Abstract
This paper will explore 20 books and articles to shed light on the daily living situation for the Romani people living in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Through an analysis of personal correspondence and the experience of personally traveling through these countries, I will extricate the root of the problem surrounding Roma discrimination and oppression. With an emphasis on how different countries approach social welfare, the work of Dubois and Miley (2011) will be invaluable to comparing theories of American social work to the observed European model of child welfare. Education, unemployment, and poverty are the main concerns of the Romani people, and looking at the political climate of their surroundings will serve to explain why little has changed in their oppressed and underprivileged community. Special schools meant for handicapped children that have inordinately high rates of Roma students will also be discussed. I will use the terms Roma, Romani, Romany, and Gypsy interchangeably.
Keywords: Romani, social work, child welfare, education, unemployment
Romani Music, Culture, and Human Rights
It’s ten o’clock in the morning in Budapest. We have gathered to meet Dr. Lynn Hooker, Istvan Szilvaisi, and Juci Csik, who speak to us about Hungarian-Roma music, views on Hungarian government, and the major social and political concerns of the Romani living in Hungary.
“A thirty year old college-educated man steals ten million dollars in a suit and tie and he doesn’t go to prison. Roma who steals ten dollars for food goes to prison,” Istvan sighs.1
“The cycle of unemployment is like…” Istvan motions his hands around and around in a circle and says something in Hungarian.2 Juci replies in Hungarian. I’ve come to appreciate the process of translating as both fascinating and exasperating.
“It’s like a gerbil wheel,” he says finally.3 Istvan explains how the Roma want to work; they’d work any job they could get. Employers, however, deny them work immediately upon finding out their Gypsy heritage. The cycle is perpetuated by stereotypes of laziness and criminality. If you don’t have a job, people think you’re lazy. If people think you’re lazy, then they won’t hire you. Gerbil wheel.
“And this fool,” Juci goes on, referring to official of Justice Kalman Kali-Horvath; “I hate him.”4 I was not familiar with Kalman Kali-Horvath, but we had discussed at length the alarmingly nationalist, anti-Roma, and anti-Semitic views of the newly re-elected conservative government.
Purpose of Paper
Before engaging in a discussion of Istvan and Juci’s commentary on Roma-Hungary relations and of the trip as a whole, I’d like to extricate the purpose of my inquiry into Roma life chances in the Czech Republic and Hungary. We have been called to the task of relaying our experiences and research into an insight regarding the status of Roma in the greater social, political, economic, and cultural climate. Personal conversations and first-hand accounts are invaluable when linking daily life conditions to the most important and pressing political and social developments, and so my findings will be based partly on interactions I had with professors, students, Czech and Hungarian residents, and of course—the Romani people. These conversations will be a worthy introduction to the political figures and social institutions that we were exposed to. Specifically drawing from my social work background, a discussion of the Czech model of child welfare will serve to shed some light on the life chances of the Romani. Discriminatory educational practices and their long-lasting effects will also be discussed. I will relate back to the life chances of the Roma and how their social, political, economic, and cultural environment impedes them from an elevation of status in all realms.
Government
To continue our exploration of Hungarian political climate, we return to the “fool,” Kalman Kali-Horvath. I wish now that I had asked exactly why Juci disliked Kali-Horvath so much. According to a statement he made in the Fourth Forum on Minority Issues for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kalman Kali-Horvath is the Special Advisor of the State Secretariat for Social Inclusion, Ministry of Public Administration and Justice on the Hungarian National Strategy for Roma Integration in 2011. At first, his story has all the calling cards of Roma-hero, and yet the politically savvy Juci denounced him as a fool.
According to Peter Popham, a contributor to the UK newspaper The Independent, Kali-Horvath is Romany and a part of the larger community of Roma who speak Hungarian and have lived in the country for centuries.5 Born to parents with alcoholism, Kali-Horvath grew up in orphanages, and as a teenager he was able to win a poetry prize from a national competition and become a TV news reader.6 At first I thought this stroke of good fortune and luck is what made Kali-Horvath unappealing to the disenfranchised Roma masses. However, reading his statement on the Fourth Forum on Minority Issues and the comments he expressed in Peter Popham’s 2011 article “Hungary in Crisis,” it is apparent that Kali Horvath’s views lend themselves to a conservative standpoint.
