Displacement of European Citizen Roma in Berlin: acts of citizenship and sites of contentious politics

Author(s)

Ayse Caglar

Abstract

Abstract: This article reflects on the tensions and anomalies of European citizenship from the perspective of European Union (EU)-citizen Roma, people who have an ambiguous positioning within the EU space because they are both European citizens, but also located as ‘in but not of the EU space.’ On the basis of events, discourses and negotiations surrounding the displacement of EU-citizen Roma in Berlin in 2009, this article explores how the borders of European citizenship are policed. The paper examines how the flattening of the inner EU political space is achieved through a set of semantic tactics, as well as extra-legal means, and how the desire of EU-citizen Roma to become asylum seekers becomes an act of citizenship constituting them as claimants of rights beyond their legal status and thus a threat to the social and political space of the EU. The article draws attention to the mutual constitution of sites and acts of citizenship.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

Citizenship Studies

Volume

20

Pages

647-663

No. of pages

17

ISSN

1362-1025

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2016.1182678

Publication date

2016

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504021 Migration research, 504024 Sociology of law

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Political Science and International Relations

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/displacement-of-european-citizen-roma-in-berlin-acts-of-citizenship-and-sites-of-contentious-politics(e130ad3a-d1a3-48d3-9531-2ad7292fca33).html