Critiquing stereotypes: Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2928
La definizione di anti-ziganismo del Consiglio d’Europa si concentra sul ruolo degli stereotipi e delle pratiche violente nell’esclusione dei rom. La ricerca ha evidenziato come le autorità tendando ad adottare attitudini anti-ziganiste e ad implementare apertamente politiche di sicurezza che rinforzano ulteriormente l’esclusione dei rom. La ricerca ha anche mostrato come nuovi stereotipi si stiano affiancando a quelli esistenti. Sulla scorta della nostra esperienza come partecipanti osservanti nello sviluppo e implementazione della Strategia Rom del Comune di Manchester, mostreremo come questa mirasse a prevenire casi di anti-ziganismo violento ma come, ciò nonostante, degli stereotipi siano comparsi nella sua realizzazione ed infine come la mobilitazione dei rom abbia contestato con successo questi stereotipi. L’articolo dimostra come le definizioni correnti di anti-ziganismo siano inadatte a descrivere casi in cui discorsi essenzialistici e patologizzanti sostengono interventi per l’inclusione dei rom ma che possono in realtà perpetuare la loro marginalizzazione. L’articolo critica pertanto l’idea che gli stereotipi influenzino esclusivamente politiche di sicurezza ed esclusione. L’articolo inoltre dimostra come la ricerca scientifica possa essere mobilitata per smantellare gli stereotipi e ispirare i rom ad attivarsi e contestare interventi benintenzionati ma ciò nonostante stereotipizzanti.
application/pdf
2239-625X
2928
1
en
Daniele Viktor Leggio
Anuac
Critiquing stereotypes: Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants
Text.Serial.Journal
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac
6
Thematic Section: Antiziganisms: Ethnographic Engagements in Europe
2017-07-17
2017-06-07
2017-07-17
2017-07-17
119-140
1
Daniele Viktor Leggio
2017/07/17
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2928
119
University of Manchester, United States
2239-625X
1
en
140
Critiquing stereotypes: Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac/article/download/2928/2570
6
                                              2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140




                                                                       SEZIONE TEMATICA

Critiquing stereotypes
Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants

Daniele Viktor LEGGIO
University of Manchester


ABSTRACT: The Council of Europe definition of anti-Gypsyism focuses on the role of
stereotypes and violent practices in the exclusion of the Roma. Research has shown
that authorities have a tendency to embrace anti-Gypsyist attitudes and to imple-
ment overtly securitising policies that further entrench the exclusion of the Roma.
Research has also shown that, besides established stereotypes, new ones are emerg-
ing. Drawing on our experience as observing participants in the development and
implementation of Manchester City Council’s Roma Strategy, we will show how the
strategy was aimed to prevent violent anti-Gypsyism, but how stereotypes nonethe-
less infiltrated its implementation and, finally, how the mobilisation of the Roma
successfully challenged these stereotypes. The paper argues that current definitions
of anti-Gypsyism are unable to capture instances of essentialist and pathologising
discourses that inform interventions aiming at Roma inclusion but which may in
fact perpetuate their marginalisation. The paper therefore challenges the notion
that stereotypes only inform exclusionary or securitising interventions. The paper
will show how academic research can be mobilised to dismiss stereotypes and to in-
spire the Roma to take action and challenge benevolent but nonetheless stereotyp-
ing interventions.
KEYWORDS: ROMANIAN ROMA, LOCAL AUTHORITIES, EQUALITY POLICIES, MOBILISATION, RESEARCH ENGAGEMENT




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Daniele Viktor Leggio
Critiquing stereotypes: Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2928
120                                                                        DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


Introduction1
   The Council of Europe, recognising the adverse effects of discriminatory
discourses and practices on Roma inclusion, recently declared its intention
to tackle anti-Gypsyism2, which it defines as
      a specific form of racism, an ideology founded on racial superiority, a form of
      dehumanisation and institutional racism nurtured by historical discrimination,
      which is expressed, among others, by violence, hate speech, exploitation, stig-
      matisation and the most blatant kind of discrimination (General Policy Recom-
      mendation No. 13 CRI(2011)37) 3.

   The emphasis here is on the way in which dehumanising images underpin
overtly exclusionary practices. Research has so far focused primarily on these
aspects of anti-Gypsyism. However, little has been said about the role played
by similar images in interventions purportedly aimed at the inclusion of the
Roma.
   Based on research with a community of Romanian Roma in Manchester,
UK, this article therefore intends to show how stereotypical images can infil-
trate policy discourses beyond overtly exclusionary or securitising interven-
tions. After a review of literature on anti-Gypsyism and the role of stereo-
types in Roma policies, I will present the context and methods of the re-
search. In this section, I will briefly clarify how the engagement between the
research team, Manchester City Council (MCC) and the Roma community
emerged. I will also clarify how the research team approach to participation
should be regarded as a form of process pragmatism (Harney et al. 2016)
rather than as participatory action research in the Freireian (1970) tradition
(cf. Cameron, Gibson 2005; Cahill 2007; Torre 2009). In the following section,
drawing on ethnographic observations, interviews with members of the
Roma community and analysis of documents produced by MCC and volun-
tary sector agencies working with Roma, I will reconstructs the development

1. The research leading to the present publication results from MIGROM, The immigration of
Romanian Roma to Western Europe: Causes, effects and future engagement strategies, a project
funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme under the call on Deal-
ing with diversity and cohesion: the case of the Roma in the European Union (GA319901). I am
grateful to Yaron Matras for the substantial help in revising the earlier drafts of this article
and to Anuac reviewers for their precious advice on the version submitted.
2. See the Thematic Action Plan on the Inclusion of Roma and Travellers [SG/Inf(2015)38],
Priority 1: https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMCoontent?
documentId=0900001680684b5e. Accessed 11/09/2016.
3.www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/activities/GPR/EN/Recommendation_N13/e-RPG%20-
13%20-%20A4.pdf. Accessed 11/09/2016.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                          121


of MCC’s Roma Strategy. I will show how an effort to confront hostility and
to promote the inclusion of Roma was not immune to the replication of
stereotypical images, which some authors might classify as a form of anti-
Gypsyism. The section will also highlight how the research team’s critique of
some of MCC’s strategies and the effort to create spaces for the invited par-
ticipation (Cornwall 2000) of the Roma in public discussions around them
challenged such stereotypical images. In the conclusion, I will argue that the
focus of current definition of anti-Gypsyism on the usage of negative images
to exclude the Roma has prevented researchers to identify cases of benevo-
lent, yet conceptually flawed interventions that have de facto marginalised
the Roma. The conclusion will also show how researchers, through forms of
process pragmatism combining public engagement, partnership with non-
academic stakeholders and the dissemination of insights from research can
help dismiss negative images and inspire the Roma to take action to chal-
lenge interventions that risk reproducing stereotypes.

