Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

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