Roma migration in the EU: the case of Spain between ‘new’ and ‘old’ minorities

Abstract

The 2004 and 2007 EU Eastern enlargements facilitated the mobility of citizens from CEE countries, including European citizens of Roma ethnicity, which in turn contributed to the Europeanization of the ‘Roma issue’. This article examines the politics of Roma ethnicity by giving a synthetic, yet we hope comprehensive, overview of how recent Roma migrations from EU Member States (particularly from Romania) to the Spanish state can be understood and analysed in relation to both pre-existing policies for the Spanish Gitano communities and to wider European dynamics and structures.