The role of stereotypes in Roma policies
   Clough Marinaro and Sigona (2011) noted how in Italy stereotypes have
been used by politicians to build on people’s fears about migration and «to
advance increasingly xenophobic discourses and discriminatory practices
with little opposition» (2001: 586). More specifically, Sigona shows how
stereotypes that associate Roma with crime inspired a shift in the view of
Roma as a social policy problem toward the view that Roma constitute a se-
curity threat, resulting in the transformation of nomad camps into «Guan-
tanamo-like enclosures for latent criminals» (2011: 603). Clough Marinaro
and Daniele note that while Italian local authorities purportedly attempted
to promote Roma participation, associating Roma culture with nomadism
has led them to limit opportunities for Roma to exercise their citizenship and
representation right to «the exclusionary spaces of “nomad camps”» (2011:
788).
   The contributions presented in Stewart (2012b) note how in various coun-
tries increasing xenophobia, a feeling of loss of sovereignty and disillusion
with political elites are fuelling populist movements that «turn the Roma
into a suitable “target population”» (Stewart 2012a: xxxviii). These develop-
ments are linked to the rise in ethnic violence and hate crimes targeting
Roma and the increasing acceptability in public discourse of depictions of
Roma as a public menace. In this climate, both national and local govern-
ments have directed restrictive policy measures at the Roma, often overtly.


                                     2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
122                                                                       DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


   A similar role of public discourses in pressuring governments to take radi-
cal measures against the Roma has been also observed by Clark and Camp-
bell (2000). The authors noted how the media depicted the arrival in the UK
of Czech and Slovak Roma asylum seekers in 1997 as an invasion of fraud-
sters and criminals attempting to take advantage of the British asylum sys-
tem. As a consequence, they argue, the then Labour government proposed
far-reaching policy changes to the British immigration and asylum system.
The representation of Czech Roma as organised criminals taking advantage
of British migration law even featured in a private letter by the British Prime
Minister warning the Czech counterpart of the consequences of continuing
migration of Roma from the then EU candidate state (Sobotka 2003). Fur-
thermore, Clark and Taylor (2014) have noted how the association between
Roma and crime dates back to the depiction of English Gypsies and Trav-
ellers since the Victorian period and how it has underpinned a number of
legislative interventions aimed at the removal of these populations.
   Similarly, van Baar shows how the views that Roma have a cultural pre-
disposition to criminal activity such as trafficking and child exploitation
serves to legitimise policies that «act against the Roma and treat them differ-
ently» (2014: 29). Like Sigona, he notes how such attitudes accompany the
spread of securitarian ideologies that magnify public fears in order to justify
increased control measures. In this context, policies and police practices
such as ethnic profiling and the expulsion of EU citizens have reinforced
rather than contested negative images of Roma.
   While these authors have regarded anti-Gypsysm as the historical contin-
uation of negative stereotypes4, Marushiakova and Popov note a recently
emerging discourse in Central and Eastern Europe that depicts Roma as a
community that enjoys «special privileges» (2016: 159). They link this image
of the “privileged Gypsy” to integration policies that are promoted and
funded by EU institutions and which were introduced into these countries as
part of their accession process to the EU. Popular perception, regards such
policies as privileging the Roma but not benefiting the majority, giving a new
contextualisation to the older stereotype of “Gypsy parasites’. The authors
question the effectiveness of “affirmative action” in fighting anti-Gypsyism
since «the more policies […] aimed at Roma are realized, the more aggravated
are the anti-Gypsy/anti-Roma public attitudes» (Marushiakova, Popov: 2016:
163).

4. See Vitale 2009 on the analytical and policy problems of the belief in the historical conti-
nuity of anti-Gypsyism.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                               123


   Timmer (2010) had already noted a similar vicious circle in which inclu-
sion projects lead to the entrenchment of Roma marginalisation. She has
shown how well meaning NGOs mobilise stereotypical images about the
Roma, presenting them as «needy subjects» whose behaviour must be
changed in order to facilitate their integration. Similarly, Matras (2015) de-
scribes Europe’s «neo-traditional policy on Roma» as one that incorporates
tightly entrenched images and ideologies into a strategy of «marginality
management» which views Roma as perpetually in need for support and me-
diation.
   All these studies looked at how the exclusion of the Roma is perpetuated,
however there are relevant differences among them. Those that focused ex-
plicitly on anti-Gypsyism, and followed definitions akin to that of the Coun-
cil of Europe, highlighted how authorities have often actively mobilised
stereotypes in order to justify exclusionary measures. Those that instead
looked at inclusion measures and policies seem to suggest that acts or ex-
pressions of anti-Gypsyist prejudice might surface not only in exclusionary
practices. This contradiction calls our attention on situations in which
stereotypes might be mobilised in order to justify interventions for the inclu-
sion of the Roma.

