By Bogdan Mohora
Zoran Maksimovic at his home in Ardea, approximately 25 miles outside of Rome. Zoran built the house because he wanted to provide a more comfortable and safe place for his family than the government built Roma camp also located in Ardea. He said there are often conflicts and crime within the camp, which is segregated according to religious and cultural backgrounds. | Photo by Bogdan Mohora
The Council of Europe estimates that there are anywhere between 110,000 and 170,000 legal and undocumented Roma living in Italy based on the latest Italian census data. Rough estimates are the closest thing to reliable data when it comes to statistics about Italy’s Roma population. During the day, elderly women can be seen outside of churches, kneeling with foreheads pressed to the ground and open palms and at night hastily built shelters can be spotted along the banks of the Tiber River. The Roma of Italy are nearly as visible as the dome of St. Peter’s but Italy has been forceful in relocating their communities to the fringes of its cities.
Mira Kostich, Zoran’s aunt, and her daughter Dana. Mira holds an icon of Saint Nicholas who is the patron saint of Italy and highly venerated in the Eastern Orthodox faith. | Photo by Bogdan Mohora
In Ardea, a southwestern region around 25 miles outside of Rome and near the Tyrrhenian Sea coast, around 1,500 Roma live in government supplied trailers. They were relocated after the government evicted them from their original camp in the center of Rome. Cement and rebar fences divide the rows and rows of prefabricated homes into Muslim and Christian sections. Orthodox and Catholic Christians from Serbia and Romania are in the center with Muslim Roma from Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina on either side. Many Roma, like Zoran Maksimuric who is from Serbia, want to leave the poverty, crime and often desperate living conditions found at many camps and integrate into mainstream Italian life. Maksimuric was able to make enough recycling scrap metal and eventually move his family into a home outside of the camp. While he’s beginning to put down roots in Italy, Maksimuric still has close ties to the camp that continues to be home for his family and friends.
Click photos for captions.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Click here to read more on Roma families in Italy.
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