ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the processes of racial and ethnic exclusion, discrimination and marginalisation which involves denial of access to societal opportunities and rewards, for example employment, education, housing, health, welfare and justice. After consideration of the conceptualisation of discrimination, overall patterns of racial and ethnic discrimination across Europe are examined together with detailed consideration of one key field: housing. This has been chosen here as it is a field which usefully illustrates multiple forms of everyday unequal treatment. Evidence from European societies on housing highlights the particular severity of living conditions experienced by the Roma. The estimated 10 million Roma are one of the most marginalised groups in Europe, and they provide a key focus for this chapter in illustrating the ways in which these processes work. The social and political construction of Roma identity, introduced in Chapter 2, seeks to establish commonalities in the experiences of a multitude of groups such as Gypsy and Tsigane and sub-groups such as Sinto, Kalderash and Boyash (Vermeesch 2006).