Method
   In order to assess what could be the consequences of policy approaches to
Roma inclusion in which stereotypical images are nonetheless mobilised, I
will present the case of Manchester City Council (MCC) Roma Strategy. Im-
plemented between 2009 and 2014, the Roma Strategy saw the City Council
collaborating with third sector agencies and the Romani Project at the Uni-
versity of Manchester in order to tackle the inclusion of a small community
of Romanian Roma.
   Since the early 2000s, prior to our involvement in the Roma Strategy, the
Romani Project had been working on various aspects of Romani language
and culture5. Our engagement with the local community of Romanian Roma
began in 2008, when, following an increase in the number of Roma pupils, a
local primary school invited us to provide training sessions to teachers. In
2009 we were commissioned by Manchester City Council (MCC) to carry out a
survey of Romanian Roma migrants in the same district. This resulted in a
research report (Matras et al. 2009), which also contained recommendations
for an engagement strategy (see below for further details). Building on this

5. http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk. Accessed 15/03/2017.

                                          2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
124                                                                    DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


experience, we launched the MigRom consortium in 2013. Led by the Univer-
sity of Manchester in partnership with four other research institutions, it in-
cluded MCC as well as a European Roma NGO as full partners. The project’s
main objective was to produce an ethnography of Roma migration and to
asses policy interventions that targeted Roma migrants, taking into consid-
eration the views and practices of both Roma migrants and local authorities 6.
The project’s goals for Manchester also included a pilot engagement scheme
to
      introduce measures for capacity-building within the community, provisions for
      advice and support services and the creation of a consultation forum that will
      allow Roma migrants to take part in planning and decision-making processes
      affecting their community7.

   Through simultaneous involvement in ethnographic research, training of
community members as outreach workers and research assistants, and as-
sessing policy interventions while also advising policy makers, the MigRom
research team took on roles akin to what Bernard (2012: 313-314) defines as
observing participants, or insiders in the development and implementation of
the policies that we were studying.
   Furthermore, the project’s explicitly aimed at encouraging the participa-
tion of Roma migrants both in the research and in public debates. As argued
by Cornwall, however, the term participation «has become mired in a morass
of competing referents» (2008: 269) and it is therefore necessary to clarify
what “participation” meant for the MigRom team.
   We were not militant researchers (cf. Mason 2013; Halvorsen 2015). While
some members of the team had previously engaged in pro-migrants activism,
none of us had any links with movements or associations when we first en-
gaged with Roma migrants in 2008. Similarly, while we are all critical of the
excesses of capitalism, none of us had any commitment to anti- or post-capi-
talism. For this reason, we were sceptical about embracing models of partici-
patory action research inspired by the work of Freire (1970) and calling for
engagement that can lead to the re-subjectification of participants in order
to create alternatives to capitalism (cf. Cameron, Gibson 2005; Cahill 2007;
Torre 2009). Even if we had subscribed to such approaches, however, we
would have not known from where to start. In 2008 we barely knew anything
about the Roma community in Gorton South in terms of what their previous
experiences had been, what issues they were facing in Manchester and what
their expectations for the future were.

6. http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/migrom/objectives.html. Accessed 15/03/2017.
7. http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/migrom/strategy.html. Accessed 15/03/2017.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                            125


   We were thus not starting with a set of pre-determined problems we
wanted to tackle based on strong ideological commitments. Rather, we as-
sumed that problems existed and aimed at identifying those that mattered to
the Roma and, together with them, find potential solution to these issues.
Our approach was thus similar to the idea of communiversity proposed by
Kindon, Pain and Kesby (under the joint pen-name of mrs kinpaisby) and
characterised by activities «that supports the joint construction and conduct
of […] research […] with the goal of pursuing social change» (mrs kinpaisby,
2008: 292) by «empowering agents to bring about transformations in their
own lives» (Kesby 2005: 2050). We were also persuaded that, if the Roma in-
tended to achieve this kind of change, they needed to build up alliances with
other local actors and therefore set ourselves the task to facilitate dialogue
between the Roma, local politicians and associations.
   Our idea of participation was, in sum, articulated around the joint conduc-
tion of an open inquiry into social problems and the development of partici-
pants into actors for change through the strengthening of their relations
with other local actors. These characteristics closely match the forms of en-
gaged research underpinned by process pragmatism proposed by Harney et al.
(2016). According to them «the “process pragmatist” is […] skilled in the art
of relationship building, listening, collaborating and acting with others»
(2016: 318) and the embedment of researchers «in strong reciprocal relation-
ships […] allow[s] us to ask genuinely challenging questions and produce new
ideas by working as part of an alliance of active citizens and institutions»
(ibidem: 329). In the following section I will show how this approach was
concretely put into action in our involvement in the development of MCC
Roma Strategy.
Manchester City Council’s Roma Strategy
   Roma from a variety of countries including Latvia, Poland, and the Czech
and Slovak Republics had settled in Manchester since the mid-1990s, some
of them initially as asylum seekers, and following the EU accession of their
countries of origin, as EU migrants.
   It is important to consider that, just like there was no targeted approach
to any migrant group, local authorities did not establish any special frame-
work for Roma migrants. Within MCC, a dedicated Communities and Equali-
ties Scrutiny Committee, comprising elected representatives and unelected
official, is explicitly tasked with ensuring that «services are equally easy for
all Manchester’s diverse residents to access» 8 through the implementation

8. www.manchester.gov.uk/info/100004/the_council_and_democracy/5157/communities_and
_equalities_scrutiny_committee. Accessed 15/03/2017.

                                       2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
126                                                                    DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


