Stefano PIEMONTESE (Italian)
Country of residence
SpainBrief introduction
Education
Master of Arts in International Migration and Intercultural Relations, at the University of Osnabrück (Germany)Academic profile
During the last years I have focussed mainly on the housing policies and practices addressed to Romanian Roma living in Spain. I guess that this interest has risen from the comparison between the housing conditions of Romanian Roma in Spain and in Italy. Connected to this aspect, I am interested in the role played by stereotypes and perceptions in the design of public policies, as well as on their impact on both housing and mobility patterns.
Thanks to my collaboration with the EMIGRA research group of the UAB (Barcelona) I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the legislative framework for Roma and Gitanos, approaching the issue from the perspective of the policy evaluation. In the particular case of Spain, I focussed on the way 'Roma migrants' have been currently included as a target group of pre-existing Gitano policies. In general terms, I am persuaded that the coexistence of ‘national Roma’ and ‘immigrant Roma’ groups on a same territory is bringing to light the shortcomings related to creation of an EU common legislative framework for “Roma”, as well as the building of a pan-European Romani identity.
Finally, since local intervention aimed to low-income Roma migrants normally begins when minors are present, and also due to the relevance of schooling in social inclusion processes, I decided to focus my doctoral thesis on the mutual links between the housing patterns (conditions, mobility) and the educational careers (dropout, attainment, etc.) of Roma migrant pupils, also in comparison to other non-Roma pupils.