Minorities, social exclusion, Roma minority

Last update: 05 01 2010

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Background:

The Roma people are a sizeable ethnic group in Europe and trace their origins to medieval India. There are many Roma subgroups. They are often associated with homeless “nomads”, but many of them have been integrated and claim to belong to majority. In western countries just 1 % of the whole population belongs to Roma minority, except Spain – where it is more than 2 %. They live primarily in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Balkan.

The level of Roma integration in societies in these regions is limited. Since the fall of the iron curtain their living standards have drastically deteriorated due to low class position, unemployment, residential segregation, rural ghettoization, low education and low integration of Roma children, leading to cyclical problems.

They are often in conflict with majority population because of demographic pressure, economic decline, competition for local resources, political messages and extremist movement. European and national opinion surveys show that many Europeans take negative views on this group which are often based on stereotypes and prejudice.

Following the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, Roma communities have become one of the largest ethnic minorities in the EU. On request of the European Council, the Commission examined existing Community instruments, policies and progress achieved towards Roma inclusion.

In July 2008, the EC published its report with aim to make existing instruments and policies more effective. However, first EU Roma summit last September in Brussels managed to attract big audience but produced little in terms of policy initiatives. Commission has also committed to organize high-level meetings in several countries to optimize EU funding to improve the situation of Roma community - first held in Hungary in the middle of October  2009.

On September meeting of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion, 70 governmental and non-governmental actors agreed that education is essential for Europe's Roma minority. Stakeholders discussed ways to facilitate access of Roma people to mainstream education, and thereafter employment and housing. European Commission is expected to publish report on the progress achieved on Roma inclusion since mid-2008 at the beginning of 2010.

Visegrad group

According to the last census, 205,000 Roma live in Hungary, 89,000 in Slovakia and 200,000 Roma are estimated to live in the Czech Republic. The real population is much higher, but a lot of Roma claim to belong to majority in country where they live in.

A high proportion of Roma have never been enrolled in an education system, according to the Roma Education Foundation (REF). In Slovakia for instance, 60% of pupils in special education are Roma, the REF study found. In other countries like Hungary, children are deliberately placed in separate classes, which is also a form of discrimination.

CZECH REPUBLIC

In 2001 census 11.746 people claimed they belong to Roma community, but it is estimated that there can be from 150.000 to 300.000 Roma living in Czech Republic, or 2-3 % of total population. They are mainly concentrated in Moravian-Silesian Region (region neighboring Slovakia and Poland), Ústí nad Labem Region (North of the Czech Republic, neighboring Germany) and in the big cities such as Prague or Brno.

There has been many studies and on the ground research on situation in Roma communities in the Czech Republic in recent years. But while there seems to be enough information, the systemic approach to solving problems of Roma community is still lacking despite the fact that there has been three conception documents on the government level since 1989 (the last one from 2005).

Experts say that key to success lies within regional and local authorities who must actively contribute to the solution. The problem is that local authorities (and also general public) suffer from prejudice towards Roma communities, they tend to think that „every potential solution was already checked“ and that the problem is irresolvable.

In 2008, the Agency for social inclusion in Roma localities was established by the government in order to enable integration of Roma minority and to prevent exclusion. Among experts, this measure was widely valued as the way to find systemic solution to Roma issues.

The mission of the Agency is to coordinate actors dealing with Roma issues at local level and to encourage creating local strategies for Roma inclusion. It should work in the future also as an intermediate between ministries responsible for Roma issues in order to coordinate their action.

Currently, Agency is in a pilot phase. It has focused only on a limited number of regions (12) seriously threatened by social exclusion of Roma population. Activities of the Agency have been closely monitored with view of future evaluation and assessment in order to boost effectiveness of its mission. Having only 15 employees, agency has been criticized for not having a significant impact on solving problems of Roma community. At the moment, the discussion has been going on upgrading significantly both status of the Agency and its budget in 2010.

