The artilce is writen by Xhekson Cela Rromani Student at CEU
One of the heading issues recently affecting
Roma community in Albania is housing. Over 25 years, the housing situation in
Albania was unstable for many Roma families, (E. Mato, personal communication,
February 3, 2016) in the last three years there were evictions taking place in
different Roma settlements[1].
The rationale behind these evictions
were either the idea that Roma were occupying public spaces (Haxhiu, 2013), or
the unclear legal status of the dwell. Due to past employment issues, many Roma
had to leave their places in order to get close to resources, but many failed
to manage a proper legal settling, as tens of families live for approximately
10-20 years in barracks on informal sites and somehow segregated. Some many of
them moved into former state warehouses. In both cases they do not have a property
certificate and are in the running process to obtain one from the competent
institution under the Albanian legislation. Since then, little is done to draw
out efficient, long-term suitable solutions in this regard. Following the
actual situation I would like to comment and provide some explanatory arguments
on one interesting aspect of housing which is taking place recently. My
perspective will be focused on what discursive basis and rationale is the
housing aspect in this paper designed. Also, I would like to spot the positive
aspects of this approach based on values, and at the same time some of the
challenges that might emerge in the future.