whose members, or segments, live in several Gypsy settlements in eastern Slovakia (especially in Chminianske Jakubovany, Vítaz, Richnava and Dobrá Vola) and in two northern Bohemian towns, Ceská Kamenice and Ústí nad Labem. We would like to grasp the problem of migration in both the previous republics of Czechoslovakia from a long-term view and from a standpoint of one particular kin net and approach it form the social-anthropological perspective.

Slawomir Kapralski (Warsaw U). Factors Influencing the Return Migration of the Polska Roma Romanies of Oswiecim (Auschwitz). The main problem of my presentation will be the analysis of the factors influencing the return migration of the Romanies of the Polska Roma group who left Poland in the early 1980s, mostly for Germany and Scandinavia. I would like to focus on a group that has lived in the town of Oswiecim (better known to the world under the German name it bore during World War II, Auschwitz). Many of those who decided to emigrate did so in the aftermath of a pogrom in which local inhabitants attacked the Romanies and destroyed their property. In the 1990s-2000s many of the Oswiecim Romanies decided to return. Among the reasons declared, emotional attachment to the town has been frequently mentioned. I may have a chance to conduct interviews among those who returned to Oswiecim, to learn, among other topics, in what way the memory of anti-Romani violence coexists with the emotional attachment to the place where the violence occurred. On the other hand, I would like to learn about their emigration period to find out whether the reasons to return can be perhaps found there rather than in the sphere of declared emotions.

Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov (Ethnographical Institute and Museum at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). The Celebration of Kakava/Hiderlez among the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace (Turkey). The region of Thrace, which is divided nowadays between three countries (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), has for centuries been preferred by the Gypsies who travel or settle there. The paper is based on field research in 2004-2006, on the celebration of Kakava/Hiderlez by the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace and Turkey, mainly in Kirklareli, Edirne and Istanbul. The celebration of the Kakava/Hiderlez feast by the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace and Istanbul is analyzed on two main planes, in the borders of the community (the Gypsies) and in the general parameters of the society in which they live. Of course, between these two dimensions, in which the Gypsies live, and where this feast takes place, there is no impassable wall, and constant inter-influences are in both directions. That is why the changes in the whole appearance of the feast or in its separate elements, as well as in its community functions are naturally interconnected in one common process, the transition from a feast of the Gypsy communities to a feast of the whole society. The modifications and the transformations of the celebration of Kakava/Hiderlez among the Gypsies in Eastern Thrace are connected to the correlation between the religious and the secular in the life of contemporary Turkey. We are observing a new phenomenon, as a sign of the transition towards modernity, which expression is in the transformation of the traditional forms and the appearance of new public dimensions of the feast. These transformations are appearing in the context of existing complicated relations between different ideological, political and religious flows in the Turkish society.

Yaron Matras (U of Manchester). The Language of the 'Gabor': An Exercise in the Definition of 'Dialects'. We tend to think of 'dialects' as discrete entities, much as we tend to think of Romani 'groups' or 'tribes' as discrete, identifiable populations. Moreover, researchers availing themselves of the tools of Romani linguistics tend to assume that a Romani dialect can be attributed with a relative high degree of certainty to a dialect 'group' or 'branch.' and that this affiliation, in turn, already reveals a great deal about the ancestry of the language, and by implication, of the people who speak it. The Gabor are a migrant group of Transylvanian Roma who provide a nice illustration that reality is not so simple. First, a degree of linguistic variation among individuals appears to be tolerated within the group. Moreover, some of the variants encountered are usually attributed by descriptive linguists of Romani to different dialect branches, and are sometimes even seen as diagnostic, to a certain extent, of dialect branch 'membership.' In fact, some Gabor speakers combine structural features in their speech which have so far been assumed to belong to different 'dialects' or indeed even to different dialect 'branches.' An analysis of just a few samples, collected through elicitation of the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) questionnaire, offers an opportunity to revisit the notion of 'dialect', 'dialect boundaries', and 'group boundaries.'

