Description
Abstract18th Nordic Migration Conference
Coping with everyday bordering: Eastern European Roma migrants in Helsinki
In our presentation, we examine the case of the Eastern European Roma migrants in Helsinki, and the complex interlinkages between EU internal migration regime, local immigration policy and migrant coping strategies. Since 2007, freedom of movement within EU has enabled the migration of small groups of Roma street workers into Helsinki. We argue that various level authorities have responded to the loss of direct control over these legitimate yet unwanted migrants by innovating tacit everyday bordering techniques. The presence of Roma migrants in Helsinki is thus not formally challenged, yet they are effectively without access to social rights and feasible pathways to integration. Policy towards them is ethnicized (conceptualizing ‘the Roma’ as a category requiring special measures) and ‘NGOized’ (displacing responsibility for welfare provision to third sector and private actors). Meanwhile, the ambivalent intersecting policies of the City of Helsinki, Finland and EU have produced a set of constraints, risks and possibilities which the migrants have become skilled at navigating. We argue that they cope with legal, economic and physical insecurities by utilizing transnational family networks, local social networks in Helsinki, and flexible combinations of informal economic activities.
| Period | 11 Aug 2016 → 12 Aug 2016 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | OSLO Show on map |