This book discusses how Europe's Roma minorities have often been perceived as a threat to majority cultures and societies. Frequently, the Roma have become the target of nationalism, extremism, and racism. At the same time, they have been approached in terms of human rights and become the focus of programs dedicated to inclusion, anti-discrimination, and combatting poverty. This book reflects on this situation from the viewpoint of how the Roma are often 'securitized,' understood and perceived as 'security problems.' The authors discuss practices of securitization and the ways in which they have been challenged, and they offer an original contribution to debates about security and human rights interventions at a time in which multiple crises both in and of Europe are going hand-in-hand with intensified xenophobia and security rhetoric.

This book discusses how Europe’s Roma minorities have often been perceived as a threat to majority cultures and societies. Frequently, the Roma have become the target of nationalism, extremism, and racism. At the same time, they have been approached in terms of human rights and become the focus of programs dedicated to inclusion, anti-discrimination, and combatting poverty. This book reflects on this situation from the viewpoint of how the Roma are often ‘securitized,’ understood and perceived as ‘security problems.’ The authors discuss practices of securitization and the ways in which they have been challenged, and they offer an original contribution to debates about security and human rights interventions at a time in which multiple crises both in and of Europe are going hand-in-hand with intensified xenophobia and security rhetoric.

1. The European Roma and their Securitization: Contexts, Junctures, Challenges.- 2. The Securitization of Roma Mobilities and the Re-Bordering of Europe.- 3. Crossing (out) Borders: Human Rights and the Securitization of Roma Minorities.- 4. Domestic versus State Reason? How Roma Migrants in France Deal with Their Securitization.- 5. The Invisibilization of Anti-Roma Racisms.- 6. Security at the Nexus of Space and Class: Roma and Gentrification in Cluj, Romania.- 7. The Entertaining Enemy: ‘Gypsy’ in Popular Culture in an Age of Securitization.- 8. From ‘Lagging Behind’ to ‘Being Beneath’? The De developmentalization of Time and Social Order in Contemporary Europe.- 9. Illusionary Inclusion of Roma through Intercultural Mediation.- 10. Voluntary Return as Forced Mobility: Humanitarianism and the Securitization of Romani Migrants in Spain.- 11. Sharing the Insecure Sensible: The Circulation of Images of Roma on Social Media.- 12. The “Gypsy Threat”: Modes of Racialization and Visual Representation Underlying German Police Practices.- 13. Roma Securitization and De-securitization in Habsburg Europe.