Aidan McGarry (Queen's U). Ethnic Group Identity and the Roma Social Movement. This paper starts from the observation that after the collapse of communism the Roma were galvanized by a sense of injustice and seized upon the new opportunities which the transition to democracy offered in Central and Eastern European states including electoral representation and civil society organizations. Political participation and representation became the most obvious way for the Roma to address their deprived socio-economic status however it was imperative that the Roma themselves created these organizing structures of representation because the interests of minorities are often suppressed by the utilitarian principles of liberal democracy. The Roma became a social movement which mobilized around their ethnic group identity and created organizing structures of representation in both the domestic and transnational political contexts to articulate their shared interests. This paper proceeds in two steps. Firstly, it demonstrates how identity and interests are insoluble in the case of the Roma social movement by highlighting the intersubjective qualities of these soft institutions. Secondly, it analyses how the Roma have used their ethnic group identity to articulate their shared interests in the transnational political context. The Roma are unique in that they are a transnational minority without a kin state so their situation is not comparable with any other minority group in Europe. It is argued that Romani activism and advocacy has begun to move into this new transnational `space' which has implications on dominant understandings of the meaning of Romani group identity.

Gul Ozatesler (Bogazici U, Turkey). Ethnic Identification of Dom People in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Ethnic identification of Dom people in Diyarbakir, a southeastern city of Turkey is quite different from Romani people in the western sides of Turkey. They identify themselves with Domness in contrast with most Romani people generally being reluctant to identify themselves as Romanis and standing close to identification with Turkishness. Moreover, they speak Domari as their mother tongue, opposed to relatively rare usage of Romani in Turkey. My paper explores their ethnic identification in relation to their social exclusion. Thus their ethnic identification does not only reveal their ethnic belonging but also the degree of their exclusion in relation with their sociopolitical environment.

Trajko Petrovski ("Marko Cepenkov" Instute of Folklore). The Exodus and Identity of the Roma Refugees from Kosovo to Macedonia. Statistics and many individual statements witness that in Kosovo prior to the NATO intervention there lived more than 137,000 Roma. Both a statement that 15 - 20% of them remained in Kosovo, as well as the population numbers from the different Kosovo enclaves serve as a demonstration about the significantly lower number of Roma who have remained to live in their homes in Kosovo. This migration, i.e. exodus, in 2000, was nothing but a forced and systematically planned and performed action by the authorities. Evidence of the systematic persecution of the Kosovo Roma was the fact that in February 2000, on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbia) 65% of the Roma inhabited areas, and there were around 300, were completely destroyed, and more than 14,000 houses in Kosovo were fully demolished. These data are taken from the Society for Endangered Peoples in Germany. The number of displaced Roma people from Kosovo to Macedonia (Skopje, Radusa, Katlanovo) during 2000 and 2001 was around 4000, and today this number is decreased to somewhat more than 1500 persons. My paper also covers the issues of their ethnic and cultural characteristics, as well as their current social and other circumstances. It will be supported with photos of Roma daily life.

P. Scott Phillips (U of Warwick). Ethnic Community Views- The Dom of Jordan. The researcher conducted six months of fieldwork in Jordan to discover if the Dom living in the greater Amman area felt a sense of ethnic community or if they acted more as individuals or family units. The work revealed that while there is a sense of pride in the collective ethnic identity, there is currently a lack of organized collective action by the Dom. There have been efforts by a few Dom to address the larger issues faced by the ethnic group and to create a sense of community, but these have not been very successful. These failures are the results of numerous obstacles. One of the most important factors in 'collective non-action' among the Dom is a tendency to serve short term basic needs, a struggle that requires their energies and prevents the pursuit of community building. In addition to the lack of concerted effort by the Dom, a second obstacle to creating a sense of community is the negative opinion the majority of Jordanians have of the Dom. It is hoped that this research project will shed some light on this ethnic minority and perhaps aid in the facilitation of effective action both from within and without the Dom community.

