The localized interplay between the basic variables of marginalization - ethnoracial stigma, class and space - has long been the target of attention of critical researchers across the social sciences and humanities. In Central and Eastern Europe, they were mostly dealing with the situation of the Roma, who seem to be among the most visible victims of the post-socialist transformation. This presentation, based on data from ethnographic research in a small post-socialist ghetto, will attempt to make sense of the role of another variable in the equation of marginalization - security. Drawing from observational data and interviews with actors associated with dominant institutions at the municipal level, I will argue that security is best viewed as a readily available part of the cultural arsenal of various officers seeking funding and legitimation of their position and work in a situation of scarcity: security arguments will bring funds and legitimacy for any measure or policy more effectively than any other kinds of arguments, they are easily intelligible for all the persons participating in the chain of redistribution of public resources, and they hold too much drama and gravity to be ignored. What is more than problematic, however, are the unintended consequences of such a condition - security needs a target, a source of threats, which in this case is the ethnoracially stigmatized population, whose continuing marginalization represent both the cost of this strategy, and the source of its effectiveness, creating a vicious circle of marginalization and ethnoracial stigmatization in a situation where most of the participating actors only want to survive and be dignified.