In 2008 Ministry for regional development put forward its vision of a new conception on solving problems of Roma communities but it has spurred extensive criticism from human rights agencies as it proposed dividing Roma inhabitants of socially deprived areas into three categories according to their situation (indebtness, participation on labor market) and to adopt different approach to each of these groups. The most controversial part was to move the most problematic families in special housing facilities with a strict rules these people would need to obey (such as alcohol and drugs abuse, or a ban on disturbing behavior during the night). In case they would not, they would be moved out.

Almost every Czech town has some disadvantaged area (a house, a street, or even a district) with worsened access to basic services, social network, working and educational opportunities, which is inhabited by Roma. These socially excluded areas are marked by significantly higher unemployment, great dependence on social benefits, high indebtedness, or poor living conditions.

The problems have worsened during the last 20 years as there is a trend in many towns to move members of Roma population outside from more prominent areas, sometimes even by using half-legal or illegal methods. But also Roma people themselves often prefer to move to a less favorable area because they are unable to bear increasing cost of living. This is the consequence of lower level of attained educational level in Roma community in contrast to majority population that also increases their vulnerability at the labor market because they have generally attained lower level of education and can qualify only for worse paid jobs (the problem that has been augmented during the crisis).

Increasing costs of living (payments for rent, electricity, gas, heating) also lead to greater indebtedness of the population that is being deepened by the fact that these people often do no qualify for standard commercial loans and are therefore dependent on the services of financial institutions lending money at very unfavorable conditions or even on the usury (often provided by other members of the community). This goes hand in hand with poor financial education of socially excluded people.

Living in socially excluded community further worsens outlook for a change. Furthermore, Czech educational system (in general) still promotes segregation of Roma children from children of majority population. This owes partly to catchment areas and partly to the fact that parents of both majority and Roma population prefer putting their children in schools (or classes) with majority children from their community.

Unfavorable family conditions very often prevent social mobility of children. Parents usually do not motivate their children to learn or study (but at the same time, children often do not have adequate conditions for studying at home) but on the other hand, schools often do not reflect special needs of these children.

Recent years have witnessed radicalization of ultranationalist and neonacist groups who are capitalizing on problematic coexistence of majority population with Roma communities in certain areas. Violent protests of far-right extremists against Roma community in the socially excluded quarter of the town of Litvínov in 2008 when many ordinary citizens joined the extremists pointed to the seriousness of the problem.

Mounting extremism have also raised motivation of Roma people to leave the country and contributed to a rise in number of „asylum seekers“ at immigration offices in Canada (as a reason for leaving the country, people usually quoted hope for better living conditions, better chance to find a job, fear of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and prejudiced behavior in majority population). As a consequence, Canada imposed visa regime for citizens of the Czech Republic in July 2009.

There are several public programs aimed at solving problems of socially excluded areas with Roma communities funded either through the national, regional and local budgets or EU funds (ESF, ERFD, EQUAL). Funding is available for projects in the field of social inclusion such as availability and quality of services, removing barriers in access to education („Roma assistants“ to teachers, supporting schools with social inclusive programs), employment (assistance to long-term unemployed, retraining programs, etc.), housing (such as social housing), building community centers, providing counseling services, outreach services, etc.

HUNGARY

Situation in Hungary is very special as the country does not only have to deal with the minorities living in Hungary, but it also puts the responsibility of protecting the rights of the Hungarians living in the surrounding countries as a strategic line in the country’s foreign policy. Neither of these is an easy task. Hungary has no grave problems regarding its national minorities, but it often gets into conflicts because of Hungarians living in the neighbouring countries.

Minorities living in Hungary are both ethnic and national. The most populous are Roma, but there are no exact numbers. According to the 2001 census the number of those who avow themselves as Roma is around 200,000, but even official estimates put the number of this group around 800,000 or more.

