Roma still face ethnic discrimination in Europe and struggle with poverty, their children have less access to education and they are below the EU average when it comes to paid employment, according to a new report.

“For centuries, Roma and travellers have faced negative stereotyping, marginalisation and exclusion. This stems from the age-old practice of othering as well as the lack of public knowledge or awareness of their historical experiences — from forced assimilation to Roma genocide during the Holocaust”, said Siobhán McInerney-Lankford, head of equality, Roma and social rights at FRA

“Moreover, EU countries have been rather slow in adopting and implementing comprehensive inclusion strategies that would effectively address structural inequalities. All this manifests today in high poverty rates, poor housing, early school leaving, lack of job opportunities and ultimately lower life expectancy, harming generations of Roma and Travellers and their children.”

  • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    171·
    20 days ago

    The whole thing is a huge problem TBH and there is no easy way to solve it. Pouring money on it mindlessly is not enough.

    I’ve seen several interviews with successful Roma people who became teachers or engineers for example and it seems like it is an universal experience that their family cut ties with them. One girl who became a schoolteacher was violently attacked by her own family after coming to visit after she graduated, as her attending higher education was seen as a kind of betrayal at home.

    This is in Hungary BTW, and that said the Roma politician who is supposed to represent them and preside over integration efforts stole most of the money given, so there’s that. I guess he at least integrated well into the government of thieves. IIRC he had a scandal as well because ministers and the like in Hungary have to have at least finished elementary school (8 years from 6 to 14), and he faked his record.

    It also doesn’t help that the child protection system is broken, while the foundation was solid. In Hungary, child protection services visits are mandatory in the very early years of having a kid for everyone, which IMO should be a good policy.

    That said, it was corrupted by being defunded and children’s homes being used by pedophilic politicians as a brothel for example. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Public Communication (propaganda) have both been implicated in essentially raping orphans, among other people. Numerous other people.

    This also impacts Roma people in and outsized way of course, as children’s homes are mostly full of Roma kids. Kids have been taken away by power-drunk officials from perfectly good Roma parents on racist grounds while cases of totally unfit parents getting signoffs are mounting in number, including cases where the child dies in the end. Of course, this then is used to fuel racism instead of calls to reform the system.

    That said, there is also cause for hope. The current Hungarian government is, as things stand, going to lose the April election. The new government will likely have Kriszta Bódis in their cabinet. She led a program that had the rate of enrollment in secondary education of the local Roma population of one of the most destitute Hungarian towns go from 2% to 100% in 5 years. Her foundation called “You have a place / You belong” (IDK what the better translation for “Van Helyed” is), led an effort of joint cleanup and reconstruction of the ghetto Roma people live in at Ózd.