The Roma Question. The New Politics of Race in Color-Blind France and Neo-Liberal Europe

There is no such thing as race in France – the refusal of so-called racial statistics in the last few years, along with the recent erasure of the word “race” in French law (used to combat racial discrimination), only confirm this claim of Republican universalism in the context of a European Union of human rights erected in the aftermath of the racial politics of Nazism. However, not only is there everyday racism in postcolonial France; the years 2000 have witnessed the rise of a new logic – the resurgence of the politics of race, targeting the (so-called) Roma. Of course, the treatment of this population resembles that of non-European migrants. However, the Roma are not mistreated despite, but because of the fact that they are Europeans: the only way to get rid of them is to make their lives unlivable – i.e. instead of deportation, “self-deportation.” Such a radical treatment results from and leads to the presupposition of a radical difference, in cultural or biological terms, which confirms the racial nature of these policies. That there are so few Romanian and Bulgarian poor migrants in France only confirms that they are rejected in principle, in a phobic logic. The source of the “Roma question” is not economic, but it has to do with neoliberalism: the Roma are deemed useless. Their alleged lack of value makes them the mirror image of neoliberal Europe.

Éric Fassin is a professor of sociology in the Political Science Department and the Gender Studies program at Paris 8 University. He works on contemporary sexual and racial politics in France and the United States, and their intersections (e.g. immigration in Europe). He is frequently involved in French public debates on issues his work addresses. He is the author of books such as L’inversion de la question homosexuelle (2005), Le sexe politique (2009), and Démocratie précaire. Chroniques de la déraison d’État (2012), co-author of four volumes on French immigration policies (Cette France-là, 2008-2012), co-editor of De la question sociale à la question raciale? (2006). Published in 2014: Roms & Riverains. Une politique municipale de la race (La Fabrique), Gauche : l’avenir d’une disillusion (Textuel), and the new edition of Foucault’s Herculine Barbin (Gallimard).