Roma migrants in the public arena: between media coverage and politicization

Overview & Synopsis

The Roma migrations to France and other European countries that have intensified since the early 2000s and again since 2007, when the two major source countries, Romania and Bulgaria, became members of the European Union (EU), are prominent in public debate and the political sphere. Even though Roma migrants are limited in number (between 15,000 and 20,000 people according to recent estimates), they have received visibility and overexposure in the public arena through the issues of urban circulation, squats, precarious living conditions of both adults and children - issues that the traditional mechanisms of protection and solidarity have proved unable to curb.