Mel Porter. The Ultimate Folk Devils? British National Media Coverage of Gypsies and Travellers in 2005. In Spring 2005, there was an explosion in media (and particularly tabloid newspaper) coverage of Britain's Gypsy and Traveller communities, with a moral panic developing around the perceived problem of unauthorized sites. The issue became increasingly politicized and was adopted by the Conservative party in their general election campaign. Both the scale and vehemence of the tabloid frenzy were questioned at the time by some broadsheet newspapers and broadcasters, and observers such as the CRE, but the coverage has not been subjected to any detailed academic analysis. As the government press officer responsible for Gypsy and Traveller policies at the time, I experienced this period of exceptional media coverage first-hand. This paper draws on my subsequent research, a content analysis of over 300 national press articles and a sample of broadcast coverage from 2005 to explore the representation of Gypsies and Travellers. This paper will examine how the 2005 coverage sits within the well-researched, historical juxtaposition of the `good' or `real' Gypsy against the `bad' or `pretend' Gypsy; how this was played as a `get out of jail' card by media to fend off charges of racism, and how some Gypsy and Traveller spokespeople condoned this binary depiction; how some media routinely denied Gypsies and Travellers their ethnic status, emphasizing instead pseudo-ethnic groups, `Middle England,' `taxpayers' or `hard-working families;' and how media coverage that would have caused outrage if directed at any other ethnic minority group went largely unchallenged, including a comparison with research into media representations of asylum seekers and refugees.

Ryan Powell (Sheffield Hallam U). Civilising Offensives and Ambivalence: British Gypsies and the State. Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing processes is increasingly recognized as a valuable framework for explaining structural changes linked to transformations in people's sensibilities. Eliasian scholars have pointed to the ambivalence of the civilizing process in application to 'outsider' groups with respect to changes in the penal and social welfare systems. This paper builds on these developments and utilizes the theory of civilizing processes to examine the British state's response to Gypsies and Travellers and explore the perception of this group as in 'need of corrective treatment.' It demonstrates how state policies towards Gypsies and Travellers are presented as improving their welfare but are in fact characterized by ambivalence. It is suggested that while policies towards other 'outsider' groups in society show a discernible civilizing character over the long-term, approaches towards Gypsies and Travellers appear to be more decivilized as a result of a continued and collective disidentification from this group. The paper concludes by pointing to the concept of a civilizing offensive, a deliberate civilizing project targeting Gypsies and Travellers, as a means of elucidating the oppressive and damaging nature of policies towards them and their cultural continuity.

Andrea Pócsik (U of Pécs). Our Choice Gypsy Images. Roma Representation in Hungarian Fiction Films Made after 1960. This presentation examines the movies that can be related to Gypsies living in Hungary produced in the period between the 1960s and 2000s according to different (sociological, anthropological and aesthetic) viewpoints. What kind of representation did the filmmakers produce of this ethnic minority? Do these works reflect all those political, economical and cultural changes that influenced the living conditions of Romani people and thus were forming their identity? Taking into account a postcolonial theoretical background, I will try to draw tendencies in authorial attitudes toward their subject. Thus I will arrange films into groups around several notions. Those made in the 1960s and 1970s (some of the fictional documentaries of the famous "Budapest School") constitute "responsibility films", focusing on social problems. After the change of system in the 1990s there was a certain effort to tell about the past, recalling collective memories, paying attention to the "period of hot remembrance" in Romani culture. In the 2000s stresses were transferred onto the demands of several filmic genres reviving the conventional ways of Roma representation, using schemata and stereotypes suiting the needs of a mass audience. At the end of my presentation I will highlight some new trends represented by a new, talented generation of Roma filmmakers based on efforts "to demolish and to create" Romani identity. Their future oeuvre might make us able to change our attitudes and help us (using the terms of some postcolonial theorists) "to unlearn the inherent and dominant ways of existence."

Stan Renard (Southern New Hampshire U). Challenges Faced by Roma Musicians: An Historical and Commercial Perspective. This study wishes to expose the issues that Roma musicians face in a society pressured by globalization, technology and mass media. A historical overview of Romani music and the role that the musicians play is first undertaken. Then the topic of the impact of globalization on the music business, a subject that has been reviewed under many different perspectives, is presented here with the support of the evolution of the channels of distribution, the description of various formats used by the music business, and an overview of the new technologies supporting and shifting the music industry around by destabilizing the quasi total control of the oligopoly in charge of the industry, known as the majors. Finally, the challenges encountered by Roma musicians dealing with the association between commerce and music are discussed. This is a descriptive analysis based on modern literature as well as on data collected from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a large sample of three generations of Romani musicians from various origins living in different countries. This paper adopts a progressive approach by first painting the historical background and then exposing some controversial perspectives and finally going into the modern issues faced by those exceptional musicians.

