The Racialization of Vulnerability: How Begging and Trafficking Discourses Reinforce Anti-Rroma Bias.

OBJECTIVES: This article investigates how racialized and essentialist narratives influence academic and policy discourses on begging and human trafficking, particularly regarding the Rroma community. It aims to expose the ways in which these narratives legitimize structural discrimination and exclusion. THEORETICAL BASE: The study is grounded in critical social work theory, postcolonial theory, and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991; Bobako, 2017), with a focus on racialization, scientific racism, and the construction of "otherness." METHODS: The article is based on the findings of two independent empirical studies looking at the two axes: human trafficking and begging. In relation to the thematic areas under analysis, the triangulation of data and methods is used in both independent research projects (Flick, 1991) and conducted for this theoretical analysis. OUTCOMES: Findings reveal that both axes construct Rroma either as passive victims or active perpetrators, erasing structural causes of poverty and trafficking. Racialized representations--e.g., the "happy beggar" or the patriarchal Rroma exploiter--perpetuate stereotypes and obscure socio-political realities. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: Social work must adopt decolonial, participatory, and intersectional frameworks to resist reproducing discriminatory discourses and instead empower marginalized communities as agents of their own narratives (Tuhiwai Smith, 1999). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]