The complexity of home and estrangement. Young Roma generations between Bosnia and Roman peripheries

ABSTRACT

Building on the literature on transnationalism, return and home, this paper explores the relationship that young generations of Roma in Rome (Italy) develop with their parents’ and grandparents’ land of origin: Bosnia. This relationship is shaped by older generations’ memories of the ‘good old days’ in Bosnia; it also builds on first-hand experiences of contemporary Bosnia; moreover, it is embedded in the everyday experience of the Roman peripheries and of ‘nomad camps’ where the Roma live. Distinctions within the Roma community, based on the town of origin, migration trajectory, family belonging and generation translate into complex, multifaceted and sometimes ambivalent relations with Bosnia. I argue that young Roma's emotional attachment to their alleged homeland intersects with both a feeling of estrangement from contemporary Bosnia and their attachment to the Italian context and especially the Roman peripheries, where despite xenophobia and anti-Gypsyism, the Roma, and particularly the younger generations, feel at home.

KEYWORDS:

• Home
• return
• second-generation
• Roma
• Bosnia
• Rome

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Sing. Masc.: Xom; Sing. Fem.: Xomní.

2 There are cases of Xomá families or individuals living in apartments or in shelters provided by the Municipality or by NGOs. These solutions, however, are extremely temporary and involve a minority of Xomá.

3 As Sardelić (2018) notes, the sale of merchandise purchased in Italy found an accommodating attitude on the part of the Yugoslav authorities.

4 ‘Xoraxané’ is the Romani term for ‘Muslims’, but it traces an ethnic boundary, because ‘Xoraxané’ is used only in reference to Roma persons.

5 For a discussion of Yugo-nostalgia in the Xomá case, see Solimene (2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Post-doctoral Grant of the University of Iceland.