| dc.description.abstract | The European Economic Area’s (EEA) policies and legislations of free movement of persons, goods and services through the EU and EFTA countries has resulted in what some people call a “flood” of Roma people into the streets of Norway. The debate whether this has positive or negative impact on the Norwegian society has been raging in social media for years, resulting in different legislations demeaning the rights of the Roma as EU members. The aim of my master thesis is to research the feelings inhabitants of Svartlamon experienced when having Roma as neighbours in their neighbourhood. The research objective of my thesis is: "how did the residents at Svartlamon experience the process that led to the decision that Roma, who is defined as 'outside' could live in their neighbourhood, and what thoughts and experiences do they have towards the way Roma live public lives?". In order to answer the research objective I have applied theory relating to “sense of place”, culture, identity and “Otherness” as well as a discussion of scale and migration. I have used a qualitative methodology to attack the research objective, using informal conversational interviews as my main method of knowledge production. The empirical findings are the result of five in-depth interviews. In the first analysis chapter I have discussed how the process of deciding whether or not Roma could live at Svartlamon have created divisions and tensions between the residents, and how this could be seen in relation to theories of place identity. In the second analysis chapter I have discussed how residents at Svartlamon and Roma is in a constant negotiation of what is “in place” and “out of place”, and I have referred to the interviews in order to illustrate how processes of inclusion and exclusion occurred at Svartlamon. | nb_NO |