To explain, in his statement on the Fourth Forum on Minority Issues, he insists that in order for the government’s integration strategies to work, focusing solely on Roma women would be most effective because the “traditionally patriarchal society of Roma has perpetuated the factors that prevent integration.”7 He goes on to call this patriarchal structure a “harmful process” and states that Roma men are less likely to commit to training for the labor market while the women “clearly see the need for inclusion.”8 He goes on to explain the 2000 Roma Women Programme project, in which three major steps will assist in the ability of Romani women to “participate more actively in the life of society at local, regional, and national levels—beyond ethnic limits.”9
Furthermore, this project has three major steps, each of them problematic. The first step calls for fifty highly educated Roma women to act as mentors as the women participating in the program are trained for social and healthcare sector employment.10 Secondly, parental competency training that will be the “basis of all projects aimed at this target group in the future” will be carried out by a team of specialists.11 Lastly, the project hopes to reduce the number of education dropouts due to early childbirth by performing health screenings.12
Kali-Horvath’s one sided approach to solving the unemployment crisis among the Roma is baffling at best. He begins by making a seriously generalized statement that Roma men are unwilling to work or commit to skills training—already harping on the stereotype of the lazy gypsy. The women are also being mentored by highly educated Roma, which creates an atmosphere of inequality and status that might impede any kind of meaningful relationship between the two parties. All responsibility is then placed on the women’s shoulders—not only in the field of employment, but in parenting and reproductive health. Kali-Horvath specifically states that parental competency will be the foundation of every program aimed at Roma women in the future, ignoring the male contribution to child rearing and reemphasizing woman’s role as caretaker rather than student or employee. The vague assertion of “health screenings” meant to dissuade women from becoming pregnant at an early age is weak. Reproductive health education, safe sex practices, and access to birth control are much more realistic and empowering ways of preventing early pregnancy—and the statement made by Kali-Horvath doesn’t even mention the man’s role in any part of the process.
Juci’s disdain for Kalman Kali-Horvath becomes clear. His standpoint regarding welfare is that of the right-wing conservative ilk. In Popham’s article, he says that Roma have been granted a comfortable lifestyle from taking advantage of entitlements such as unemployment and maternity, while the state suffers financially.13 This is contrary to reality, in that no one seems to living comfortably in any Roma settlement. By harboring resentment towards those who use social welfare and public assistance, individuals are blamed for their situation and ostracized for using the system. Or, as Kali-Horvath believes, “milking” the system as a survival strategy.14
In discovering Kali-Horvath’s conservative and gendered viewpoints, I have come across a theme in his approach to solving the Roma unemployment crisis. The desire to make money and profit financially from integrating the Roma population into the workforce seems to be a greater influence in these types of projects than the benefits to the population itself. In his concluding statement, Kali-Horvath ends his project proposal by noting that it would be financially beneficial for both parties, but that the success of the program is based on the assumption that Roma integration is necessary.15 The very question of whether Roma integration is necessary for greater social and economic mobility speaks volumes about the attitude the government has towards the marginalized group. The Hungarian government leans conservatively, disliking public assistance programs—and rarely does this combination have positive outcomes for effective social work policies.
Social Work in Roudnice
Cesky Krumlov, a town located far south from metropolitan Prague in the Czech Republic, is where we settled into the smoky Cikanska jizba, or Gypsy Bar. Dr. Zuzana Jurkova, our Charles University professor, and I talk about our visit to a charity for Roma women and children. We discuss the similarities between social work in the United States and in the Czech Republic, and how I hoped to see an effective response to the ever-growing social problems of unemployment and inadequate education.
“The public no longer wants a conservative government; the newer generation is pushing against it,” she explains.16 We talk about the long-lasting effects of communism on social policy and government involvement in the daily lives of its people.
“Social work is only effective in small groups. What we saw the other day would not be possible on a larger scale,” Dr. Jurkova tells me, referring to the Farni charita Roudnice nad Labem.17 Our visit was brief, but instrumental to my understanding of Czech social work practices.