Besides the Roma ethnic minority, there are 12 national minorities in Hungary. Germans, Slovaks, Croats, Romans, etc. As already mentioned, Hungary has a Law on National and Ethnic Minorities that also preserves the right to have Local Governments for groups officially accepted as minority.

Hungary applies special Roma integration policy (which is unique in the region), paying also regard to horizontal an interdisciplinary aspects of the problem. The measures diverse from financial support, through the “Roma referent network” at the state owned establishments, to the definition of “Roma settlements” and a strategy to support their elimination. While the efforts are huge, positive effects are often doubted.

As segregation and social exclusion is considered to be the root of the ever growing animosity between Roma and Hungarian citizens, the Government started the National Educational Integration Network (OOIH) in 2003. The governing socialist party believes, that educating Roma and Hungarian children together will prepare the ground for future integration, however former socialist MEP Magda Kósáné Kovács -as responsible of the EP-report on the social situation of Roma- insisted that anti-segregation might be counter-productive, if not properly practiced (EurActiv.hu 2009.03.12.).

The report “notes that education systems are selective and that despite the efforts of the Member States to overcome segregation, the many and varied systems ostensibly designed to tackle segregation actually often serve to accentuate disparities between social groups and profoundly disadvantage the poor, in particular the Roma, who find themselves on a downward spiral; stresses, therefore, the need for targeted education policies which address Roma families and encourage active participation”.

Integrated education is also supported by the main opposition party Fidesz. Lívia Járóka, one of the few Roma MEPs (EPP) often underlines the importance of this measure. Referring to the “concordant opinion of researchers”, she says that integrated education ameliorates the results of Roma, but does not worsen the performance of non-Roma children (EurActiv.hu 2008.07.23.).

The Roma Education Fund recently published a report about the OOIH, which has been prepared by experts of the Central European University (CEU) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). The report takes similar conclusions to Ms Járóka´s. Skeptics “conclude that integrated education may harm all students, especially those belonging to the majority. Some of our results show that such a conclusion is not necessary true” – the report reads.

While integrated education is often criticized for existing just on paper and not having the human resources for realization, Hungary has proved to be a step forward in comparison to other countries in the region. With two Roma MEPs in the 2004-2009 EP, one re-elected, several Roma MPs and a Roma Local Government Hungary has a strong position in the EU for lobbying in flavor of a European Roma Strategy.

POLAND

Poland has one of the smallest proportions of national and ethnic minorities in the European Union (EU). According the National General Listing in 2002 more than 4,500,000 people in Poland (1,23%) stated to have other than Polish nationality.

The court verdict from the 6th of January 2005 about ethnic and national minorities and regional languages lists nine national minorities: Belarusian, Czech, Latvian, German,  Ormian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Ukrainian and Jewish. Legislative also recognizes four ethnic minorities: Karaimish, Lemcowish, Roma and Tatar.

The largest group is German –152 897 Polish citizens claim they belong to this minority - followed by the “diaspora“ from Belarus (48 737) and  Ukraine (30 957).  The other most populous minorities are the Roma (12 731), Russians (6 103), Lemkowians (5 863), Lithuanians (5 846), „Kaszubs“ (5 062), Slovaks (2 001),  Jews (1 133) and Ormens (1 082).  Members of the Czech, Karaimien and Tatar minorities most probably claim themselves to be Poles.

The Roma in Poland belong to four separate ethnic groups: „Polish Roma,“ „Karpatian Roma“ (Bergirtka Roma),“Kelderians“ (Kpiełderasze) and „Lowerians“  (Lowarze).  The Karpatian Roma (who have been following a sedentary lifestyle for hundreds of years) live in areas of the “Małopolskie“ Voivodeship.  

The biggest concentration of Roma is in the district gmina Bukowina Tatrzańska in the Tatra county, where 1,1 % of the population declare to be Roma. A relatively large part of „Bergitka“ Roma can be found in Upper and Lower Silesia, and in “Nowa Huta“. A lot of them keep a nomadic lifestyle tradition. They can be found also in larger cities like Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw, Łódz, Krakow, Mielec and Puławy and in many other small urban peripheries.

