Responses to the marginalisation of Roma young people in education in an age of austerity in the United Kingdom

‘Fear, loathing and prejudice in Blunkett’s back yard: A deeply disturbing dispatch as the ex-Labour Home Secretary warns of race riots over the Roma influx in Sheffield’1 is representative of media headlines in 2013 about the arrival of Roma people in Sheffield. I reflected on the way in which such events were reported as if they were commonplace; this resonated with the frequent media representations of English Gypsies as the ‘other’ (Bhopal and Myers, 2008) and earlier media reports of racism experienced by Roma in Northern Ireland in 2009. ‘Romanian gypsies beware beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear,’2 read the headlines as they repeated a text circulated widely through social media. McVeigh (2009) argues that the media narrative about the experiences of Roma remains uncontested and consistent; I further suggest that such a discourse circulated in the media locates Roma as problematic and is visible in education contexts where practitioners engage with Roma young people.

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an extract/chapter published in Youth marginality in Britain: Contemporary studies of austerity. Details of the definitive published version and how to purchase it are available online at: https://policypress.co.uk/youth-marginality-in-britain