and monitoring of standard protocols for equality. In fact, since the mid
1990s the city of Manchester has been flagging its commitment to multicul-
turalism and celebrated the diversity of its population. This is, in no small
part, connected to MCC’s regeneration policy, which utilises the city’s multi-
culturalism as a trademark and a token of its global orientation (Dicken
2002; Sassen 2005), manifested through the presence of an active and well
integrated second generation of immigrants (cf. Glick Schiller 2010).
   Given this background, public services interacted with the first groups of
Roma to settle in the city following standard procedures and no negative re-
actions from Manchester residents toward the Roma were recorded. However,
between 2009 and 20149 a coordinated institutional engagement targeted a
relatively small community of mostly Pentecostal Roma originating from
Ţăndărei in South-Eastern Romania. They had settled in the multi-ethnic
Gorton South area of the city, some arriving as early as 2000, most of them,
however, after Romania’s accession to the EU in 2007.
   In 2009, the community comprised around 300-400 individuals, some two
thirds of them children (see Matras et al. 2009). In the spring of 2009, the lo-
cal police had recorded isolated acts of violence against Romani homes. At
the same time, an opposition Councillor submitted a petition to MCC on be-
half of residents. The petition accused the Roma of littering, truancy, tax
avoidance, anti-social and criminal behaviour and asked the Council to take
action in this regard. These allegations coincided with national press cover-
age10 of the London Metropolitan Police’s Operation Golf, which investigated
allegations of child trafficking by Roma from Ţăndărei 11. The residents’ peti-
tion can thus be regarded as a claim that the city’s normal policy of migrant
integration could not be applied to the Roma. MCC found itself under politi-
cal pressure to show that the Roma could, in fact, be treated just like any
other group. Furthermore, following a series of violent attacks against Roma-
nian Roma in Belfast12, MCC officers had serious concerns over a possible es-

9. This engagement ended before the Council of Europe Ad hoc Committee of Experts on
Roma Issues changed the definition of Roma in its Terms of References (see https://cs.co-
e.int/team20/cahrom/10%20CAHROM%20Bureau%20meeting/Item%2003%20%20CAHROM
%20(2015)2%20EN%20Revised%20CAHROM%20Terms%20of%20Reference%20for%202016-
2017.docx. Accessed 15/03/2017). This change therefore did not affect policy in Manchester.
10. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208445/Romanian-fraudsters-use-trafficked-babies-
children-multi-million-pound-UK-benefit-scam.html. Accessed 09/09/2016.
11. https://ec.europa.eu/anti-trafficking/eu-projects/operation-golf-%E2%80%93-uk-and-r-
omanian-joint-investigation-tackling-romanian-organised-crime_en. Accessed 09/09/2016.
12. www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jun/18/belfast-romanians-moved-race-attacks. Accessed
09/09/2016.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                                   127


calation of anti-Roma tensions into violence. A Roma Strategy Group (RSG),
consisting of middle-level management from various services who reported
to elected members through Council Committees, was therefore established.
As far as we are aware, this was the first time that a dedicated strategy was
ever set up by MCC to address the integration of a specific ethnic or migrant
group.

Ensuring community cohesion
   The RSG’s remit was to remove any cause of tension while ensuring that
the Roma accessed mainstream services or, in the terms used by officers and
councillors, to ensure “community cohesion”. To this end, it was interested
in learning about the community in order to put residents’ discourses into
context, while making an effort to ensure equal access and Roma’s active en-
gagement with services:
      53 Roma households have been identified […] If overcrowding is not an issue
      within the Roma community, this needs to be appropriately communicated
      back to the wider public […] Local schools may be a way of disseminating infor-
      mation to Roma families as might be Roma residents if they can be employed
      through M4 [MCC’s translation and interpreting service] (RSG, 21/09/2009).

   Efforts were also made to encourage Roma to attend neighbourhood
events and to access local youth activities.
   Although the RSG deliberately attempted to counter the stereotypes used
by residents against the Roma, images connected to nomadism and concerns
about the welfare of children continued to appear in the RSG minutes. These
images were often accompanied by suggestions to contain and control the
Roma:
      [we] need to understand the transient nature of the Roma community and the
      impact on children. Families move and we lose track of them […]. We can track
      children once they are in the system; however we need to establish a process
      whereby other services can link their intelligence with children’s services (RSG
      21/09/2009).

   In late summer 2009 MCC commissioned us to compile a report on the
community. In informal conversations, representatives of the local authority
asked for our assessment as to whether Roma intended to stay in Manchester
or “move on”, and if they stayed, whether we would anticipate a continuous
“influx” of Roma who would come to join them. To inform our report, we car-
ried out interviews in the homes of community members and presented the
consultation as an opportunity to have the community’s voice heard. Our re-


                                           2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
128                                                           DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


port, published in October 2009, concluded that a significant increase in
numbers was unlikely and that Roma intended to stay in Manchester (Matras
et al. 2009). It cited the Roma’s concerns over insufficient school places and
cases of schools refusing to take in Roma children, as well as language prob-
lems and restrictions on employment (imposed at the time on Romanian and
Bulgarian nationals). The latter, combined with low levels of education and
lack of English skills, meant that most adult Roma were limited to self-em-
ployment as scrap-metal collectors or vendors of the Big Issue, a magazine
published by the Big Life Group, a nationally active charity. This self-employ-
ment, however, allowed the Roma to access welfare support. Our report also
identified a group of young people who could take on a mediating role. Based
on the issues identified by the Roma themselves, we recommended a short-
term investment in capacity building to train some of these young Roma to
act as interpreters for the older members of the community and as “role
models” for the younger. We also recommended targeted outreach work to
actively remove barriers to school admission and various other procedures.
   This strategy was by and large adopted and implemented. MCC gave prior-
ity to school inclusion, delegating the implementation to its International
New Arrivals team (INA), part of the Children’s Services already entrusted
with supporting migrants and ethnic minorities. They signalled to schools
that denying places to the Roma was not acceptable and assisted parents in
the school registration process. MCC also drew on government funds for the
inclusion of Eastern European migrants to introduce a temporary outreach
programme. That work was outsourced to a local NGO, the Black Health
Agency (BHA). Drawing on close links and some personnel overlap with the
INA team, the BHA also launched an intervention in local schools to raise
awareness among teachers about the Roma. At this stage, however, MCC de-
cided not to invest in the training of young Roma.

Appeasing local residents
   Parallel to efforts to actively engage with the Roma, measures were carried
out by MCC that might be seen as an attempt to appease local residents who
were hostile to them Roma. Since the submission of the residents’ petition,
MCC officers had held regular meetings with residents to reassure them that
their concerns were being addressed. These meeting continued until 2011
when the opposition councillor backing the residents lost his seat. From our
conversations with the officers, it emerged that openly racist accusations and
violent threats were levelled at the Roma. The officers therefore deemed it
unsafe for the Roma to attend. This decision, however, meant that the Roma
were left out from the public discussions about them.

