The ‘Camps System’ in Italy by Riccardo Armillei

Author:Riccardo Armillei
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

In other words, deciding who could work and who could not was left to these ‘alleged’ Romani leaders’ own discretion (ibid.: 46).

The screening of a documentary by Ermes Cooperativa Sociale showing conditions in Salone camp confirmed that the traineeships led jobseekers down a cul-de-sac. One video told the story of eight Romani individuals who had trained as tree surgeons. At the end of this project not one was hired by the company that had offered the training. Some were put to work on makeshift jobs inside the camp itself—cleaning the common areas or acting as ‘teacher’s aides’ in the camp’s crèche. In a later interview, a representative of Ermes Cooperativa Sociale stressed the importance of restricting partnerships to companies that could hire Romani participants at the end of their four-month traineeships (personal communication, May 3, 2012). Traineeships did not mean real jobs for Romani people. The ‘no-camps’ lobby identified AMA Roma S.p.A.—a council-owned waste-management company—as one of these ‘fake jobs’ merchants, saying it had not employed anyone in the past ten years. After this challenge to their approach, the representative of a ‘no-camps’ organisation wondered aloud: Was it really possible to think of the camp as a ‘starting point’ for social inclusion? Nevertheless, to this day, the city council continues to use borse lavoro and other policy measures for the social inclusion of Romani ‘camp-dwellers’ , as foreseen by the recent call for bids announced by the city council (Comune di Roma 2016a).

According to ‘no-camps’ advocates, although camps were always being ‘sold’ as a temporary necessity, they had gradually become a permanent institution, with increasing amounts of public money being devoted to a number of services associated with the camps’ operation. During the introductory phase of the Piano Nomadi , the entire cost of running the ‘camps system’ almost doubled as compared with the Veltroni administration’s expenditure on camps in 2006. Associazione 21 Luglio talked about the frustration of having its alternatives to forcing Romanies to live in camps ignored:

We calculate that a ‘camp-dweller’ costs the council €450 to €500 a month. This means that €2,000 is spent on a family of four every month. With this much money, any social worker could help a Romani family find a better solution than a camp. The problem is not a lack of resources: on the contrary, there are funds available. But there is no political will to make a real change. (Personal communication, April 4, 2012)

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