Roma Ghettos in European Cities: Who Made Them?

Cătălin Berescu architect, PhD

What is a ghetto?• Who are the Roma?

» Are Romanies migrants? What is a Gadje?

» What is the difference between Romanians and Roma?

• Who did the first ghetto?• Are we still building ghettos?

– What about the illegal camps?

• Who’s in, what and when are we going to do something?

• EU to local – good practices?• Who is discriminating and on what grounds?• Social housing vs. forced evictions

2Roma Ghettos in European Cities:

Ghetto• Venice, Florence

– segregation, political control• Shtetl – The Jewish Pale of settlements

– teritorial segregation, prostitution, estreme poverty• Jadabwne, Dorohoi

– neighbourhood pogrom• Iasi, Odessa

– military pogrom• Budapest

– urban planning operation, Holocaust / Shoah / Samudaripen• Chicago

– hidden violence

» Holocaust City - Tim Cole; Bodies and Souls – Isabel Vincent; Making the Second Ghetto – Arnold Hirsch; Neighbours – Jan Gross;

Ghetto• ghetto / slum / banlieu / barriada / mahala / varos /

bidonville / șatră / țigănie / campo nomadi / platz / kampung

» Urban Outcasts - Loic Wacquant; Planet of Slums – Mike Davis; Shadow Cities – Robert Newirth; Architecture for the Poor – Hassan Fathy

» Global – local – glocal » Multiple determinations, intersectionality» Segregation, self-segregation, gated communities (ghettos chics)

» Les ghettos du Gotha – Michel Pincon; Le ghetto francais – Eric Maurin

slum

New Poverty

Ghetto

Historical GhettoJewish Ghetto in Venice, Warsaw, Budapest, etc.

Rich black ghetto

Ethno-CampNon conflictual Ethnic neighbourghood

(recent migrant areas, war

refugee camps) subsidiarity, diminished ethnical dimension

Residential segregation,

Exposure to improper housing conditions,

Exposure to hazard conditions (Environmental racism),

Forced evictions, rent refusal, acces problems

Ethno Park“Purely” ethnic areas

mahala, țigănie, șatră, sat, new development zones with a strong ethnic dimension

Substandard housing

Discrimination

Poverty

Cultural Difference Ethnicity, Race, sexual orientation etc relative poverty

banlieu

poverty neighborghood

severe poverty

extreme poverty

slum

Rosia Montana

Roma Ghettos in European Cities: SECOND PART: How to make a CV for a Ghetto researcher

Catalin Berescu

CV: recycle / common space

CV: recycle - tradition

Jurilovca – Dolosman Cape ADOBE 2006-2010

Dolosman

Adobe houses, floodings and Roma communities

CV: recycle - stereotypy

Venice Architecture Biannual 2008

CV: recycle - stereotypy

CV: (re)cycle - science

CV: mapping the invisible

Bucharest – Peisajului St. – informal Roma settlement in a flooding area - 2005

Forced evictions + residential segregation

CV: mapping the opinions

CV: mapping the toilets

CV: mapping poverty

CV: mapping the fear

CV: mapping the elections

CV: recycle ghettos

Roma Ghettos in European Cities: THIRD PART: Europe – State of the Art

Catalin Berescu

Roma in Eastern Europe

Who is a Roma? Where? How many?

RomaniaRomania has the largest number of Roma

inhabitants in Europe. The economy of transition produced a decline in their housing condition, leading to an acute social exclusion. The racist attitude that forms the background of urban decisions can be seen today in the alarming development of the shantytowns surrounding the Romanian towns. The post revolution era reversed the process that defined the communist period – after the forced settlement of the nomads, the gypsies were the first to loose their jobs and to be evicted.

