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If we look at the Roma reality today, what we are faced with is a view of a helpless, hapless people who need to be uplifted by the society at large.  Most pictures of Roma are devoid of dignity and depict squalor and hopelessness.  I find it as obnoxious as pornography and it reflects what I call poverty porn.  However, this depiction belies the historic reality of Roma.  By that I mean that if you look at Roma, they have been living among foreign cultures for at least 500 years.  Throughout these five centuries they have been oppressed and abused.  They have never had any sustained

The grouping of Roma in a homogenous category has a long history. I argue that shaping and stabilizing Roma groupness is the result of the interrelated practices of categorization and counting, both important ways in assembling an object of study but also a target for governmental intervention. I bring examples of how repeated academic, administrative and police-led inquires contributed to enduring representations of the Roma group in different  political regimes.