Why Do Roma Migrate? A Critical Analysis of Academic Silence in Polish Scholarship

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v2i2.37

Keywords:

Silence, Migration research, Migration of Roma from Poland, Romani Studies

Abstract

The article discusses the case of academic silence with regards to the migration of Roma from Poland – both in Polish Romani studies and in migration studies. The absence of Romani migration in migration research in Poland is contrasted with the absence of the subject of migration in Romani studies, offering a glimpse into fundamental assumptions, and politically and ideologically determined paradigms within both areas. Paradoxically, the group associated in the social imaginary with mobility is absent in migration studies in Poland. Quite surprisingly, Polish Roma are static and immobilized in Polish Romani studies. The aim of
this paper is to critically explore this particular type of discursive silence and how it impacts migration and Romani studies.  

Author Biographies

  • Michal P. Garapich, Centre for Migration Research, University of Warsaw

    Michał P. Garapich, PhD, is a social anthropologist, specializing in the issues of migration, ethnicity, nationalism, multiculturalism, social resistance, homelessness, and migration from Poland. His PhD (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) focused on the political and symbolic dimensions of the relationship between different waves and groups of Polish migrants in the UK and Italy, the practices of the de-territorialized nation-state, power relations within diasporic/ethnic associations, and negotiations of ethnicity. At the moment his work focuses on the migration of Polish Roma.

  • Kamila Fiałkowska, Centre for Migration Research, University of Warsaw

    Kamila Fiałkowska, PhD, is a researcher at the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw. She has worked on various projects regarding migration from Poland. Currently, she is involved with a research project on the migration of Polish Roma. Her research interests revolve around gender relations in migratory settings, masculinity studies, family relations, and the construction of national and gender identities.

  • Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz, Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw

    Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Science at the Pedagogical University in Kraków. She has been a trainee at the European Commission in the Department of Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (2005); is an alumna of the Roma Access Programs at the CEU (2006); and since 2007 is a lecturer at the Pedagogical University in Kraków. Since 2007 she works in Malopolska Voivodeship in Krakow in the field of national and ethnic minorities. At the moment her work focuses on ethnic mobilization and the migration of Polish Roma.  

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Published

12/02/2020

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Why Do Roma Migrate? A Critical Analysis of Academic Silence in Polish Scholarship. (2020). Critical Romani Studies, 2(2), 4-22. https://doi.org/10.29098/crs.v2i2.37