The Farni charita Roudnice, according to their website, is a Catholic charity that began in 1988 as a group of Armenian volunteers, becoming officially founded as a legal entity on May 12, 1995, by M.Hrnčířová.18 The organization is a part of six other diocesan charities; however the homepage explains their goal is not to change ideologies or politics with their religious affiliation, but to use their religious foundation as a guide to give necessary and attentive care.19 The Farni charita Roudnice operates as a shelter for women and children, with specific considerations for Romani families, as well as a crisis center, kitchen, laundry room, and apartments.20 The organization has a preschool for predominantly underprivileged Roma children, housing for the local homeless, and provides assistance to women with children who have lost their homes.21 In 2000, the Farni charita Roudnice reportedly had 20 Roma children over the age of three involved in their clinic, and the same amount of Roma children involved in their club house activities.22
When our group visited the Farni charita Roudnice, we were given a brief lecture on the current practices and statistics, which are encouraging compared to the numbers given for the year 2000. The following information was directly taken from the presentation provided to us by Farni charita Roudnice staff: in 2013, the organization boasted 77 clients that contained 23 families, with 37 children under the age of 15 and 40 adult clients. The Farni charita Roudnice is funded by the government and by charitable donations from the town.
The Farni charita Roudnice utilizes the strengths perspective, which is defined by Dubois and Miley in their 2011 work Social Work: An Empowering Profession as focusing on the “multidimensional nature of personal and environmental resources,” or rather, emphasizing a client’s positive qualities instead of harping on the deficits, incompetencies, and maladaptive behaviors.23 The strengths perspective is an integral part of nearly every aspect of the programs and activities the charity provides. They focus on the structured independence of the child, providing educational and recreational activities that enforce the utility of creativity, writing, class attendance, working in groups, and communication. Keeping their efforts on building skills and confidence means that clients can refocus their attention and become less negatively oriented. The facilities also accommodate psychological stress through open discussion of oppression, creating a sense of stability and normalcy, and removing the child from the strain of a negative environment to emphasize his or her unique strengths.
Furthermore, the Farni charita Roudnice provides cooking, cleaning, and money management skills training for its clients. These skill sets are the basis of creating a foundation of competency that is lacking from the clients’ lives. Responsibility is of major importance, considering that the Farni charita Roudnice also conducts home visits to assess family needs in order to address the most pressing issues. Home visits, or in-the-field-work, is roughly 70% of the work done by the Farni charita Roudnice, and it is their belief that home visits are most effective in ensuring the continued application of the skills and knowledge they provide.
International Child Welfare and Protective Services
The practices of the Farni charita Roudnice fall in line with what Dubois and Miley call primary prevention strategies.24 These strategies include support programs and childcare education, home-visitor services, early treatment, life skills training for children and adults, sex education and family planning, community resource information, and crisis-oriented care.25 All of these facets are instrumental in creating an empowered and responsible individual, whether that is a child or an adult. There is a significant relationship between the theories presented in my American social work textbook and the application of those theories in the Czech Farni charita Roudnice. This was not surprising, considering that the landmark United Nations Human Rights Convention on the Rights of the Child was introduced in 1989 and was ratified by 194 countries, ensuring it as the answer to any questions about the rights of children.26
To continue, this document brought the inequities among children to the attention of the social and political realm in a way that made it illegal to deny them their basic human rights. The document advocates for the rights of children in all areas, “recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.”27 It also served to outline what constitutes abuse or neglect and assured the protection of minors under the age of 18.28 This document effectively conveyed the importance of ensuring the younger generation’s livelihood; however, there are drawbacks to its construction. While the document outlines broad principles and frameworks, realistically it cannot change the cultural and ideological norms of each country to fit a mold of universal procedure.
To elaborate, it is clear that each country will handle its social problems differently in accordance to all factors that contribute to a nation, including economics, government, religion, history, and even geography. According to Marie Connolly, in her contribution entitled Innovative Approaches in Family-Centered Practice to the American Humane Association’s 2005 publication Differential Response in Child Welfare, differences between countries and the ways in which they approach child welfare are dependent on culture and ideology.29 Ideology has influenced the following distinction between international approaches. Connolly compares the United States to Western European countries, stating that the US has a tendency to delay intervention while investigating resources, while Western Europe favors an earlier preventative strategy.30 She goes on to state that the legalistic approach common in the US has a trend in other English-speaking countries, founded on a distrust of state intervention and based on the crisis model of intervention.31 In contrast to this, the development of child protective services occurred more slowly in Western European countries, leading them to be embedded more solidly in the universal welfare system and therefore inclined to reflect an emphasis on family support.32 European countries favor a discreet community-based resource system, whereas the United States is “adversarial” in its use of the legal system.33
In terms of culture, however, the success of either the community or bureaucratic approach is dependent upon the traditions and practices of the particular group of people receiving help. Connolly stresses the importance of a differential response to child welfare and protective services based on the unique needs of each respective group.34 Ultimately, she favors a “hybrid system” of child welfare that enforces the primacy of family and necessary protection for the child.35
Why is this significant to our Romani population of underprivileged and underserved youth? It seems that the Farni charita Roudnice found the right recipe for applying cultural sensitivities to social services. By creating stability, a sense of normalcy and structured independence—while keeping in mind that children require a social environment to properly develop into well-adjusted adults—the Farni charita Roudnice improves the social mobility of its clients. This point on social environment is absolutely key, as it has greatly affected not only the educational opportunities for Roma children, but ultimately their future employment and overall life chances.