2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                                   129


   Other “appeasing” measures included a police raid following allegations of
child trafficking and a door-to-door campaign to collect council tax specifi-
cally from the Roma. However, the RSG minutes emphasise that these mea-
sures proved most allegations to be baseless:
      No evidence of crime or child trafficking found […] there was a positive re-
      sponse to Epee from the host community; however, some anxiety was expressed
      by the Roma community (RSG 04/12/2009).
      The Council Tax recovery operation so far has visited 66 properties […] Some
      have paid their new bills up to date. […] The operation collected about £3.5K as
      part of this exercise. Non-Roma families were happy to see the operation taking
      place (RSG 20/03/2010).

  The RSG’s approach was also contradictory in relation to Roma employ-
ment:
      The issue of benefits policy remains a major concern […] [We] need to consider
      whether the self-employment being declared can be considered genuine work
      (RSG 22/01/2010).

   According to MCC officers, pressure from the opposition councillor that
forwarded the petition led the RSG to ask the Big Life Group to exclude the
Roma as vendors of the Big Issue. In a letter sent to the Big Life Group in
February 2010, MCC reported that research that it had commissioned had
shown that Roma used the Big Issue to establish themselves as self-em-
ployed in order to be able to claim state benefits, but that they did not intend
to seek alternative employment. This was a reference to our report, which in
fact emphasised that all Roma we interviewed expressed their ambition to
find employment and not to have to rely on selling the Big Issue.
   The Big Life Group learned, from University of Manchester students who
were carrying out research work on Roma vendors, that the RSG’s letter had
misrepresented our report. The organisation then took legal advice from
Cherie Blair, human rights lawyer and wife of former Prime Minister Tony
Blair. In a statement from March 2010 she wrote:
      In my opinion, this attempt to use the public order powers of the Council to
      achieve a reduction in the benefits given to Roma only vendors is both for an
      improper purpose and discriminatory and therefore void and the Big Issue is
      entitled to refuse to comply.

Training and education interventions
   Having read our report, in May 2010 the Big Life Group decided to imple-
ment the recommendation for capacity building by organising a Roma train-
ing programme drawing on its own funding and staff. We were invited to

                                           2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
130                                                                      DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


contribute to the programme design and to the delivery of some of the ses-
sions. The INA team supported the recruitment of candidates for the pro-
gramme, launched in October 2010 with around eight participants. Following
the jointly developed model, the trainees were employed on a part-time basis
as interpreters and classroom assistants by the INA team, which sub-con-
tracted the work via the BHA. In this way, the involvement of Roma role
models became part of MCC Roma Strategy and, except for the provision of
training for professionals working with Roma, we withdrew from active en-
gagement with the RSG.
   Thanks to the involvement of the Roma trainees as classroom assistants,
the INA-BHA partnership was able to expand their engagement with schools,
up to that point limited to teachers, to pupils. In their first publication, they
acknowledged that Roma parents value formal education and observed that
«most young people are excited, proud and motivated by school» (Davies,
Murphy 2010: 7). Yet, some months later a toolkit about Roma culture (BHA
2011) depicted the Roma as a magical people, stating that Romani children
received a name that is «whispered by the mother, which remains secret and
is used to confuse supernatural spirits». The team also produced a “Network
Learning Book” (Murphy 2013), which drew on the image of Roma as illiter-
ate to claim that they possess «the ability to negotiate the world without
need for reading and writing» (ibidem: 34). The publication advised teachers
that «most Roma are highly skilled at talking and listening at the same time»
and that «teachers need to be aware that if a Romani child is not talking, it is
likely they are not listening!» (ibidem: 81). Nomadism also featured in learn-
ing resources for primary schools, which included a “Roma Box” with stories
that focused on travel, caravans and horses and an exercise called «We are
riding on a caravan» (ibidem: 84).
   This targeted approach was promoted as an inclusion strategy and the in-
volvement of the Roma classroom assistants landed it a façade of cultural
appropriateness. Thus, a secondary school, which between 2010 and 2014
worked in close cooperation with INA-BHA, implemented a designated Roma
“pathway” which in effect created a segregation mechanism. Roma pupils
who attended the school often felt that they were treated differently to the
school’s majority population, as this interview with a 17 year old Roma boy
reveals:
      when the picnic happened in year 7, I went with Miss E. and Mr M. to Alton
      Towers, so I didn’t go with the rest of the class to the picnic. We went only the
      Roma people […] when the other guys had to go to a normal class, maths, the
      other teacher took me and some other Roma guys to another classroom, to
      teach us like step-by-step. Because the other class was a higher level than us
      (17/07/2015).


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                             131


The emergence of two strands of intervention
   In early 2013, following a successful application for EU funds, we resumed
our collaboration with MCC as part of the MigRom consortium. Willing to
give the Roma a voice in the research, we recruitment two former trainees of
the Big Life Group programme as fieldwork assistants. They were also tasked
with the implementation of the project’s pilot outreach scheme. Following
our idea that research and interventions should tackle «priorities and needs
of communities as they define them» (mrs kinpaisby 2008: 294) outreach
work, was organised as weekly drop-in sessions. The Roma were invited to
attend whenever they had an issue in accessing services and, in response to
their requests, the Roma outreach workers offered advice and support, in Ro-
mani and Romanian, under strict instructions to observe data protection and
not to discuss clients’ circumstances with other insitutions without explicit
permission from the clients. The requests and problems presented by the
service users were, however, recorded anonimously in order to supplement
the ethnographic observations and interviews we were carrying out at the
same time.
   With the launch of MigRom, MCC also produced a document evaluating its
Roma Strategy13. The document clarified that many of the tensions around
the Roma community were the result of residents’ perceptions of Roma, and
that where progress could be measured indicators of success had been met. It
announced the intention to downscale and abandon the Roma Strategy, ar-
guing that it had served its purpose by alleviating tensions and showing that
mainstream services were able to engage with Roma. The evaluation, how-
ever, noted that a dedicated effort was still required in order to prepare the
Roma to access the job market once employment restrictions on Romania
citizens were lifted. The document also flagged the persistence of concerns
about “early marriage” and “early pregnancy” and the need to ensure the
“safeguarding” of young people.
   These conclusions reflect the emergence of two opposing strands of inter-
vention within MCC Roma strategy. We had argued that, since other issues in
access to services had been solved, the priority was to favour Roma inclusion
in the job market. We had even started using the drop-in sessions as a way of
disseminating information and putting Roma in contact with potential em-
ployers. On the other hand in January 2013 BHA had successfully applied for
a grant from MCC’s Equalities Funding Programme14.
13. http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MCCRomaRe-
port2013.pdf. Accessed 15/03/2017.
14. http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/BHA_equaliti-
es_appli cation-Jan-2013.pdf. Accessed 15/03/2017.

