Gypsy, Roma Traveller Communities: A
Lived Experience
Dan Allen
BA (Hons), M.Res, PGCE, Ph.D
Senior Social Work Lecturer
Edge Hill University
England
daniel.allen@edgehill.ac.uk
Travellers and Gypsies in the United Kingdom
Romani
Gypsies
Fairground
and Show
People
Boat
People
Irish
Travellers
Scottish
Travellers
Travellers
&
Gypsies
Circus
People
Welsh
Travellers
New
Travellers
Roma
Aversion to Bricks and Mortar?
• Variation in the legal definition of the terms Gypsy and Traveller
• Where do Gypsies and Travellers live?
• Under the Housing Act 1996, housing departments must provide
candidates with ‘suitable’ accommodation.
• Psychological aversion to living in bricks and mortar (see, for example,
Home & Greenfields, 2006; Niner, 2006; Richardson et al, 2007).
• Supported in case Law:
• Clarke v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
(2002) JPL 552
• R (Price) v Carmarthenshire CC (2003) EWHC 42 (admin)
• European Court of Human Rights of Chapman v UK [2001] 33 EHRR 399
European Court of Human Rights
Aversion to Bricks and Mortar?
• In line with case Law findings something more than “taking account” of an
applicant’s Gypsy culture is required.
• Of course the flip side of this coin is scepticism and people are now required to
prove that they have a psychological aversion to living in such accommodation
before housing departments provide them with ‘suitable’ accommodation.
• Clearly established under Case Law that the concept of cultural aversion does
indeed exist and is included against Article 8 of the European Convention on
Human Rights, as enacted by the Human Rights Act in the UK, and the duty to
protect the right to respect for private and family life.
• This duty means it is necessary for public authorities to be aware of the concept
of cultural aversion to bricks and mortar and make provision for this in the cases
of housing policy and planning law.
• Imposes a duty on local authorities to consider Gypsy and Travellers rights and
needs as mandatory as opposed to a discretionary “taking account” of duty.
Fostering and Adoption: social policy
framework
• A legal requirement to take account of a child's ethnicity, language, race religion
culture views and wished.
• A legal requirement that where a child is unable to live with a birth parent, then
in the first instance consideration must be given to them living with a family
member or friend
• This duty rarely extends to include Gypsy and Traveller communities as children
experience cultural displacement when taken into substitute (foster) care.
• General ignorance, or projected racism, within the population at large.
• Frequently characterised as being “socially deviant” within the media, it is argued
that this representation has become manifest in social care practice.
• A primary concern endures to suggest that social care practitioners can often
(unwittingly) view Gypsy and Traveller communities and cultures as objects of
concern.
Numbers of Children within a ‘White’ ethnicity
living in care in England between 2009- 2013
Ethnicity
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
White British
44,470
47,170
48, 530
50, 020
50, 620
White Irish
390
39-
370
330
310
Traveller of Irish 20
Heritage
40
40
40
60
Gypsy/Roma
40
60
90
120
180
Other
1,260
1,340
1,380
1,630
1, 860
PERCENTAGE INCREASE FOR GYPSY AND TRAVELLER CHILDREN LIVING
IN CARE IN ENGLAND BETWEEN 2009 AND 2013
450
White British
White Irish
Traveller of Irish Heritage
Gypsy/Roma
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
-50
2010
2011
2012
2013
The study
• This presentation reports on a larger study that utilised interpretative
phenomenological analysis (to uncover the lived experiences of
Gypsies and Travellers who lived in care as children.
• 10 people. 2 woman were a Romani Gypsies, 4 women were Irish
Travellers, 3 men were Irish Travellers and 1 woman was a Showmen.
• England and the Republic of Ireland
• Each lived in foster care between the 1980s and 2000s.
• Each person was invited to describe their experiences in any way
which suited them.
Feeling and becoming different
Understanding a Gypsy or a Traveller identity:
‘Growing up we soon learnt that [non-Gypsy] people hated us. They
hated us and they hated our culture.’
Concealing a Gypsy or Traveller identity:
‘The kids at my new school picked on me because of my [Irish Traveller]
accent. I told my foster family but they didn’t care, so I thought oh well,
I won’t speak with an accent anymore that way no one will know I am a
Traveller. I wanted to make the Traveller me invisible.’
