Michele Palazzi – Gipsy Camp in Rome

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“The controversial relationship between the Italian government and the Italian Roma community has been the source of various conflicts as recently. The government’s answer to this deep division within their society is to push towards integration through a stronger policy of control – creating a database of compulsory finger-prints of all of Roma people, including minors. This Big Brother-like initiative would infringe on the civil rights of thousands of people. Because of the recent problems with crime, and the legacy engendered from poverty and social conditions, the municipality of Rome decided to substitute the meager homes of many romas living in the Roma camp of via Gordiani (near Largo Preneste) with containers equipped with electricity and other facilities. This move has been combined with a system of security control, video surveillance and the regulation of visitors – demonstrating the ambiguous line between social intervention and ghettoisation.”