Alain Reyniers (U of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The Manouche Diaspora in Western Europe. At the beginning of the 19th century Manouches were mainly concentrated in the northeast of Alsace. One century later, members of that group are established everywhere in Western Europe. Our communication carries on description and analyze of this redeployment, the subjacent practices of nomadism, the diversity and the forms of local insertion which follow the arrival in a new environment.

Sinan Sanlier. Gypsy Immigrations to Turkey in the Late Ottoman Empire (1850-1924). In very broad terms this paper examines the history of the Gypsies in the late Ottoman Empire. One of the most important factors in arrival of Gypsies to the Balkans is the expansion of Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. Thus the reason for leaving the Balkan countries is the Ottoman Empire's loss of land in that region. Muslim Gypsies migrated to Anatolia after the increased pressure on Muslims in the Balkans after the wars. Furthermore, the abolition of slavery in Romania and the emergence of new nation-states caused important immigration waves. During these migrations, Gypsies were tracked by the Ottoman state which administered harsh measures on migration through its close contacts with countries like Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany. These increasing immigration processes reached their peak during the Balkan wars. Some who had been caught in illegal or non-treaty migrations were deported; others were kept waiting in ships. Another important immigration wave from Balkans occurred because of the Lausanne Treaty. As a result of these immigrations, not only Istanbul and Thrace became new Gypsy settlements, but also especially Western Anatolia became new home for them after internal migrations. With this research I introduce new Ottoman documents that challenge previously known information on the migration tendencies of Gypsies. Today there are two widespread opinions among Gypsies about these immigrations. They believe they came from Thessalonica or Romania as if these places are their "motherlands." Especially Thessalonica predominates in this discourse. But Thessalonica is only one of the gathering places during the course of immigration.

Nando Sigona (Oxford Brooks U). Towards an Ethnography of the "Gypsy Problem" in Italy. Based on my doctoral research, the paper investigates the ways in which national and foreign Roma are constructed as a policy problem in Italy. Using discourse analysis and ethnographic data, the paper identifies the key actors involved in defining the "problem" and analyzes their sometimes competing discursive strategies. In particular, the paper explores the different trajectories of foreign Roma - EU and non-EU citizen, Geneva refugees and economic migrants, undocumented or partially documented - in this broad framework and the attempt by some to build a political platform for pan-Romani participation as a response to limited space of maneuvering allowed by the current opportunity structure.

Carol Silverman (U of Oregon). Macedonian Romani Migrants to New York: Diasporic Gender Issues. This paper explores the gendered dimensions of the migration of Muslim Roma from Macedonia to New York City from the 1960s to the present. I contrast the reasons for migration during the Yugoslav socialist period with the period after 1991. I show how families activate transnational networks though frequent visiting home, sending remittances, and bringing spouses to the United States. Family life and community celebrations are the glue that cements social relations. Women tend to manage these events because they embody the social and ritual knowledge of the community. Finally, I note that in the United States, female education is outpacing male education. This, however, means neither that girls have more freedom nor are they exempt from cultural expectations. Along these lines, I explore how sexuality, modesty, and the test of the bride's virginity continue to be significant in diasporic contexts. Fieldwork took place 1990-present in Macedonia and New York.

Spyros Themelis (U of London). Social Mobility and Education of Gypsy/Roma and non-Roma People in a Provincial Town of Northwestern Greece. My focus will be on employment and work histories of the participants in this research project in order to illustrate the diverse experiences of the Gypsy/Roma people with respect to employment and work, vis a vis their non-Roma counterparts. The aim of this paper will be to unravel some the differential patterns of social mobility between the two groups and to highlight the factors that hinder or promote upward and downward social mobility for the residents of this locale. Issues pertinent to access and participation into the labor market will be exemplified through the narratives of the research participants, both male and female. Finally, some insights will be drawn about the division of labor and the structure of the labor market in late industrialized countries with respect to people with diverse origin.