A war against becoming settled
• Obligation to maintain a Gypsy or Traveller identity:
‘I got back [from school] to the foster house and watched telly. I remember having
chewing gum in my hair from the girls at lunchtime, I saw Kyle Minogue on the telly,
and I decided that I was going to be like her. I suppose I just wanted to feel normal
and I went upstairs [and] cut my hair.... (3). Anyways it didn’t work and [the girls at
school] called me all the more. I had made a right job of my hair all sticking up all
over the place but from that day, I decided that I am who I am and that’s the way it
is. A Traveller through and through (laughing) I found out that I fight good as well.
Me da would have been proud.’
Resilience against acculturation:
‘I didn’t do anything that the carers wanted me to do. I feel bad about it now
because I used to give them real trouble. I think that I must have been restrained
every day. But I thought that if I did what they said, I would become like them.’
A war against becoming settled
Punished for maintaining a Gypsy or Traveller identity
‘You [felt] your life was nothing; you were nothing (8). They used to
beat us (5).They became random acts of violent racism, physical
violence, sexual violence, emotional and psychological violence. They
thought they could beat our ethnicity and cultural identity out of us.’
When it all got too much and I started to cut myself and I refused to
speak, no one helped me…They didn’t know the pain I felt in my heart
from not knowing who I was, from being, from being (7) (sobbing) from
being treated like animals, worse than animals. No one cared about me
as a Traveller.’
Contaminated and shamed
Isolated by a community which views them as being contaminated by nonGypsy/Traveller influences:
‘When I left care, I tried to get back in with my family. My Uncle and Aunty
took me on and let me live in their [caravan] for a while. When we went to
fairs and that, all the boys would all look down at me and call me dirty. They
knew that I had been in care and they all thought that I was like a [nonGypsy] girl. That I had been having sex, that I had been to nightclubs and that
I had taken drugs. You see, the [non-Gypsy] people look at us and see what
they think are Gypsies. The same way the Gypsy boys looked at me and saw a
[non-Gypsy] girl. Because what they have seen on the television, and that,
they think that I am dirty, and because of this, no man in his right mind
would marry me. If someone did, they would be outcast.’
Conclusions
• Cultural isolation can have long lasting and harmful implications.
• To overcome this challenge, it is clear that cultural continuity must become a
centralised feature of any care planning process.
• There remains an urgent need for professionals to spend time with the child to
listen and talk to them, as any reasonable parent should.
• A shift in emphasis which sees Gypsies and Travellers less as objects of concern,
and more as culturally proud and resilient children who might be losing their
identity, their sense of cultural pride, their customs, and their distinctive way of
life.
• Paying more respectful attention to the heritage and lived experience of Gypsy
and Traveller children is the only way to promote resilience, protect transitions,
and reduce the risk of cultural isolation.
• A duty for local authorities to consider Gypsy and Travellers rights and needs as
mandatory as opposed to a discretionary duty.
References
[1] Schofield, G., Beek, M., & Ward, E. (2012). Part of the family: planning for permanence in long-term family foster care.
Children and Youth Services Review, 34(1), pp. 244-253.
[2] Department for Education. (2011). Family and Friends Care: Statutory guidance for local authorities, London: Department
for Education.
[3] Department for Education and Skills. (2007). Care Matters: Time for Change. Norwich: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office.
[4] Children and Young Persons Act. (2008). London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office.
[5] Cemlyn, S., Greenfields, M., Burnett, S., Matthews, Z., & Whitwell, C. (2009). Inequalities experienced by Gypsy and
Traveller communities: A review. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission.
[6] Allen, D., & Adams, P. (2013). Social work with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. London: British Association of Adoption
and Fostering.
[7] Department for Education. (2013). Children looked after in England, including adoption. Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption [Accessed 3 February
2014].
[8] Department for Education. (2011). Breaking down barriers to adoption. Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/breaking-down-barriers-to-adoption [Accessed 12 February 2014]
[9] Smith, J. A., Flowers, B., & Larkin, M. (2009). Doing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Sage: London.
[10] O’Higgins, K. (1993). Travelling children in substitute care. In K. O’Higgins (Ed.), Surviving Childhood Adversity. Belfast:
The Institute of Irish Studies.