Romania

Tirgu Mures – Cold Valley

Serbia

• Gazela Bridge» Municipality relocation plan, Vladimir Macura - Holcim Awards,

UNHABITAT, Roma Decade, Belville, Orlovsko Naselje

Slovakia“Some 14 walls segregating predominantly Roma

neighbourhoods have popped up across the country since 2008, the latest erected in the country’s second largest city earlier this month. The walls differ in size and scope, but all are designed to segregate the poorer Roma communities from their neighbours. While such walls exist elsewhere in Europe the Slovak trend is exponentially stronger than anything underway elsewhere, said Dezideriu Gergely, executive director of the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). “This reflects and ‘us and them’ rhetoric that says there needs to be a clear distinction,” he said.” (The Economist, 25.07.2013)

Nalepkovo (photo Marek Hojsik)

Hungary

Bulgaria

Greece

Greece

Roma in Western Europe

• Italy – Rome / Castel Romano

Roma in Western Europe

Italy

Castel Romano – Villagio della Solidarita (Walter Veltroni) 6 mil Euro

Napoli

Via del Reposo

Napoli

Scampia Casa Rosa

Napoli

France

• Paris St. Denis / Aubervilliers / Bobigny• National Action Plan against Substandard Housing

– Substandard, indecent (logement indigne), insalubrious, dangerous– Political vs. Technical vocabulary

Paris• St Denis

Paris

Paris

UK

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UK

Roma Ghettos in European Cities: FOURTH PART: Roma by Gadje

Catalin Berescu

Nomad / settled• Are Roma

nomads?• Are nomads

Roma?• Roma vs.

Gipsy

Rudari/baiesi

Lehliu - Romania

Roma PalacesBuzescu

Fot

o: Io

if K

iraly

Roma Palaces

Fot

o: Io

if K

iraly

Fot

o: Io

if K

iraly

Ciurea, Iasi

Photo Serban Bonciocat Photo Peter Velciov

Soroca, Moldova

Cluj – Pata Rat - Dallas

Cluj – Pata Rat – Garbage Pit

Roma Ghettos in European Cities: FINAL PART: The making-of a Ghetto

Catalin Berescu

The Making of a Ghetto• Housing discrimination

– Water» The European Roma Rights Centre is concerned by reports that municipal

authorities in Torino, Italy, have cut the water supply of a public fountain providing water for approximately 300 Roma, including children and women. The Roma live in a nearby semiformal camp, Corso Tazzoli. The public fountain, the closest source of safe drinking water for the Roma, has been out of use since 29 July 2013. The ERRC is calling for the tap to be reconnected immediately.

» Last week a Hungarian local authority cut public water supplies, affecting thousands of Roma. We are deeply concerned by these repeated incidents, and urge public authorities to allow Roma access to safe drinking water and to develop positive, proactive solutions for Roma communities and their inclusion. (http://www.errc.org/article/italy-torino-municipality-shuts-off-water-supply-near-roma-camp/4183 )

59Title of Your Presentation

Orăştie – Mecanica StadiumSorinel shows us the well proudly. It is the

only water source for the 20 families that live here. They have been moved in the lockers under the Mecanica Stadium tribunes, from a delapidated block of flats with no utilities. Even if water is pouring from the ceilings whenever it rains, they succeeded in keeping the place clean. Medicinal plants grow here and there on the former football pitch; people look after a garden near the entrance, and there were several attempts to breed a swine, but the town hall denied it because they would "damage the pitch". Dampness and mould, chilliness and the garbage produced by "the dirty ones” lead to a high level of morbidity.

Orăştie – Mecanica Stadium

Orăştie – Mecanica Stadium

Orăştie – Mecanica Stadium

Miercurea Ciuc (Csikszereda)• Social housing for Roma

Municipality Ghetto

No intervention ghetto

No intervention ghetto

No intervention ghetto

NGO intervention

Dorohoi

DorohoiMinimal apartment

5-6 people3 rooms 13.500 Euro

Dorohoi

Roma Ghettos in European Cities: Who Made Them?

Cătălin Berescu architect, PhD

Thank you!