Summer school on Good Governance in the Context of the European Integration Institutions-

Rights-Societies

Introduction

The purpouse of this article is to explain how the Public Administration

tries to solve the problems concerning the precarious condition of the

Roma communities, focusing on the Tuscan area.

The goal of this project is to show that stereotypes are not strictly

connected with the truth, but rather an instrument of legal power to

define the ‘others’, creating political and social labels.

It stresses the central role played by the so-called ‘Nomad-camp’,

which becomes a segregation place where Roma people need to

redefine themselves on the basis of what the others think about them.

Roma in Europe

Situation of Roma in Europe

The movement of Roma EU citizens has increased since the EU

enlargements in 2004 and 2007: it is fair enough that the EU

citizenship has been itself a good practice, because Roma are now

able to move freely and more positively than when they had others

statuses.

Despite of this, Roma communities suffer a massive discrimination

in all the European countries.

The European Commission on Human Rights has strongly criticized

countries such as Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and all the Eastern Europe

countries, who adopted discriminatory treatments against Roma.

For this reason they created the so-called ‘Decade of Roma

inclusion’ (2005-2015).

Roma in Italy There are about 60.000-90.000 Roma in Italy.

They have been always seen as the immigrant’s archetype, criminals and

undesired. Most of them, with the exception of a 15 %, are not even nomad:

the “nomad theory” is often just used to stir up a “no-membership”

segregation, treating them as children, unfit to live in our society.

The CERD (European Committee against Racial Discriminations) on 7th

march 2008 harshly criticized the Italian behavior against Roma and Sinti in

the area.

Moreover, they expressed concern about the assertions of some xenophobic

and offensives parties towards minorities, to prevent propulsion speeches to

rage and against the paradigm of the “other” based on untruthful stereotypes.

Case study: Citta’ Sottili The project started in 2002, from the Municipality of Pisa, in

cooperation with the Local Health Unit (USL) and a large number of

NGOs.

The objective was ‘to build pathways of social inclusion for people

in situation of high social exclusion living in strongly degraded

housing conditions’.

The aim was to create a cultural path between the Municipality and

the Roma community present in the area, and called for a

dismantling of so-called "nomad camps“.

Giovanni Michelucci Foundation

The building team of ‘Citta’ Sottili’ was made by specialists in

working with targeted groups in precarious condition from the

Michelucci Foundation, a non-profit research institute on urban

problems.

The Michelucci Foundation was established in 1982 by the architect

Giovanni Michelucci, to "contribute to research and study on city

planning and modern and contemporary architecture, with a special

attention to the problems regarding social facilities, hospitals,

prisons, schools”.

Housing Problems

The housing project To avoid the geographical and social apartheid, they created a

housing complex with a deep contact with the ambient around, a

naturalistic and respectful of the territory intending as a resource.

The intervention allows the construction of 17 housing units on a

module of 60,3 mq each, with a high level of privacy, but also a

continuity between inside and the gardens outside.

Examples of Gypsies Apartments

Image of Coltano now

Mediation and main issues

1: Employment

Employment and vocational training are without any doubt the

fundamental goals to guarantee an effective sustainability of the

program per a long time. The adults in the camps expressed many

times the request to receive a support for the creation of firms for

the management of green areas and all the connected services.

2: Education School is for young Roma children the first interaction place with

different realities.

It is very important to recognize the difficulties they found during the

educational path, which has seen sometimes obstructive for the

children’s growth.

They frequently get married early, living as adults since their 14s, so

school can be seen as useless.

But is very important to explain them which benefits they can obtain

for their future.

3: Healthcare

Diseases are very common in the Roma community, because of

the precarious condition of the camps.

The pathologies are usually different according to their age.

In the infancy especially respiratory, gastrointestinal and

dermatological diseases.

In adults, cardiovascular, gynaecological and chronic respiratory

diseases.

4: Legality

Here are included as lessons for the education to legality as

support for the access to restrictive and re-educational measures,

different from the prison.

Particularly with children, the presence of the mediator can facilitate

to comprehend easily the legal proceedings, times and procedures

and to build a path through the Juvenile Court to adapt the trial,

where possible, to the young Roma features.

5: Leisure time

  Especially for younger, it is clear that the spare time has an

important role for their personal growth and also as an educational

worth.

Usually young Roma are keen to live in a tense psychological

condition (family problems, alcohol and drug addiction, precarious

jobs); the children is not stimulate to any activity (sport, theatre,

music..) except for television; there are considered adults when

they are 13 or 14 years old.

Conclusion and outlook Unfortunately the project was not part of a comprehensive national

or regional strategy, and this make all the project less powerful.

Although the political debate focused on the project for a long time,

it has been carried out with great difficulty, and we are now at the

point that the houses have been built but nobody actually lives in.

The various administrations over the years have not been able to

decide how to allocate the growing families and the project has

been stopped, under the usual conspiracy of silence.

References FRA-European Union Agency for Fundamental rights. (2009). “Selected positive initiatives: the situation of Roma EU citizens moving to

and settling in other EU Member State”. pp.10-12. “Le città sottili: programma della città di Pisa con la comunità rom del

territorio. Verso la Conferenza di Servizi”.(2002).  Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci. (2009)- “Azioni per la città ospitale”.  “Programma le città sottili –comunità rom”(2007)  Associazione Africa Insieme (2003). ‘Immigrazione a Pisa’-Quaderno 2003.

Enti pubblici e politiche di accoglienza. Comune di Pisa (2008)- “Sintesi del programma città sottili(2002-2007)”. Sanfilippo, Matteo. “Educazione e rieducazione nei campi per nomadi: una

storia”, from the text:“I campi per stranieri in Italia-Studi Emigrazione”. pp. 857-874.

 European Conference on the Roma population. (January 2008) “Italiani, rom e sinti a confronto- una ricerca quali – quantitativa”.  Michelucci Foundation. (2010) www.michelucci.it. Reportage foto gipsy house wikipedia