Roma mobility/settlement and public policies. Administrations practices in France and Spain

Initiated by the CENTRE D’ESTUDIS I RECERCA EN MIGRACIONS (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and hosted by Mòdul A, Parc de Recerca, this workshop aims to begin the comparison between policies towards Roma migrants in the Western European cities. The first step of this collective work deals with the Roma migrants’ situation both in France and in Spain.

How to justify the comparison ? Together with Italy, France and Spain are the main destination of numerous migrants coming from Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia (especially in Italy and France). Often in a precarious situation which renders them very visible in the public space, these migrants engage different strategies (migratory, housing, economic) which take into account the discrepancy between the juridical and political frameworks at different levels: local, regional and national. Following this idea, the comparison aims to identify the modes of interaction between migrants’ practices and institutional policies in two contexts which seem a priori different and perhaps opposite: Spain, where the “new Europeans” are free to access to labour market, and France where they need a labour permit because the French State has decided to apply the transitory measures up till today. In order to broaden the field of comparison, reflections about other groups such as, for example, Spanish Gitanos and/or French Travellers, will provide a relevant counterpoint to the reflection on the Roma migrants’ situation. Beyond or, to be more precise, from the Roma case, the purpose of the series of workshops “Policy and Social Regulation” is indeed to contribute to the current reflections on the production of inequalities, the policies of poverty regulation and the urban governance in Europe today.

Roma mobility/settlement and public policies. Administrations practices in France and Spain