Stakes of recognition. The paradoxes of ethnicity-based politics

Abstract

Abstract Beyond political impotence, disregard and malice, the deteriorating social conditions of Roma, that is, the failed and fake attempts to improve them, refer to problems that can be conceptualized at the level of theory. Júlia Szalai identifies the conflation of the ethnic and social aspects of the “Roma issue” as the heart of the matter and claims that the solution is predicated upon the separation of these dimensions. But is it possible to reach an understanding of Roma ethnicity, putting social inequalities and their main cause, i.e. discrimination, aside? The political and public perception of Roma in Hungary has been marked, especially since the regime change, by an overemphasis of cultural differences. Growing racism and discrimination, intensifying ethnic conflicts, the ethnicization of poverty and the ghettoization of Roma politics – all these partly owe to the dominant cultural perspective focused on ethnicity. These developments, as well as questions related to Roma self-organization, prompt the reconsideration of the terms influencing and categories employed in political processes, in particular, with respect to the very nature of Roma ethnicity. This article reviews theories of recognition adopted to the situation of Roma as a discriminated and stigmatized minority. In discussing the premises and purposes of various conceptions and outlining some practical dilemmas concerning their implementation, I argue that Roma, just like other racialized and socially excluded minorities, ultimately face an impasse created by conceptual and practical discordances between an anti-discrimination struggle and the representation of group interests. Keywords: Roma, politics of recognition, social differences, ethnicity, culture