Premium
A Roma Nation? Constructing Romani identity in the context of extreme displacement
Author(s) -
Webb Emily
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/nana.12504
Subject(s) - diaspora , homeland , identity (music) , context (archaeology) , sociology , displacement (psychology) , articulation (sociology) , gender studies , collective identity , narrative , state (computer science) , political science , history , aesthetics , law , art , archaeology , politics , psychoanalysis , literature , psychology , computer science , algorithm
The process of displacement has affected the articulation of collective identity among the Romani diaspora. The nation state persists as the main vehicle through which diasporic identities are formulated. A challenge to this is when a diaspora has lost its homeland as its territorial reference point. This article reflects on the way in which the Romanies – a 1,000‐year‐old diaspora – confront traditional understandings of diasporic identity as combining the ideas of a loss and longing for a homeland. It explores the limits and possibilities of building a collective Romani identity in the context of extreme displacement, with reference to narratives of identity and belonging articulated by the Romani diaspora in Britain.