Peter Vermeersch

The collapse of communism and the process of state building that ensued in the 1990s have highlighted the existence of significant minorities in many European states, particularly in Central Europe. In this context, the growing plight of Europe’s biggest minority, the Roma (Gypsies), has been particularly salient. Traditionally dispersed, possessing few resources and devoid of a common “kin state” to protect their interests, the Roma have often suffered from widespread exclusion and institutionalized discrimination. Politically underrepresented and lacking popular support amongst the wider populations of their host countries, the Roma have consequently become one of Europe’s greatest “losers” in the transition towards democracy.
Against this background, the author examines the recent attempts of the Roma in Central Europe and their supporters to form a political movement and to influence domestic and international politics. On the basis of first-hand observation and interviews with activists and politicians in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, he analyzes connections between the evolving state policies towards the Roma and the recent history of Romani mobilization. In order to reach a better understanding of the movement’s dynamics at work, the author explores a number of theories commonly applied to the study of social movements and collective action.
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REVIEWS
"His book is a conscientious comparative study of why Gypsies in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have failed to mobilize effectively in pursuit of their objectives. Vermeersch sets out meticulously the changes in their condition dating back a decade and a half in each country, and discusses their impacts."  ·  Slavonic and East European Review

“This new study by Peter Vermeersch makes an important and original contribution to an under-researched area. Concentrating on ‘the role of Roma and their supporters as political actors’, his book is invaluable for the analytical insights it brings to bear and as a rich source of empirical information on recent Romani mobilisation in Central Europe…This comprehensive, thoroughly researched and enlightening study, assisting better understanding and effectiveness of this process, is to be warmly welcomed.”  ·  Romani Studies

“While much of the text relies on secondary literature and existing surveys, Vermeersch provides his reader with a wealth of analysis based on personal interviews with prominent Romani activists…The Romani Movement is a text of clear value to students of European politics, specifically those interested in contemporary issues in the field of ethnicity."  ·  Transitions online

While official conflict stories often feed the justifications for violence, new stories, rooted in the realities of the people who have experienced the chaos of violence, might provide a path to peace. In this review essay, I briefly explore examples of recent research that have valued a narrative approach both as an empirical strategy and a normative framework. I also point to some useful interactions with other bodies of theoretical and empirical work.

Perhaps more than any other minority group in Europe, the Roma have tried to reach beyond the boundaries of the national state to change local realities of marginalization. Roma activists have counted on the support of the EU to turn around the negligent attitudes of national governments. The further development of an EU framework that stimulates national states to design and implement social policies that protect Roma is no doubt necessary, but it may not be enough. In order to have real impact, the EU needs to address key obstacles of the area of social policy and human rights protection more broadly.

Contrary to expectations, the EU’s eastward expansion in 2004 did not sound the death knoll of nationalism in the region; rather, it signalled its reinvention and, in some respects, reinvigoration. In this paper, we examine three ways in which nationalism has been redefined in Hungary and Poland in the context of EU enlargement. First, consensus on the desirability of European unification has lessened the importance of left/right party divisions; in its place, the ‘‘nation’’ has provided a fulcrum for interparty contestation. Second, EU integration has provided nationalists in the region with a backdoor for realising old nationalist ambitions of national reunification across the porous borders of the EU. Third, we examine the way radical nationalist organisations in Hungary and Poland increasingly define themselves in opposition to the EU.

Since the accession of the A8 post-communist countries to the European Union, various EU institutions have regularly expressed deep concern about the precarious political, social and economic position of the Roma. This article examines the recent political reinterpretations that accompany the EU's framing of the Roma as a group in need of special attention. It argues that EU institutions will

Introduction In a speech delivered a few days before the Copenhagen-European Council in December 2002, Gunter Verheugen celebrated the accomplishments of the European Union's (EU) enlargement strategy. Thanks to the EU, the European Commissioner responsible for enlargement ...

... the demands of communities distinguishing themselves from majority populations by religious, linguistic, cultural ... They are not represented in the Council for National Minorities, which gathers the six ... argued in 1989 that the assimilation of national and ethnic minorities must not ...

This article explores key policy developments regarding ethnic minority protection and anti-discrimination in contemporary Poland. More specifically, it examines the relationship between domestic policy formation and the European context. Before 2004, the European Union applied ...

Abstract Archaeological investigations of identity have successfully challenged traditional accounts of archaeological subjects by splintering social worlds along axes of gender, ethnicity and class. However, in so doing, they have quietly reinscribed an essential archaeological ...

To what extent does the process of political mobilisation have an impact upon a minority's conceptions of ethnic identity? In many descriptions of ethnic politics and ethnic conflict authors tend to apply the term 'ethnic identity' as a stable and 'natural' source of political identification. They ...

... In this sense, the emergence of a network of international NGOs active in the field of human rights and with a focus on the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe has been a significant factor determining the growth of Romani political aspirations and the formation of a Romani ...

This article examines the impact of the eastward enlargement of the European Union (EU) on the position of the Ukrainian minority in Poland. The enlargement process has set two conflicting developments into motion that both may have a serious influence on patterns of minority ...

In recent years the European Union (EU) has applied its 'political' criteria for accession as an instrument to positively influence policies on minority issues in the candidate member states of central Europe. This essay explores the impact of the EU enlargement process on the ...

... even in cases where there are seemingly 'objec-tive' historical and cultural foundations of thisidentity. Thus, an ethnic minority is not simply a group of people that differs from the rest of society in terms of language, tradition and so forth, but rather the result of a process in which ...

One way of classifying contemporary theories explaining the mobilization of ethnic minorities is to make a distinction between primordialist, economic, and institutionalist perspectives. For primordialists, the ethnic characteristics of the mobilized group are the crucial explanatory ...