Key Learnings from the PEER Project. A Combined Research Paper (original) (raw)
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UCLAN Discussion Paper, 2019
Thirty years after the creation of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Roma children continue to experience 'human rights violations on a daily basis' and some of the most pervasive discrimination in Europe. For example, 2018 Roma Civil Society Monitoring indicates that there is 'inadequate awareness of antigypsyism 3 and/or its characteristics' and insufficient attention to the impact of child poverty on Roma children and their over-representation in alternative care. The EU have acknowledged that the situation of Roma children is 'particularly worrying' as Roma children are vulnerable to 'poor health, poor housing, poor nutrition, exclusion, discrimination, racism and violence'. Research demonstrates Roma children's exposure to poorer health outcomes due to low birth weight, and lack of targeted health promotion initiatives. Whilst some Roma children succeed and thrive, many Roma children experience rights violations linked to antigypsyism; economic inequalities; lack of documentation; poor experiences of healthcare, schooling and early education and care; exclusion from and segregation in these services; discrimination in the labour market; exposure to exploitation; denial of 'active citizenship'; and in some countries, Roma communities being described as a threat and deported. The 2018 EU Communication on Roma Integration notes the situation for Roma people is worsening in terms of housing, discrimination and possibly health and employment.
Roma youth and prospects for community development: Aspirations and the way forward
In 2015, the situation of European Roma communities continues to be critical. Roma remain one of the most disadvantaged minority groups in Europe. Discrimination and exclusion still characterize the lives of most Roma today, reflected in racist violence, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and high infant mortality. Young Roma need to be seen by European states as a demographic of growing importance. They make up a considerable proportion of population and, thus, are a significant part of the future workforce. The Roma young people also suffer from the community's prejudices and stereotypes. The main way for Roma youth in stepping out from the vicious cycle and to have positive representation within the society is education, mobilization in order their voice to be heard in their communities and in European society at large.
2017
The year 2015 concluded the Decade of Roma Inclusion-an unprecedented international cooperation among governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs aimed at eliminating discrimination against the Roma. At the end of this decade, two crucial questions arise: First, how can we evaluate the best practices and current challenges of integrating Roma at all levels of education, in both Europe and North America? Second, how can we measure the effectiveness of the European Union's (EU) Roma Framework, the initiative intended to combat social exclusion among this minority group? Examining the EU initiatives aiming at Roma inclusion as an issue common to most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries presents possibilities for conversation across the continents. Similar challenges face the education systems in the EU, USA, and Canada in terms of meaningful inclusion of children from minority ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds at all education levels. Thus far, Roma students in North America have not been identified as a group requiring special attention or accommodation. There are about one million Roma in North America and their number is slowly growing (Hancock, 2013); however, with the exception of concentrated efforts aimed at the anticipated influx of Roma from the Czech Republic and Hungary, the Roma who have come to Canada from other countries remain unrecognized and invisible. The Roma Experience program, created by the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Roma Community Centre in 2000, is an example of how Roma and non-Roma students can learn to tackle racism and prejudice, and understand what many Roma and other children of non-mainstream cultures endure. However, despite all of the efforts made by the education authorities in Ontario, Steven Harper's Conservative federal government introduced a refugee law that discriminated against Roma in Canada, and they were deported to the Eastern and Central European countries from where they had fled. The possibility of collaboration among scholars in the EU, USA, and Canada on the inclusion of Roma populations is demonstrated in this special issue. A large number of EU-wide initiatives under the umbrella of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Declaration (2005-15) were focused on education, including the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) (European Commission, 2012). Along with indicators like employment, healthcare, and poverty reduction, quality education is a fundamental measure of social inclusion. However, as Ryder in this issue argues, not only did educational measures fail to provide a "silver bullet" to facilitate the inclusion of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller (RGT)
Equality of Opportunity for the Roma Children? Limitations and Challenges Ahead
European Journal of Education Studies, 2019
The aim in this paper is to examine the school achievement of Roma children drawing from the outcomes of a small case study conducted in a lower secondary school in the Western Suburbs of Athens. Reducing educational inequalities is a key issue in education policy, aiming at promoting equality of opportunity for all children. Roma children are one of the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Western societies. In Greece, Roma people experienced an extreme social and educational exclusion of Roma people until the late 90s. During the last two decades, large intervention programs took place, aiming at including Roma children in education. The outcomes of these intervention progammes can be assessed as positive, as they bring and to a large extent retained Roma children in school for the first time, despite the huge difficulties and the resistance of the education communities and the local societies. However, it is argued that these achievements must be seen as only a first step towards enhancing equality of opportunity. The outcomes of this case study show that even in an area in which the most privileged Roma community is located, Roma children still underachieve compared to the non-Roma children.
No child left behind in the European Union?: the position of Romani children
Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 2017
This paper analyses how different EU documents (communications, recommendations, reports and surveys, etc.) focusing on Roma frame the position of Romani children. Many studies have shown that because of their intersectional positioning, Romani children often face multiple discrimination and triple exclusion: on the basis of their ethnicity, their age and their socioeconomic status. The paper comments on selected findings on Roma in the Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey published by the Fundamental Rights Agency in late 2016. One of the main findings of this Survey was that 80% of Roma live below the country-specific risk of poverty line in all EU Member States in which the Survey has been conducted. By specifically examining the implication this finding has for the position of Romani children, I argue that their position is, in fact, produced and reproduced with systemic, but also everyday racism. When it comes to Roma, but specifically Romani children, not even the European Union (EU), based on principles of fundamental human rights, is immune to such phenomena.
The growing divide: the marginalisation of young Roma children in Bulgaria
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2009
This article evaluates how evolving social policies for very young children and their families affect the marginalisation of Roma children from mainstream Bulgarian society. The Roma (or ‘gypsies’) have long been ostracised by various societies and since the fall of communism in 1989 have become increasingly vulnerable to income poverty and social exclusion. The exclusion of Roma threatens Bulgaria's economic and political growth because the Roma constitute an increasing proportion of the population. The article compares the effects of current child and family policies on modifying the social and economic differences between very young Roma children under the age of three and those of majority Bulgarian children. It demonstrates how both universal social policies directed at helping all children and policies targeted on helping the most deprived children in a population, can, because of previous employment and other factors, further marginalise the most disadvantaged children in a population.
Reclaiming Adolescence: A Roma Youth Perspective
Harvard Educational Review, 2017
In this article, the authors present data gathered in the Reclaiming Adolescence research project, which investigated the educational hardships of Roma youth by comparing their experiences with their non-Roma peers' in Belgrade, Serbia. Serious inequalities in access to secondary and tertiary education affect the life and career opportunities of Romani adolescents in Europe. Yet, despite a plethora of reports and surveys on this topic, the views of young Roma themselves remain undocumented. This article reports on research that addresses this lacuna in terms of both substantive findings and methodological innovation. Using participatory research techniques and focusing on the young people's voices, the authors reveal the direct impact of experiences of discrimination on Romani students' educational and career choices. Youth-based participatory approaches and support for youth leadership emerge as key tools to building robust and sustained adolescent investment in social ...