                                        2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
132                                                                  DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


   In the application, they had argued that statistics indicated a rise in
teenage pregnancy in the Gorton South area coinciding with the arrival of
the Roma. The application also stated that «[t]he main factors attributing to
disengagement of young girls from education are early marriage and teenage
pregnancy» and that there is a need to understand «how drop-out is influ-
enced by gender and cultural expectations». BHA offered to «develop proto-
cols […] which will identify and track hard to reach girls» and allow to «share
information regarding “at risk” young people in relation to criminal activity,
school drop-out» and proposed to set up a «Romani Wellbeing Strategic
Group» to «implement actions to support young girls to engage in available
opportunities».
   These interventions were to be complemented by what BHA defined as
“assertive outreach”: home visits to Roma families to establish trust in order
to ensure school attendance while also monitoring the family situation and,
where needed, offer support or signal the family for child protection inter-
vention. The premise of BHA’s intervention was thus that Roma had a cul-
tural pre-disposition to disengage with mainstream services (cf. also Matras
2015), and that Roma cultural practices put young people within the Roma
community at risk.
   We took issue with that position. In August 2014 we published an evalua-
tion of BHA’s interim project report15. We warned about the risk of perpetu-
ating stereotypes, and argued that the arguments put forward by BHA to jus-
tify its interventions lacked evidence in actual community practices. Our own
reports, based on the data collected through the drop-in sessions and
through a survey of the community conducted by the Roma assistants them-
selves, produced alternative statistics on birth rates and access to main-
stream services, which contradicted the conclusions put forward by BHA (Mi-
gRom 2015: 18-22, 42-47).
   In summer 2014 we also started a series of conversations with a group of
young Roma to establish a consultation forum that will allow Roma migrants
to take part in planning and decision-making processes affecting their com-
munity. During these conversations, we shared our arguments and our evi-
dence with the young Roma. They too objected to the way in which their cul-
ture and community had been depicted. At the same time, they were con-
cerned that despite the declared success of the Roma Strategy, other resi-
dents still harboured many prejudices against the Roma and that these prej-
udices stood in the way of their desire to be treated like everybody else.

15. http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/bha/. Accessed 15/03/2017


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                              133


   Together we decided that they should approach local councillors and con-
front them with the documents. At the same, we suggested, they needed to
build up relations with other groups active in the neighbourhood both to
tackle the persisting prejudices they faced and to acquire the relational power
needed to engage with «existing forms of power (policy-makers, business
leaders) if they want[ed] to make change» (Harney et al. 2016: 325, emphasis
in original). Since prejudices revolved around the idea that Roma were re-
sponsible for irregular waste dumping, we suggested the group should join,
and possibly lead, on citizens-led clean-up activities supported by MCC 16. Af-
ter joining one such activities organised by local residents, the group organ-
ised their owns in November 2014. Involving their younger relatives, they
used a multilingual leaflet, designed together with university student volun-
teers we had involved, to address all different communities of the neighbour-
hood. By inviting their neighbours to join them to clean the streets we
wanted to show that Roma, like everybody else, cared for their neighbour-
hood, in turn challenging prejudices about waste dumping without naming
them. The initiative received support from local community organisations
and schools. Local councillors joined the activities, which, following an offi-
cial University of Manchester press release, received coverage in the local
press17.
   At the same time, the young Roma started to meet the local councillors
and asked about MCC’s sources of information and priorities for the Roma
community. The councillors, although happy to meet the Roma, were unable
to answer their questions. However, after the success of the clean-up activi-
ties, they organised a meeting at Town Hall in December 2014 to address the
issue. The meeting, attended by MCC officers and elected councillors, was
pitched as a discussion on how the Roma community had been represented
and how they wished to be treated like everybody else. Although the young
Roma’s questions were again not answered, they were offered the opportu-
nity to provide input into future reports. In an account of the meeting, pro-
duced with our help and sent directly to the participants 18, the young Roma
stressed how disappointed they were at not receiving answers and how the
representation of the Roma to which they objected was «creating a bad im-

16. www.manchester.gov.uk/directory_record/110955/community_clean-ups. Accessed 15/03
/2017.
17. www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/261171825-roma-youngsters-clean-longsight-st-
reets-attempt-sweep-away-prejudice. Accessed 15/03/2017.
18. http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Consultation-
Forum.pdf. Accessed 15/03/2017.

                                         2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
134                                                                DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


age among our neighbours». They also announced their intention to set up
their own community group.
   Over the following months we supported them in the formal registration
of their association, Roma Voices of Manchester, and in building up a reputa-
tion for it by engaging with social media and organising public events. We
also circulated further research reports to MCC, highlighting the inconsis-
tencies in the Roma Strategy and providing evidence to dismiss BHA’s claims
about the rates of school drop-out by Roma girls (MigRom 2015: 56-61).
Meanwhile the Roma that run the drop-in sessions held discussions with of-
ficers to provide information to MCC Communities Scrutiny Committee, re-
sponsible for equality and minority communities. For their part, BHA, whose
project was planned until 2016, ceased their engagement in the spring of
2015, as MCC funding was not renewed.
   In June 2015 the Communities Scrutiny Committee presented a report on
the Roma community at a public meeting attended by around two dozen
Roma. In the report, MCC recognised Roma Voices of Manchester as a chan-
nel for direct dialogue with the Roma community. Furthermore, it distanced
itself from the representation of the Roma in the contested reports and de-
clared that it would not publish “unsubstantiated information” in the fu-
ture19.

