Gypsy, Roma Traveller Communities: A Lived

Experience 

Dan Allen BA (Hons), M.Res, PGCE, Ph.D

Senior Social Work Lecturer Edge Hill University

Englanddaniel.allen@edgehill.ac.uk

Travellers and Gypsies in the United Kingdom

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 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 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 Traveller of Irish HeritageHeritage

2020 4040 4040 4040 6060

Gypsy/RomaGypsy/Roma 4040 6060 9090 120120 180180

Other 1,260 1,340 1,380 1,630 1, 860

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: 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: 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: 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: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 identityPunished 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 non-Isolated by a community which views them as being contaminated by non-Gypsy/Traveller influences: Gypsy/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 [non-

Gypsy] 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.

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