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Reviewed by:
  • Solomia: Sigøynerkongens datter [Solomia: The Gypsy King's daughter], and: Frykten for å bli hentet [The fear of being taken], and: Nasjonens barn [The nation's children]
  • Ada I. Engebrigtsen (bio)
Solomia: Sigøynerkongens datter [Solomia: The Gypsy King's daughter]. Solomia Karoli, 2009. Oslo: Aschehoug. 189 pp. ISBN 978-82-03-29177-7.
Frykten for å bli hentet [The fear of being taken]. Liv Andersen, 2009. Oslo: Conflux. 112 pp. ISBN 978-82-92948-01-9.
Nasjonens barn [The nation's children]. Bernt Eide og Ellen Aanesen, 2008. Oslo: Conflux. 168 pp. ISBN 978-82-92948-00-2.

The three books reviewed here represent different aspects of the position of the Roma and Travellers (Norwegian: tatere) in the Norwegian welfare state. I have chosen to review them together as in many ways they reflect each other, and in other ways they express rather well the Janus face of the modern welfare state. I will start by giving a brief sketch of the story of the Roma in Norway.

What are generally considered 'the Norwegian Roma' consist of between 600 and 700 individuals. They form a tightly knit group of intermarried families all living in the capital, Oslo. They speak Romanés and Norwegian and pursue a way of life on the social, political and economic margins of society. Many are wealthy and all are ensured a minimum income by the welfare state. They are largely invisible within Norwegian society. The Travellers consist of somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals, belonging to different groups and different organisations struggling for acknowledgement of their culture and language and for the mistreatment they have experienced as a people. As many still try to conceal their Traveller origins and since there is no official census of Travellers, their number is uncertain. Most Travellers today have regular jobs and live settled lives, but there is a strong revival movement among segments of the population. The two populations acknowledge each other as two distinct ethnic groups, do not intermarry and have little or no social exchange. In 2007 the Travellers and the Norwegian Roma were both given the status of national minorities in accordance with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

Solomia Karoli is the author of Solomia: The Gypsy King's daughter. Her father was Polikarp Karoli, one of the founding fathers of the Norwegian Roma. As an infant, Solomia was placed in an orphanage in Germany and then taken [End Page 115] 'home' to her parents, six siblings and extended family when she was five. She was, however, harshly abused by her parents before she was rescued by a social worker. Her case hit newspaper headlines at the time and was well documented. She then grew up in different foster families and youth institutions and tried to reunite with her family when she was around 15. She was welcomed back with enthusiasm, but when her father wished to marry her off, as is the custom among the Roma, she ran away and more or less cut off relations with her family. As an adult she pressed charges against her father and the Norwegian state, won her case and was given substantial compensation. Her later life was a battle against drugs and depression, but she eventually managed to carve out a life for herself.

Her story is not unique and fits well into a genre of minority/immigrant young women writing their life stories of maltreatment and abuse by parents or relatives. The book is not about the Roma, but about Solomia's life spent in different non-Roma environments. We learn very little of the particular situation of the Roma in Norway, but much about the life-trajectory of a child in public care and about a search for dignity and recognition through belonging to an ethnic group. The reunion with her family in her teens came as a result of a breakdown in relations with her foster family and admission to and eventual release from a psychiatric youth clinic. Her family welcomed her back cordially as mentioned, and Solomia relates vividly how they tried in vain to turn her into a shei bari, a marriageable Roma girl...

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