Alexandra Bahor: Liverpool Roma Activist Challenging Stereotypes

Alexandra Bahor’s story is not one that needs sensational language to carry weight. Born into a Roma family in Romania, she grew up experiencing discrimination and learned early to hide her identity. Today, based in Liverpool, she works to challenge stereotypes and strengthen relationships between Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and the organisations that serve them.

From Romania to Liverpool

Bahor became the first person in her family to attend university, studying law before moving to Liverpool and completing an LLM at Liverpool John Moores University. Her experiences of discrimination during childhood and education helped shape her later work in Roma rights and community inclusion.

She has worked as a Roma community development worker, helping families engage with Liverpool City Council, and has also supported asylum seekers, refugees and minority communities in accessing health and education services.

Why visibility matters

Bahor has spoken publicly about concealing her Roma identity as a child because of prejudice. Her work now focuses partly on making positive Roma stories more visible and challenging assumptions that reduce a diverse community to negative stereotypes.

Education is central to that approach. Bahor has described it as a route to greater opportunity and a way for younger Roma people to see possibilities that may not always be reflected in public narratives about their communities.

Building trust with institutions

Community inclusion is not simply about representation. It also depends on whether public bodies understand the practical barriers people face when accessing schools, healthcare and local services. Bahor’s work sits at that intersection between lived experience and institutional practice.

Her story is part of a wider conversation in Liverpool about migration, identity and belonging. The most useful way to report it is to let the work speak for itself rather than turn discrimination into spectacle.