Zeynep Gonca Girgin Tohumcu (Istanbul Technical U). The Third Culture by a Dead Language and a Live Music. In Turkey, Gypsies live collectively as groups in certain regions, like districts or quarters. The life of Gypsies and non-Gypsies necessarily meet in mostly markets, trades and any kind of commercial mediums as is the case with Furnivall's word, "medley" which means a side by side, but un-nested way of life (1948: 304). This group life is derived from the relationship between Gypsies and non-Gypsies as a type of knee-jerk reaction. The focus point of this paper is the Rom people of the Ahirkapi district of Istanbul, on the Europeean side. Ahirkapi Roma migrated to Turkey from Thessaloniki, Greece by means of Turkey-Greece Population Exchange in 1923. They firstly went to Thrace and then came to Ahirkapi approximately in 1940s. The Ahirkapi Roma are flowers of a third culture's garden, created in their own world, as people with two identities. This fieldwork demonstrates that this migration journey also conveys the dynamics of a nomadic life which began in 1923, though now it seems like a settled life. Nevertheless, one of the main points of this work is a formation of their musical repertory and style that they substantially represent the characteristic points of the third culture. The most effective domain of this culture and their musical life is a language that seems to be like a dead language which is unpracticed and even unknown in daily life, but is advocated as their original language by the street. Consequently, this experience proves how and why Rom peoples are colorful figures of the whole social configuration of anywhere all over the world.

Anna Maria Viljanen (U of Helsinki). Gypsies in Finnish Health Care - The Trap of Equality. In health care as in all other organizations and institutions Finnish Gypsies have, according to the Constitution of Finland, similar rights and duties as other Finnish citizens. Also the law protects their right to their own language and culture. In spite of their constitutionally confirmed status, Finnish Gypsies meet today similar problems in health care as Gypsy groups in many other countries: In health centers and hospitals Gypsies are often treated as a hindrance to the daily routine because they seldom come alone and very often they don't keep their appointments or interrupt their treatment. It has also been a cause of annoyance to the staff when Gypsy patients bring along to hospital their own linen and demand wearing their own clothes whenever possible, and relatives bring self-cooked food to the patient. In general, health care personnel's idea of equality is similar treatment to everyone - except some religious groups. That means in most cases that the norms of treatment are based on the norms of the majority. The idea of similar treatment is strengthened by the biomedical axiom of universality of the mechanisms of the human body and accordingly, effects of illnesses on the human body. However, the principle of equality should mean respect of other cultural values and even regarding them as a fresh source of strength. A good example is the powerful social network of Gypsies which could be utilized so that relatives could help hospital staff in assisting duties like cleaning and feeding Gypsy patients. In this way also the Gypsy cultural rules could be obeyed.

Iren Kertész Wilkinson. Roma Diaspora in the Musical Performance of the Hungarian Roma. The historically itinerant but now sedentarized Romungre and Vlach Roma of Hungary created/performed important musical styles of the past three centuries as a result of their prolonged interaction and changing position within the host society. Their involvement with professional music-making turned them into internationally celebrated exponents of the 19th -century national music of Hungary, the verbunkos, and its resultant genre the Magyar nóta. Thus, the Roma became an inseparable part of Hungary's national heritage. The Romungre have also been keeping Hungarian instrumental folk music alive in rural areas, notably in Transylvania. The Vlach Gypsies are more recent migrants from Romania, whose move into Hungary started in the mid-nineteenth century. Some Vlach Roma did not abandon their itinerant life until after World War II. They speak their own language, Romanes, and have kept many of their distinct traditions despite intense pressure from Magyars to force their assimilation. From the 1970s onwards the Vlach Roma youth developed their own professional popular music, "Roma folklore", which since then has become widely known and appreciated in Hungary and beyond. The purpose of my paper is to show how the above genres performed by the Hungarian Roma embody and make use of their historical diaspora position in constructing a national and transnational identity for Hungary's Roma population coinciding with important sociocultural and political developments in the Hungarian history- nationalism, socialism and finally democracy.