Governance of the ‘nomad camps’ in Rome during the ‘Nomad Emergency’

This paper deals with the governance of the 'nomad camps' in Rome during the recent implementation of the so-called 'Emergenza Nomadi' (Nomad Emergency). While focusing on the city of Rome, where fieldwork was conducted in 2011 and 2012, this study provides an investigation of the interactions between Romanies, local institutions and civil society organisations (CSOs1). The major contribution of this study is that it reveals the existence of a deeply rooted mechanism of marginalisation - the 'camps system' - in which corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, inefficiencies and antagonisms between a variety of competing actors have contributed, to differing degrees, to reify and crystallise the Romani condition. This paper argues that 'nomad camps' became a huge business in which everyone plays their part.