The late-twentieth century has witnessed a particular prominence assigned to the discourses of “difference” and “Otherness”. An examination of this “othering” discourse as related to Travellers, Gypsies and Showpeople ennumerates the projective function of the “Othering” process, a form of rejection and marginalisation that is the institutionalization of ideas which are seldom challenged. The history of Traveller and Gypsy “Othering” in Europe points to the constant re-articulation of reductionist stereotypes as applied to a wide range of nomadic peoples and the creation of a mythic Traveller/Gypsy prototype that is based on a series of endlessly repeated generalizations which gradually assume the status of an objective “truth”. This discourse of representation has culminated in powerful institutional attitudes, many of which have influenced official and policy responses to these minorities. This volume brings to surface the “hidden histories” and discourses of the “peoples of the road”, those migratory peoples whose unique expressions of identity have often hitherto remained occluded. We live in the era of the Other, the era of “difference”, the era of migration - that “stranger” who waits silently at the border crossing, battered suitcase in hand. Travellers and Roma are the archetypal migrants. Perennial “outsiders”, they are the people who have lived on society’s margins for centuries. This volume explores the history of these traditionally migrant peoples within the frame of articulation that is Western literary and visual culture.

Gypsies and Travellers have often been overlooked as victims of hate crime and discrimination. This book redresses that exclusion by shining a light on the harms of hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. In doing so James explores how hate permeates all aspects of their lives and identifies the hate crimes, incidents, and speech that they are subject to. It goes on to explore how hate against Gypsies and Travellers occurs as discrimination, social exclusion and criminalisation and how that hate is embedded within the language and practice of neoliberal capitalism. This book provides new insights to critical criminology and ways of understanding hate by using the critical hate studies perspective to gain a full appreciation of the harms of hate. As a consequence of this, the book is able to do justice to Gypsies' and Travellers' experiences of hate by extrapolating how harms manifest and the impact they have on Gypsies’ and Travellers’ social and personal identities. The book explains and acknowledges how hate harms imbue Gypsies' and Travellers' daily lives, including common events of serious abuse and assault, regular ill-treatment in provision of services, and everyday micro-aggressions. It argues hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers can only be fully recognised through an analysis of the neoliberal capitalist context within which it occurs and the harmful subjective experience it engenders. The author’s expertise in this area, having carried out research with Gypsies and Travellers for 25 years, underpins the book with excellent empirical knowledge and research-informed discussion.

Traveller, Nomadic and Migrant Education presents international accounts of approaches to educating mobile communities such as circus and fairground people, herders, hunters, Roma and Travellers. The chapters focus on three key dimensions of educational change: the client group moving from school to school; those schools having their demographics changed and seeking to change the mobile learners; and these learners contributing to fundamental change to the nature of schooling. The book brings together decades of research into the challenges and opportunities presented by mobile learners interacting with educational systems predicated on fixed residence. It identifies several obstacles to those learners receiving an equitable education, including negative stereotypes and centuries-old prejudice. Yet the book also explores a number of educational innovations that bring mobility and schooling together, ranging from specialised literacy programs and distance and online education to mobile schools and specially trained teachers. These innovations allow us to think differently about how education can and should be, for mobile and non-mobile learners alike.

Over the last twenty-five years there has been an unprecedented expansion of opportunity for Traveller and Gypsy children to attend school. Educational outreach services have developed in parallel with an increased willingness on the part of parents to put their children into school. Cathy Kiddle has studied the effects of this expansion on the lives of the children. Having worked with Travellers and schools for over twenty years, she is well placed to consider the interactions between children, parents and schools. She examines particularly the parent/teacher relationship and the effect this has on the education of the children. The book looks at education in the context of several distinct travelling groups including Circus, Fairground and New Travellers. While recognising the importance of literacy for their children, many Gypsy Travellers fear that schooling will contribute to the disintegration of their culture, strongly based as it is on family education and supportive kinship networks. Teachers, on the other hand, may have stereotyped ideas of who Gypsies are, and may have their own expectations and demands of children in school. Cathy Kiddle examines the ways in which minority groups are forced to adapt to the changing society around them. She argues that education is important for Traveller children in that it enables them to develop into independent learners and, through this, independent people, able to speak for themselves, make considered choices and act as agents in their own lives. Essentially, her study is optimistic: if parents and teachers are prepared to understand and co-operate with each other, education will help to destroy the marginalisation of Traveller cultures, not the cultures themselves. The children will be able to give their communities a voice for themselves.

Brings together the areas of law affecting the travelling community. This guide covers accommodation needs such as planning, site provision, homelessness and eviction as well as other issues impacting on the day to day lives of Gypsies and Travellers such as education, healthcare and race discrimination.

This book explores how diverse citizens experience welfare provision. It seeks to promote broader debate and address the silences in research and debate, particularly in relation under-researched groups, with the aim of developing a renewed call for analysis.

Now more than ever the issues of accommodation, education, health care, employment, and social exclusion for British Gypsy and Traveller communities need to be addressed. This book looks at Gypsies and Travellers in British society, touching on topics such as media and political representation, power, justice, and the impact of European initiatives for inclusion. In doing so, it offers important new insights for students, academics, policy makers, journalists, service providers, and others working with these groups.