The example of absolute marginalization of Roma, in almost all aspects of social life, compares to that imposed to the Indigenous people in Canada and the Irregular Migrants in their host countries. Considering that “otherness” is the common element in all three groups, their continuing struggle to survive and their unabated resistance to preserve their culture and identity, discloses the failure of our society to eliminate the chasm between the equitable principles which purportedly govern the treatment of these socially vulnerable groups vis-à-vis their actual standing in society. To formulate solutions to bridge this gap, both in theory and in practice, involves keeping the interest in justice and fairness alive as indispensable to understanding human action and social life.

Dr. Andriani Papadopoulou received her PhD in Sociology in 1994 from York University Toronto, Canada. She is presently a Senior Investigator in the Human Rights and Equal Treatment Departments of the Greek Ombudsman. Her work evolves around combatting discrimination and examining the ways though which socially vulnerable groups sustain and reinvent their heritage in their newfound societies.