The education level of most Roma in Poland is very low. The older generation is mostly analphabetic. About 70% of the young generation attends standard education. Children often face anti-Roma attitudes when confronted with non-Roma children. In a survey conducted among primary school pupils, they were asked who would they rather NOT to share their school bench with. Third of the respondents answered that they would not be happy to share their benches with Roma. Only two groups received worse perception - homosexuals and people with mental diseases.

About 200 Roma pupils attend school in special „Roma classes“, which have been organized since the late 1980’with the aim to motivate the Roma youth to overcome the barriers in education and prepare them for studying in fully integrated classes. „Roma classes“ supposed to be a temporary solution but turn out as not a very good alternative to integrative forms of education.  

Roma do not participate in national or local politics. Therefore their problems remain „distant“ from the community’s legal representatives.  Most Roma in Poland do not have a regular job, work just occasionally and in most cases it is “black labor” (unregistered).

SLOVAKIA

More than one tenth of Slovak population belongs to a minority group. The most numerous ethnic minority are Hungarians (9,7 %) followed by Roma (1,7 %), Czechs (0,8 %), Ruthenians (0.4%), Ukrainians (0.2 %), Germans (0.1 %), Polish, Moravians, Croatians, Russians, Bulgarians and Jews.

Roma are considered as the second largest ethnic minority in Slovakia after Hungarians, but some sources claim up to 10 % of Slovakians (about 500,000) may be Roma. They concentrate mainly in the region of Bratislava, Banská Bystrica and Košice.

The status of minorities is covered by Constitution of Slovak republic. It guarantees the right to their own culture, the right to receive and disseminate information in their mother tongues, the right to form national associations, and the right to create and maintain educational and cultural institutions, the right to learn the state language, the right to education in their language, the right to use their language in official communications, and the right to participate in decision-making in matters affecting national minorities and ethnic groups.

The rights of national minorities and ethnic groups are protected also by other laws and international initiatives. Every person has the right to decide freely on his or her nationality. In charge of supervision of compliance with the rights of national minorities and ethnic groups and the creation of conditions for the development of their language and culture is Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities Ľudovít Galbavý and his office.

Most of the minorities in Slovakia are fully socially and economically integrated into the society. The main exception is Roma minority, facing serious cyclical social and economic troubles that led to low living standard, low education, social exclusion, unemployment, housing problems. It is estimated that more than 170,000 Roma live in poor conditions in 620 settlements. Roma children are disproportionately placed in special education systems - 60% of pupils in Slovak special education are Roma. The Roma in Slovakia also lack relevant political representation.

The extremist movement has been on rise since few months ago. During the summer extremists led by group Slovenská Pospolitosť gathered together on two places in Eastern Slovakia to protest against what they called “the Gypsy terror” in response to two teenage boys from a Roma settlement allegedly beating up a 65-year-old man at the football stadium in Šarišské Michaľany. The police intervened in force to disperse demonstration and used a water cannon on the crowd.

Seven people were injured, including five policemen. The action got mixed public reaction with MPs and former interior minister Vladimir Palko calling for the authorities to release statistics showing the number of crimes committed by Roma. He warned the government that crime committed by Roma is on the rise, claiming it was not just extremists, but also "ordinary, decent people” who felt increasingly intimidated, SME daily informed.

A lot of projects have been implemented in order to improve living standards or decrease Roma exclusion but they face critics because their impact is just short-term not sustainable and the applied policies have so far failed. Latest initiative came from the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities Ľudovít Galbavý in middle of September. His office announced a corrected call to submit applications for provision of support for projects to help the Roma minority in Slovakia. For the period until 2013 - €200 million was earmarked to fund projects benefiting the Roma minority. The main objective of the call is to elevate the social status, employment and education level of marginalized Roma communities as well to improve living standards in Roma communities.