Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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Chapter 5 • Giuseppe De Sario, Laura Corradi, Patricia Ruiz, Enrica Capussotti<br />
Then, further:<br />
In Kosovo all the people [Romany] were living in houses, we had a<br />
normal life, I have seen the camps the first time in Italy… in my jargon<br />
I call them concentration camps because they look like the ones built by<br />
the racists…<br />
I would suggest that the experience of migration and war is changing the<br />
relationship of some individuals with their historical memory and identity.<br />
4 Recent traumatic experiences involving movement through countries,<br />
the loss of homes, jobs, persons, objects, and the violent rejections of<br />
the “host” populations, might have helped the Romany remember previous<br />
events and to redefine their relationships with the past. This also seems to<br />
be one of the mechanisms that catalyses the act of remembering in other<br />
societies, and the contemplation of different pasts. Marilyn Young, in her<br />
study of the perception of the Korean War (1950-1953) in the United<br />
States, has pointed out that despite the extreme brutality and terrible casualties<br />
of this war, it was first discussed and analysed only after the Vietnam<br />
War, as if the Vietnam trauma had opened a window onto “the forgotten<br />
war” (Young, 1997).<br />
For the Romany, the re-elaboration of their identity also meant struggling<br />
against the wall of prejudice they encountered during these times. The misunderstanding<br />
and violence to which they were (and are) subjected in the<br />
“host” countries were important elements in the process of remembering,<br />
and in the renegotiation of identities. An example of this is the theme of<br />
the “house”, which was relevant in all of the interviews held with Roma<br />
subjects: the Romany have lost their houses in Kosovo, most of them burnt<br />
by Albanians after the NATO intervention. They have requested (and still<br />
are requesting) houses in Italy, but these are very difficult to find. Most of<br />
the time, they are therefore relocated to the insalubrious and outrageous<br />
campi nomadi (camps for gypsies). Even if they do have a job and a salary,<br />
it is almost impossible for them to meet with a landlord and make a deal,<br />
because of the racial prejudice rampant in the cities they now have to<br />
inhabit. Throughout the interviews then, the Romany stressed repeatedly<br />
the fact that for centuries their ancestors have not been nomads, and the<br />
most emotional passages of their accounts were often those describing the<br />
loss of their homes in Kosovo. Houses thus became one of the central elements<br />
of self-representation used by the Romany in their interviews.<br />
According to Tahir:<br />
208<br />
Because we are not the way they think we are… we had our houses in<br />
Kosovo, we had another culture, we had another mentality… for instance<br />
we used to live in the same place, for 150 years in the some houses… and