Identity shift: The Case of Roma People in the European Union

AbstractIn the EU 28, the Roma people are the largest European minority. Unevenly spread, having in almost all the countries a peripheral social position and often generating harsh problems due to this position, the Roma had got, in the last two decades, a clear conscience of their ethnic identity. Moreover, the Roma elites are speaking about a “Roma stateless (European) nation”. In this respect, the Roma became a geopolitical factor that cannot be neglected. The paper presents a series of results of a field research on Roma identity, achieved this year in urban and rural areas form nine Romanian counties and in Bucharest. There were more than 60 in depth interviews with adult persons that identified themselves as Roma, belonging both to the elite (high educated persons, occupying official and/or prestige positions) and to ordinary social classes