Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

The second innovation is contained in the rules and regulations of the thirteen villages. 116
All the “guests” are issued a card known as Dast (Temporary residence authorization
document) that gives them the right to reside in the Rome area for two years. It
represents a true judicial abnormality: the Dast was issued to many Roma individuals
with Italian citizenship who, according to the Constitution (article 16, paragraph 1) have
a full right to circulate freely throughout national territory. Conversely, according to the
statute, the Dast can also be issued to immigrants not in possession of a residence
permit. 117
The Dast threfore represents a unique case of “authorization of residence” limited to the
municipal area and separate from the State residence permit issued by police headquarters.
Its purpose is to keep visitors’ behaviour in check. It includes a clause stating that the Dast
can be withdrawn and the individual can be evicted from the village when he fails to
comply with a series of conditions: keeping the area assigned to him and all communal
buildings in order, paying all consumption rates and monthly fees, signing children up
for school and ensuring their regular attendance, making himself available for any job,
cooperating with social workers, not hosting (not even temporarily) any relatives or
friends who don’t have a Dast, no owning of pets. Violating these rules can lead to the
entire family unit being evicted from the village. 118
Compared to the policies exclusively based on eviction, the “Roman blueprint” is based
on gathering together Roma who are not (only) “forced out”, but – according to an
expression that gives the title to a dossier published by 21 Luglio – are also “excluded
and rounded up” in semi‐detention and correctional structures, where reception
becomes supervision and exclusion.
Cost (and effectiveness) of the “Roman blueprint”
The dismantling of existing “illegal” settlements and the segregation of Roma people in
13 villages outside Rome are both extremely costly operations. According to the 21
Luglio organisation a sum of 34 million euros was set aside for the implementation of
the “Roma Scheme”. 119
Each of the Roma hosted in one of the villages costs the Municipality about 500 euros a
month. 120 Bearing in mind that, according to a recent investigation into settlements in
the Capital, about 70% of Roma families are made up of five or more members, in the
large majority of cases the Municipality spends about 2,500 euros a month on each
116 Police Commissioner for the Roma emergency in Lazio, the Regulations for the management of travellers’
provisioned villages, quoted.
117 Article 3.1 of the aforementioned Regulations for the management of villages establishes that access to the
villages is restricted to citizens of tertiary countries with regular residence permits, Italian and EU citizens with a
valid identification document, and “people who can prove a 10-year permanent residence in Italy”; furthermore,
point d), declares that “the Municipalities can issue special permits to people outside the aforementioned
categories”. These provisions pave the way to the issuing of Dast to immigrants who don’t have a residence permit.
118 Cf. 21 Luglio organisation, Excluded and gathered together (Esclusi e ammassati),quoted., pp. 11-13.
119 21 Luglio organisation, Casilino 900 report, quoted, p. 13.
120 M. Camaioni, A high price for Roma (Roma, un prezzo salato), quoted (that amount is provided by Carlo
Stasolla).
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