Concluding remarks
   MCC Roma Strategy emerged as a response to the politicisation of some
residents’ stereotypical discourses that might be classified as a form of anti-
Gypsyism. Unlike in the cases described in the literature, MCC did not em-
brace these discourses. Yet, in implementing a dedicated strategy, it created
an unprecedented organisational framework to deal with the integration of
the Roma. In retrospect, however, the Roma Strategy can be regarded as an
effort to gather information about the community in order to tackle negative
perceptions about them and to withstand the pressure to exempt them from
the city’s equality and inclusion routine (MigRom 2015: 24). At the same
time, negative images about the Roma infiltrated the Strategy, particularly in
the fields of education and child protection. Contrary to what has been ob-
served in the literature, these policies underpinned not securitising and ex-
clusionary interventions, but rather projects for Roma inclusion. However,
these interventions resulted in the de facto exclusion of Roma pupils in
school and in the presentation of Roma girls as victims of their own culture.
19. http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/upl oads/2015/ 08/5._Roma_e-
ngagement_report.pdf. Accessed 15/03/2017.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                           135


   The contradictions in MCC’s Strategy thus show how expressions of anti-
Gypsyist prejudices can surface not only in exclusionary practices. In these
cases, negative images are used to essentialise Roma culture by offering a
fixed image of the Roma which pathologies them (cf. Sayer 1997) and implic-
itly denies them control over their own lives (cf. Herzfeld 1996). As we have
argued elsewhere (Matras et al. 2015), this leads to the implementation of in-
clusion programmes that, by creating special procedures for the Roma, fur-
ther entrench their exclusion.
   Much of the literature on anti-Gypsyism, relying on definitions that focus
on the use of negative images to justify exclusionary and securitising prac-
tices, has so far failed to capture these cases. More attention needs to be
given to how essentialism and pathologising discourses are successfully mo-
bilised to justify inclusionary interventions that result in forms of covert dis-
crimination.
   Our experience also highlights how engaged research informed by process
pragmatism can lead to genuine forms of empowerment. First of all, this ap-
proach to engaged research does not start from pre-conceived assumptions
about the problems to be investigated and tackled. Rather, problems are
identified in a constructive dialogue between researchers and researched,
through the research process itself. This dialogical construction of shared
knowledge around issues and the ways to tackle them is another important
characteristic of process pragmatism. It can help avoiding the risk of inter-
ventions which, like ours, can be characterised as invited participation, «or-
chestrated by an external agency» (Cornwall 2000: 281), namely that the
agendas of the promoters overshadow the real concerns of the communities
invited to participate. Even more importantly, through the encouragement to
build relations with other local actors, process pragmatism can help to turn
forms of invited participation into spaces more akin to spontaneous, gen-
uinely bottom-up initiatives in which people «can gain confidence and skills,
develop their arguments and gain confidence from the solidarity and support
that being part of a group can offer» (ibidem: 275).
   In our case, the inclusion of two members of the community in the re-
search team was the first step in involving the community in the research
process. We further strengthened the dialogue with the Roma community
through the creation of spaces (the weekly drop-in sessions, the meetings
with young Roma) in which members of the community were able to offer
their point of view on the issues that they faced. These invited spaces al-
lowed us to generate knowledge about the community based on their real
concerns and that was crucial in latter correcting the position of MCC in re-

                                      2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
136                                                          DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


lation to the safeguarding of Roma girls. This, however, would have not been
possible if, again within these spaces, we had not shared information about
the community depiction with the young Roma. As argued by Cornwall,
«keeping a flow of information going is in itself important» as it «opens up
the possibility of collective action in monitoring the consistency of rhetoric
with practice» (2000: 272), as clearly shown by the young Roma decision to
publicly challenge MCC on the depiction of the community. Finally, these in-
vited spaces were also the site from where the young Roma started to build
relations with local politicians and other community groups, in turn giving
them an opportunity to voice their desire to be treated like everybody else.
Their successful building of alliances and subsequent mobilisation proved
how process pragmatism could be an effective approach in identifying and
breaking potentially vicious circles of exclusion created by benevolent but
nonetheless stereotyping interventions.




2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                               137




REFERENCES
Bernard, H. Russell, 2012, Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative ap-
      proaches, London, Sage.
BHA, 2011, Long Roads. Roma Heritage Teaching Toolkit.
Cameron, Jenny, Katherine Gibson, 2005, Participatory action research in a post-
      structuralist vein, Geoforum, 36, 3: 315-331.
Cahill, Caitlin, 2007, The personal is political: developing new subjectivities in a
      participatory action research process, Gender, Place and Culture, 14, 3: 267-
      292.
Clark, Colin, Elaine Campbell, 2000, Gypsy invasion: A critical analysis of newspaper
      reaction to Czech and Slovak-Romani asylum seekers in Britain, 1997, Romani
      Studies, 10: 23-47.
Clark, Colin, Becky Taylor, 2014, Is nomadism the “problem”? The social construc-
      tion of Gypsies and travellers as perpetrators of “anti-social” behaviour in
      Britain, in Anti-social behaviour in Britain: Victorian and contemporary perspec-
      tives, Pickard, Sarah, ed, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Clough Marinaro, Isabella, Nando Sigona, 2011, Anti-Gypsyism and the politics of
      exclusion: Roma and Sinti in contemporary Italy, Journal of Modern Italian
      Studies, 16, 5: 583-589.
Clough Marinaro, Isabella, Ulderico Daniele, 2011, Roma and humanitarianism in
      the Eternal City, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16, 5: 621-636.
Cornwall, Andrea 2000, Beneficiary, consumer, citizen: perspectives on participation for
      poverty reduction, Stockholm, Sida Studies 2.
Cornwall, Andrea, 2008, Unpacking “participation”: models, meaning and practices,
      Community Development Journal, 43, 3: 269-283.
Davies, Julie, Jane Murphy, 2010, What’s working: conversations with Manchester’s
      Romanian Roma community living in Longsight and Levenshulme, Manches-
      ter City Council Children’s Services, International New Arrivals, Travellers and
      Supplementary Schools Team. Www.pharos.nl/documents/doc/whats-work-
      ing-conversations_roma_manchester.pdf. Last accessed 15/03 /2017.
Dicken, Peter, 2002, Global Manchester: from globaliser to globalised, in City of rev-
      olution: Restructuring Manchester, Jamie Peck, Kevin Ward, eds, Manchester,
      Manchester University Press: 18-33.
Freire, Paulo 1970, Pedagogy of the oppressed, New York, Herder & Herder.
Glick Schiller, Nina, 2010, Cities and Transnationality, in The New Blackwell Com-
      panion to the City, Gary Bridge, Sophie Watson, eds, Oxford, Blackwell: 172-
      192.


