Local and global contexts, individual experiences in labour: Poor Roma at home and abroad. A case from Transylvania, Romania

This paper analyses Roma migration at both the macro- and meso-levels, taking into consideration global contexts, ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, and structural conditions in both host and the home countries as well as in individuals’ communities. The first part of the paper analyses the push factors beh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLocal economy Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 207 - 223
Main Author Szabó, Árpád Töhötöm
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2018
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Community
Data analysis
Data collection
Emigration
Ethnography
Forced migration
Labor force
Labor migration
Life history
Local economy
Migration
Minority & ethnic groups
Quantitative analysis
Romani people
Rural areas
Rural communities
Socialism
Romania
Transylvania Romania
local economy
vulnerability
precarity
transnational connections
fragmentation
labour
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Summary:This paper analyses Roma migration at both the macro- and meso-levels, taking into consideration global contexts, ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, and structural conditions in both host and the home countries as well as in individuals’ communities. The first part of the paper analyses the push factors behind emigration, drawing mainly on quantitative findings from research conducted in a rural community in Transylvania, Romania. The second part of the article, however, goes beyond the statistical data and presents the impact of these push factors on individual lives by using the data collected through ethnographic methods and life histories recorded with local Roma people who take part in labour force migration – mostly circular migration – to western countries. The details provided within such life histories can offer a deeper understanding of the processes which the specific Roma community (and especially poorer community members) experienced both during socialism and after 1990; and in so do, shed new light on how the migration cycle is integrated into local social and economic practices.
ISSN:0269-0942
1470-9325
DOI:10.1177/0269094218762345