The Politics of Roma Migration: Framing Identity Struggles among Romanian and Bulgarian Roma in the Paris region

The aim of this paper is to understand how identity shapes the politics of Roma migration at European, national and local scales. I studied Romanian and Bulgarian Roma migrants living in slums around Paris through participant observation and in-depth interviews. I analyse the interplay of political and social intervention concerning this population, with an emphasis on humanitarian medical intervention. In these interactions, the Roma identity is often ethnicised, and the Roma in turn use this identity construction in their daily struggles with public institutions in order to gain more control over their lives. Their migration is the source of a new form of urban marginalisation, which continues despite both Romania's and Bulgaria's EU accession.