                                          2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
138                                                                 DANIELE VIKTOR LEGGIO


Halvorsen, Sam, 2015, Taking space: Moments of rupture and everyday life in Oc-
      cupy London, Antipode, 47: 401-417.
Harney, Liam, Jenny McCurry, James Scott, Jane Wills, 2016, Developing “process
      pragmatism” to underpin engaged research in human geography, Progress in
      Human Geography, 40: 316-333.
Herzfeld, Michael, 1996, Essentialism, in Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthro-
      pology, Alan Barnard, Jonathan Spencer, eds, London, Routledge.
Kesby, Mike, 2005, Retheorizing empowerment-through-participation as a perfor-
      mance in space, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30, 4: 2037-
      2065.
Marushiakova, Elena, Vesselin Popov, 2016, Current antiziganism vs. Roma integra-
      tion, in Spolu s Rómami dosiahneme viac. Together with Roma, we will ahieve
      more, Jozef Facuna,, René Lužica, eds, Bratislava, Štátny Pedagogický Ústav.
Mason, Kelvin, 2013, Academics and social movements: Knowing our place, making
      our space, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 12, 1: 23-43.
Matras, Yaron, 2015, Europe’s neo-traditional Roma policy: Marginality manage-
      ment and the inflation of expertise, in Romani worlds: Academia, policy, and
      modern media, Eeben Friedman, Victor A. Friedman, eds, Cluj-Napoca, ISPMN:
      29-47.
Matras, Yaron, Daniele Viktor Leggio, Mirela Steel, 2015, Roma Education as a lucra-
      tive niche: ideologies and representations, Zeitschrift für internationale Bil-
      dung und Entwicklungspädagogik, 38, 1: 11-17.
Matras, Yaron, Giuseppe Beluschi Fabeni, Daniele Viktor Leggio, Eliška Vránová,
      2009, The Roma community in Gorton South, Manchester, Manchester, Ro-
      mani Project, The University of Manchester. http://romani.humanities.man-
      chester.ac.uk/downloads/2/report.pdf. Last accesed 10/03/2015.
MigRom, 2015, Report on the Extended Survey, University of Manchester June 2015,
      http://migrom.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/Yr2r
      eport_Mcr.pdf. Accessed 15/03/2017.
mrs kinpaisby, 2008, Tacking stock of participatory geographies: envisioning the
      communiversity, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 33, 3: 292-
      299.
Murphy, Jane, 2013, What’s Working for Roma in School. A Network Learning Book, in
      Partnership with 6 Manchester Schools, Manchester, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Edu-
      cation Trust.
Sassen, Saskia, 2005, The global city: Introducing a concept, Brown Journal of World
      Affairs, 11: 2: 27-43.
Sayer, Andrew, 1997, Essentialism, social constructionism, and beyond, The Socio-
      logical Review, 45: 453-487.
Sigona, Nando, 2011, The governance of Romani people in Italy: discourse, policy
      and practice, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16, 5: 590-606.



2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
CRITIQUING STEREOTYPES                                                             139


Stewart, Michael, 2012a, Foreword: New forms of anti-Gypsy politics: A challenge
      for Europe, in The Gypsy menace: Populism and the new anti-Gypsy politics, Mi-
      chael Stewart, ed, London, Hurst & Company: xii-xxxviii.
Stewart, Michael, ed 2012b The Gypsy menace: Populism and the new anti-Gypsy poli-
      tics, London, Hurst & Company.
Sobotka, Eva, 2003, Romani migration in the 1990s: Perspectives on dynamic, inter-
      pretation and policy, Romani studies, 13: 2: 79-121.
Timmer, Andria D., 2010, Constructing the “Needy Subject”: NGO Discourses of
      Roma Need, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 33: 264-281.
Torre, Maria Elena, 2009, Participatory action research and critical race theory: Fu-
      eling spaces for nos-otras to research, The Urban Review, 41, 1: 106-120.
van Baar, Huub, 2014, The Emergence of a Reasonable Anti-Gypsyism in Europe, in
      When Stereotype Meets Prejudice: Antiziganism in European Societies, Timofey
      Agarin, ed, Stuttgart, Ibidem-Verlag: 27-44.




                                        2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140
                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140




 Daniele Viktor LEGGIO is Research Associate at the University of Manchester, he
 studied Anthropology and Linguistics and has specialised in Romani diasporas,
 virtual communities, multilingualism and language policy. His publications in-
 clude: Open borders, unlocked cultures. Romanian Roma migrants in Western Europe
 (Routledge, 2017, with Matras); Radio Romani Mahala: Romani identities and lan-
 guages in a virtual space, in Alietti, Olivera, Riniolo (eds), Virtual citizenship? Roma
 communities, inclusion policies, participation and ICT tools (MacGraw-Hill Education
 2015; “Roma education” as a lucrative niche: ideologies and representations, Zeit-
 schrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik (38, 2015).
 daniele.leggio@manchester.ac.uk




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Daniele Viktor Leggio
Critiquing stereotypes: Research engagement with UK local authority supporting Roma migrants
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 119-140.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2928
