Migrare, identitate şi procese de aculturaţie printre Rromii din Italia
Migration, Identity and the Process of Acculturation among Roma in Italy

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses briefly on groups of Roma and the similarities of their strategies in constructing an identity since the migration caused by the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and by the collapse of the communist state in Romania. The Xoraxanè Roma upon arriving in Italy, a new socio-economic environment, produced new adaptive responses that changed their economic and social organization. In order to make the most of the Western abundance of wealth they chose illegal activities. Nowadays some groups of Romanian Roma have been practicing a “pseudo-predator nomadic migration”. Their illegal strategies could be read as an attempt to build an image of superiority that is common between marginalized groups. Moreover I would like to draw attention to their powerful cultural engineering that is unique in its structural flexibility, allowing the construction of ethnic identity through acculturation. In fact in this process the self-selection of the exogenous cultural traits, from cross cultural contacts, does not cause a presumed loss of traditional identity, given that this kind of identity as a set of immutable traits is anthropologically non-existent.

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