Obituaries Without Biographies: Death and Health Care in Roma Camps in Rome

The treatment of Roma groups is one of the most significant social equality issues in contemporary Europe. This article draws on the analysis of the Roma presence in Rome. It combines the ethnographic observation of a mobile medical unit operating in the Roma camps and shanties with the analysis of public and political reactions regarding a tragic accident that happened in one of these settlements. On the one hand, the focus of the article is on the medical unit’s involvement in the reproduction of the mar- ginalization of Roma citizens, and on the other, it draws on the case of the death of four Roma children, analyzing the political turn to grief of those individuals whose lives are subjected to different calculations of values.