“Not Charity, but a Right”: Carceral Citizenship and Digital Reintegration of Roma in Türkiye

Melih Kuran
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Melih Kuran: Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Türkiye

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: The integration of digital technologies into public services has made “e‐government” a mandatory digital threshold in modern welfare states—one that risks producing new forms of exclusion for historically marginalized groups. This article examines the digital re‐entry of Roma formerly incarcerated people in Türkiye and the structural barriers they face after release. Drawing on Crenshaw’s intersectionality and Ragnedda’s digital capital, it analyzes how ethnic identity and a criminal record turn digital exclusion into a “double stigmatization.” The study draws on in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 15 formerly incarcerated Roma individuals across five Turkish cities, analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. Technological isolation during incarceration produces a disruptive “digital shock” and a difficult‐to‐recover “digital lag”; e‐government systems function as “virtual walls” that obstruct access to rights; and participants resort to “tactical bypasses” based on neighborhood social capital and “warm experts” (Bakardjieva, 2005) to circumvent what they experience as algorithmic gatekeeping. Arguing that digital inclusion is a matter of rights and social justice rather than charity, the study extends the model of “digital rehabilitation” to an intersectional Roma and carceral case and proposes context‐specific policy for the Turkish penal and re‐entry system.

Keywords: carceral citizenship; digital exclusion; digital re‐entry; digital rehabilitation; intersectionality; returning citizens; Roma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12690

DOI: 10.17645/si.12690

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