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The event below may be of interest to list members. Apologies for cross-posting. Roma Integration in the UK A People, Place and Policy symposium Sheffield Hallam University, Room: Stoddart Building 7138 Wednesday 30th April, 2014 12-5pm Anti-Roma sentiment, or "Romaphobia", has been on the increase across Europe in recent years. Though far from a new phenomenon, repressive and controlling policies of dispersal and/or containment have emerged alongside increased migration of Roma from Central and Eastern Europe. Europe's Roma are often associated, through public media discourse, with negative stereotypes which draw upon notions of an alien and nomadic culture, criminality, anti-social behaviour, benefit dependency, a lack of worth ethic etc. Such attitudes towards the Roma invariably lead to their stigmatisation, marginalisation and segregation from the "mainstream". This is despite a concerted effort at the EU level to begin to address the centuries old persecution and hostility towards the continent's Roma and facilitate their integration with wider societies. More recently, these anti-Roma sentiments have reached new heights within the UK with high profile cases of the Roma "problem", as it is constructed by politicians and the media, in Northern Ireland in 2008 and more recently in Glasgow and Sheffield late in 2013. A growing hysteria crystallised around the opening of the UK's borders to the free movement of Bulgarians and Romanians in January 2014; the media and public response to which could certainly be perceived as a "moral panic" - though one which needs to be situated within a much longer term process of Roma "problematization". This symposium is a direct response to these worrying developments. It brings together leading academics in the field in order to address this changing context for Roma populations and its relationship to EU/national citizenship, integration/segregation, stigmatisation, marginalisation and media representations. Confirmed speakers and papers: * Phil Brown, Phil Martin and Lisa Scullion, University of Salford: "Migrant Roma in the UK and the need to estimate population size" * Helen O'Nions, Nottingham Law School: "Some Citizens Are More Equal Than Others" * Judith Okely, University of Oxford: "Recycled (mis)representations: Gypsies, Travellers or Roma treated as objects, rarely subjects." * Colin Clark, University of the West of Scotland: "Glasgow's Ellis Island"? The integration and stigmatisation of Govanhill's Roma population The papers presented here will appear in a Special Issue of People, Place and Policy Online - an independent forum for academic and policy debate on the challenges faced by contemporary society - at the end of April 2014. The Special Issue and this event are intended to provide a rapid response to these growing concerns and hopefully bring some objectivity to a debate invariably characterised by stereotype and misrepresentation at best, and overt racism at worst. We welcome contributions and perspectives from anyone engaged with these issues - academics, policy-makers, practitioners, advocates and the public alike. A buffet lunch will be provided from 12-1pm with further refreshments in the afternoon. For more information or to reserve a place at the symposium please contact: Emma Smith ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Sarah Ward ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) by email or by telephone: 0114 225 3073. For more information on PPP journal please visit: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/ppp-online/ _______________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] An urban geography discussion and announcement forum List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk