Since 1945, Italy has been a parliamentary republic which actively participated in creating and establishing the current system of protection for human rights. Italy’s major engagement in this process can be explained mainly by its willingness to move away from its recent past, which had been characterized by the Fascist dictatorship led by Benito Mussolini. Therefore, as a reaction, Italy began dealing with some of the “elephants in the room” that had been almost ignored up to that point. Among them, was the presence of minorities, which was (and still is) quite significant as a consequence of including into the Italian territory several border areas. The most famous examples in this sense include Slovenians living in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Austrians from South Tyrol. Yet, minorities in Italy are not just territory-based: indeed, there are multiple linguistic minorities, especially in Southern Italy, who speak Arbereshe (Albanian-speaking groups), Griko (Italo-Greek speakers), and Croatian. However, Roma groups remained largely neglected, and kept on living some sort of parallel life in Italy.

Indeed, Italian politics showed more often than not indifference towards Roma people and the difficulties they were experiencing, and their problems weren’t addressed or even acknowledged by civil society either. An important exception in this sense was the creation of the Lacio Drom project, sponsored by some priests, the University of Padua, and parts of the Italian government. This project, which remained active from the 1960s to the early 1980s, was based on the idea of offering school classes to Roma pupils, covering basic subjects related to Italian history, culture, but also Maths and Science, to boost their integration into their hosting communities. As it has already been mentioned in other articles, this commendable project had mixed results, and after around 20 years of activity, it was completely closed due to the difficulties in combining the needs of Roma and non-Roma children in schools.

The general approach of overlooking the issues affecting Roma in Italy continued for decades, and is still a reality in the country. The most evident sign of this attitude from politicians, but also average citizens, is definitely the living conditions of Roma. Indeed, the European Roma Rights Centre in 2000 defined Italy as “the country of campsites” (il Paese dei campi), because Roma and Sinti groups are almost always confined to ghettos or settlements outside of the actual cities, where forgetting about them is easier for the rest of citizens. In recent years, Italy has elaborated the National Strategy for Equality, Inclusivity, and Participation of Roma and Sinti 2021-2030 (Strategia Nazionale di uguaglianza, inclusione e partecipazione di Rom e Sinti 2021-2030) in response to a 2021 Recommendation from the Council of the European Union. Yet, many of the points identified in the strategy are still far from being actually implemented, like .

According to a 2024 report from Associazione 21 luglio, a non-profit organization aimed at supporting groups and individuals who are living in segregation and/or discriminatory conditions, in 2023 there were around 15.800 Roma and Sinti people still living in about 80 campsites and settlements. Before diving deeper into the current living conditions of Roma, it is worth mentioning what are the dynamics that led to the establishment of both formal (including outside settlements, popular houses, and specific reception centres) and informal (comprising tents or self-built houses, with insufficient access to basic services) settlements outside cities. 

The majority of Roma families now living in campsites are not descendents of those who arrived in Italy in the XV century. Rather, the origins of this “campsite policy” dates back to the 1970s, when various groups of Roma migrated from the former Yugoslavia, and who managed to enter Italy with visas for touristic reasons. For the next 20 years, around 30.000 Roma moved to Italy from all of  Yugoslavia, and the beginning of the war in Bosnia, in 1992, triggered new migratory flows to Italy. Another massive migration of Roma communities was generated by the collapse of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime in Romania. As a result, around 50.000 Roma left Romania and moved to Italy.

When the first groups arrived, Italy clearly was not ready to welcome them. Therefore, the only feasible solution found by local administrations was to endorse, and even finance, the construction and institutionalization of settlements where to gather all Roma people that had been migrating to Italy. Moreover, Italian authorities didn’t recognize the correct legal status for those who were escaping from conflicts in the 1990s, and Roma were being labelled as nomads, rather than asylum seekers, conversely to what had happened in several other countries. From 1985 onwards, all these factors led to a sharp increase in the number of new “ethnic reservations” promoted by local authorities, at first with the intent of “promoting and protecting Roma culture and identity”. Notwithstanding these good intentions, settlements turned out to be places of segregation and discrimination, and Roma families living there are often cut out from the bigger local communities which are hosting them.

