Barriers to reintegration for Los Gitanos (Gypsies) in La Coruña, Spain: politics, the media and the Spanish community
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
ISSN: 1747-9894
Article publication date: 22 March 2013
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the barriers to reintegration for Gitano (Gypsy) communities in one northern Spanish city.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on ethnographic research undertaken in Gitano communities throughout 2010.
Findings
Over the last 30 years, the city has witnessed vast commercial and residential expansion, resulting in the spatial and social exclusion of Gitanos to the outskirts of the city. Here they have had to survive by reduced access to their livelihoods in city markets and increasingly through illicit drug markets and crime. It is only recently that there have been attempts to relocate these people back into the city. Yet the social reintegration efforts have only perpetuated the social exclusion of the Gitanos and there is significant community opposition to their relocation.
Social implications
The council need to take more care in consulting Gitanos and seek to build the fragile relations they have with them before deciding on what “best to do about them”.
Originality/value
No ethnographic research has been undertaken in this city in the context of Gitanos.
Keywords
Citation
Briggs, D. (2013), "Barriers to reintegration for Los Gitanos (Gypsies) in La Coruña, Spain: politics, the media and the Spanish community", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/17479891311318557
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited