Authors

Andreea Carstocea¹;  ¹ European Centre for Minority Issues, Germany

Discussion

‘Antigypsyism’ is a term used to describe racism against people of Roma ethnic background. Recent years have seen an increased use of the concept of ‘antigypsyism’ both in academia and in international and domestic legal and policy documents. Several books have been published on the subject, and at the level of the Council of Europe and the European Commission various documents have been issued with the purpose of combating this phenomenon.
The concept of antigypsyism represents, however, an important point of discord among both scholars and activists. The very need for such a concept, its definition, the identification of more suitable alternatives, its spelling, translatability, and the populations it seeks to cover are all topics of a debate characterized by widely divergent views. Some scholars argue that ‘antigypsyism’ as a concept, being highly specific, places the experience of Roma outside the larger discourses on racism, and as such should be abandoned in favour of alternatives such as anti-Romani racism. Others agree to the need for a concept designating the specific experience of Roma but disagree to the use of ‘antigypsyism’ due to the loaded, pejorative layers of meaning contained in ‘Gypsy’ (the same goes for the alternative term of ‘antiziganism’); as such, ‘Romaphobia’ has also been used as an alternative concept.
Where scholars agree on the use of ‘antigypsyism’ as a worthy term rendering the specific forms of racism experienced by people of Roma background, further disagreements arise concerning its adequate spelling: ‘anti-Gypsyism’, ‘anti-gypsysism’, or (the most frequently used) ‘antigypsyism’. Common to all various terms proposed, a further puzzle lies in the diversity of subgroups these terms refer to, such as the Sinti, Travellers, or Manouches -- but also groups such as the Egyptians, usually associated with the Romani ethnicity, but who assert that they have no history or language in common with the Romani groups.
The paper I am proposing will reflect on the discourses surrounding the identification of a suitable concept designating the racism experienced by people of Roma background. After a brief overview of the debates and their main points of contention, the paper will turn to the tension between the desire to identify a term able to render the specificity of the experience of the Roma and the wish to integrate this experience in the wider discourses of racism and social justice. In this context, a consideration of the main issues in the debates concerning the definition of anti-Semitism, as a concept describing a specific form of racism against a specific ethnic group, will be helpful. My paper will trace both the symbolic and pragmatic arguments employed in these debates and will reflect on the legal and policy implications of the adoption of the concept of ‘antigypsyism’ in a selection of Eastern European countries.