The system of isolating these groups in the very peripheries of cities has, of course, a wide range of consequences: for example, Roma campsites often lack proper hygienic conditions, with scarcity of water supplies that makes it hard for inhabitants to satisfy basic human needs such as cleaning, showering, washing the laundry, or even cooking. Similarly, settlements are rarely served by suitable electricity grids: hence, the most common solution is to find illegal ways to basically steal electricity and power from the national electricity grid. Aside from the obvious breach of the law, this alternative trick leads to major security issues, such as explosions or fires, due to electrical systems and wires not up to standards. The same reasoning can be carried out concerning gas pipes: old, or not properly maintained gas lines may easily result in gas leaks, causing tragic accidents.

For many years now, several attempts have been made to try to slowly close campsites, and to find ways to definitely integrate Roma families into city neighborhoods. Some of these policy measures have already shown to be effective, at least partially: 35 campsites have been closed from 2018 onwards, and 13 are in the process of being closed. However, there are still two burning issues that may be hampering higher levels of integration of Roma in Italy: bias and discriminatory statements from some segments of the population, which are also echoed by local and national politicians; and forced evictions and destructions of camps that show little to no consideration for Roma citizens’ identities and belongings from authorities.

For what concerns the first issue, far-right parties have been stoking the embers of racial hatred against Roma people, repeatedly conveying messages of hatred and reinforcing stereotypes about Roma communities in Italy. Some examples are the multiple claims by some politicians who portray Roma as social parasites who live on the backs of Italian citizens, and who do not contribute in any way to Italy’s economic or social welfare. These kinds of claims undoubtedly have an impact on individuals, who may be vulnerable to anti-gypsy propaganda, especially when it comes from high representatives of Italian politics. 

Regarding the second topic, it is not uncommon to hear run-downs from journalists and civil society activists reporting stories about settlements being completely destroyed by police forces, who leave Roma without any living accommodation or any possibility to satisfy and protect basic human rights. Therefore, they are forced to live in even conditions that are even worse than the previous ones, given that the lack of a new house where they can settle forces them to wander across the cities’ outskirts, and to move restlessly eviction after eviction. It is worth mentioning that these practices are not just inhuman and degrading, but they are also in breach of international law and of the right of housing, as enshrined in Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which goes as follows: “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international cooperation based on free consent.”. Precisely for this reason, the European Committee of Social Rights has stated that Italy has been violating the European Social Charter because of the discriminatory housing policies imposed on Roma people, as well as migrants.

Even though there are some social housing solutions in Italy, only few of them have actually proven to be helpful in solving the housing crisis among the poorest segments of population. For example, the city of Rome has a social housing program based on points, but the paperwork needed to advance requests for accommodations is usually very cumbersome and, due to the digitalization of bureaucratic procedures, it should be completed and submitted online. This could potentially cut Roma people out, especially those who live in settlements without a proper internet connection or that are not at ease with formal, bureaucratic-related language. Yet, increasing numbers of Roma families have been leaving the settlements to move into cities, mainly when local authorities manage to create habitational plans that can be accessed by everybody. This highlights another important question: how to avoid “accidental” discrimination, meaning how to create legal and political procedures that can be understood by disadvantaged groups, who are supposed to be the main target of these programs. For all these reasons, the abovementioned 2021-30 Strategy devotes a whole chapter to access to accommodation, social housing, and other living solutions, asking all the involved entities (banks, local authorities, property owners) to cooperate to ensure that Roma families can actually access higher living standards. However, while planning these actions is indubitably a positive development, their implementation require active efforts from all stakeholders, and many of them are still reluctant to participate in these kinds of projects.

In conclusion, the housing conditions of Roma communities in Italy reflect ongoing discrimination and longstanding political inaction, both from right-wing and left-wing parties and governments. While some progress has been made, forced evictions and inadequate policies keep many Roma in precarious conditions, violating fundamental human rights. A real change requires long-term housing solutions, legal protections, and efforts to combat deep-rooted biases. Until then, Roma families will remain on the margins of a society that has yet to fully recognize them.