When Stereotype Meets Prejudice: Antiziganism in European Societies

Antiziganism is a widespread phenomenon in all European societies. Poor or rich, ‘postcommunist’ or ‘traditional’, North or South, with ‘lean’ or ‘thick’ welfare systems-all European societies demonstrate antiziganist prejudice. All across Europe Romanis are among the poorest, most destitute, and most excluded communities. Widespread prejudice and stereotypical representations of Romani individuals limit their chances for participation in democratic decision making processes and their access to services. Unable to counteract majority stereotypes systematically, more often than not they remain on the fringes of society. This edited volume asks where these stereotypes and prejudices come from, why they are ubiquitous to all societies, and how pertinent their impact on antiziganist attitudes found in European societies really is.

Timofey Agarin is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics and Ethnic Conflict in Queen’s University Belfast, where he is also the Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict. His research interest is in ethnic politics and their impact on transition from communism in Central Eastern European states, as well as issue areas of non-discrimination, minority protection, migration, and civil society. Agarin has published in Ethnopolitics, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Ethnicities, and Nationalities Papers. He authored A Cat’s Lick? Democratisation and Minority Communities in the post-Soviet Baltic (Rodopi 2010) and edited Minority Integration in Central Eastern Europe: Between Ethnic Diversity and Equality (Rodopi 2009, with Malte Brosig) and Institutional Legacies of Communism: Change and Continuities in Minority Protection (Routledge 2013, with Karl Cordell and Alexander Osipov).