Western Donors, Romani Organizations, and Uses of the Concept of Nation after 1989

• Main Author: Douglas Neander Sambati
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romani Studies Program at Central European University 2020-12-01
• Series: Critical Romani Studies
• Subjects: Essentialization; Roma; Donors; Nationalism
• Online Access: https://crs.ceu.edu/index.php/crs/article/view/52

This article discusses the relationship between Western donors and Romani and Romani-friendly organizations in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Based on literature review, interviews, reports, and websites, this paper upholds that the burst of Romani and Romani-friendly organizations in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 primarily was made possible by financial support and expertise coming from Western organizations. Together with their work methodology, so-called donors took their own framework on  understanding groupings and enforced the concept of nation upon Gypsy/Romani populations. Therefore, Western donors and Romani activists and intellectuals alike essentialized (claimed) Gypsy/Romani traits in order to support a nation-building rhetoric. These Romani activists and intellectuals, in turn, are a legacy of policies from planned economies, and they actually might represent Gypsy/Romani communities from a privileged perspective – no longer fully insiders but as a vanguard.