Catalin Berescu, Research Institute for Quality of Life, ROMANIA

Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade with Balkan Architectural Biennale - BAB 2021 International Conference: Global Village – Shelter for Resilient Living

COVID REFUGEES AND THE MOBILE GHETTO

Author: Catalin Berescu, Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, ROMANIA;

Abstract This paper deals with the struggle of the precarious migrants to reach their homes, while returning from Western Europe during the first major lockdown of 2020. It highlights the nature of their migration and the way in which they were processed by the authorities. Moreover, the sudden forced return highlighted the pre-existing tensions, with some interesting and revealing episodes that have to do with the iconic image of the ”Gipsy wanderer”, and the imaginary that is associated with Roma neighborhoods – mahalas, ghettos, slums or camps. There is a wide diversity nowadays in what regards various types of Roma settlements, according to their degree of spatial integration, informality, wealth or modernity. However, the public imagery and the media representations tend to be reduced to stereotypes, ignoring the real dynamic of the communities on the move. While the vast majority of Roma follow the same pattern of circular migration of the Romanians, the minority of the poor that live in small improvised informal settlements have to invent new ways of living in a hostile environment. We can simply argue that the modern nomad is just a migrant, or an economic refugee. But in the case of the returning migrants the reality is even more complex and it suffered a surprising exposure during the lockdown, following a pattern of what can be called a ”negative quarantine”, a volatile symbolic tool of exclusion, but also a social construct based on a much longer history of a relationship between a hostile majority and a discriminated minority. The aftermaths of the lockdown and the sudden vanishing of the oppressing stigma that emerged in the first stage of the pandemic is even more interesting: migrants just returned to the Global West. There was an entire village waiting in their cars at six a clock in the morning for the quarantine to be lifted so they can go back to Germany. The hundreds of people that fled the village in that day are representing a new form of mobility, also they produce and use various spaces in different ways. The contribution will deal with some examples of this nature.

Key words: Roma/Gipsy, nomads, migrants, informal settlements, informal migration.