Roma music, migrant music, or music for all?

This presentation will detail the researcher’s and research participants’ experiences in a Roma
music group that was created to support the integration of young Roma in Brussels. While the
organisers attempted to recruit Roma and Belgian participants, the group was ultimately
comprised of a mix of Belgians and a variety of Roma and non-Roma migrants, and people of
diverse ages and migratory statuses. Through the shared goal of learning and performing Roma
music, the roles and power dynamics in the group shifted and mutated, as did the unofficial goal
of the group as a whole. The researcher and participants worked together to share Roma music
and cultures, but also to understand one another’s migration journeys, or lack thereof, and what
this meant for their daily lives in the city of Brussels.