Educational Concerns
To continue on that point, the theory at the Farni charita Roudnice is that if a child has not experienced the socialization of kindergarten, that child has become problematic in the eyes of the state and in terms of personal development. The organization has a specific focus on preventing those children who have not attended kindergarten from being placed into special education schools with children who are handicapped. Our group was shocked by this. The idea of placing children who are not handicapped, only of one specific ethnicity, into special education schools based on the incompletion of kindergarten seemed extreme. Therefore, this trend, if you can call it that, was a major talking point and concern of our trip.
Recall the early morning lecture in Budapest, when Istvan Szilvaisi asked our group if we had any questions for Juci or himself. I asked him what was the most pressing and important issue facing the Romani people. He barely took a second to answer.
“Education. It’s killing us,” Istvan says, with a disturbing account of Roma children left behind their white European classmates, forced into an unemployable future.36 During our stay in Budapest, we visited the Kalyi Jag School, an alternative trade school that specialized in musical and vocational training. Keeping in mind that we visited in early summer, and despite the fact that we met intelligent and dedicated staff and students—I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was lacking. Students seemed to have an inordinate amount of free time, and the facilities were in need of renovation. The financial pressure of the Roma situation became clear.
We were allowed to ask the students questions, and I was curious to know what their dream occupation was. One young man told me his dream was to open an all Romani restaurant, serving traditional food and employing only Romani cooks and staff. A young woman told me she wanted to be a model, while another student confessed he dreamed of being a famous football player. These dreams are the same dreams of any other young man or woman, and yet the future of these students seems to be heading in a different direction. Even after witnessing the Kalyi Jag School’s bright and engaged staff and students, I still couldn’t help but think that their inability to access adequate early childhood education had forced them out of mainstream high schools. With futures compromised by deeply ingrained discriminatory practices, these students were now heading towards a job market that would reflect their childhood exclusion from major society.
Disparities in Roma-related Information
Unfortunately, there are many obstacles blocking the path to effective education reform. The Open Society Foundation’s 2006 report, Monitoring Education for Roma, admits to having little confidence in the population and education statistics released concerning the Roma.37 Population statistics are consistently inaccurate, creating a space in which “inadequate information will continue to enable governments to evade responsibility for failing to create, fund, and implement effective programs for Roma integration.”38 The negative impact of this is as far reaching as condemning the next generation to continue on the path of exclusion from all social political and economic realms. There is some progress in efforts to obtain more current and accurate information, and one of the leading organizations involved in this endeavor is the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).
In terms of striving for statistical accuracy and demanding the government do the same, the ERRC’s 2013 report on the Czech Republic yielded encouraging results. The National Census of 2011 reported there to be 13,109 Roma living in the Czech Republic. However, this data does not coincide with research conducted by several other sources that cites between 150,000 and 300,000.39 Even more confusing, Joost de Laat estimates in the World Bank’s 2010 report Economic Costs of Roma Exclusion about 70,000 Roma living in the Czech Republic.40
These are official reports, not civilian estimates, and yet the information doesn’t line up. According to the Czech Statistical Office, as of March 31st, 2014, the overall population of the Czech Republic was 10,517,408.41 If the most recent estimates provided by the ERRC are as close to accurate as can be, the Roma population living in the Czech Republic is one of their largest ethnic groups. Richard T. Schaefer defines ethnic groups in Race and Ethnicity in the United States as groups “differentiated from the dominant group on the basis of cultural differences.”42 The key word here is “dominant,” as it correctly identifies the kind of division that occurs between the minority and majority population. The dominant group is also often overrepresented in the government, which might account for poorly conducted population surveys and such widely varying statistics. If the government’s population statistics are untrustworthy, and we know that this affects any information on the Romani, how do we proceed in determining the entire problematic scope of Roma integration?
Effects of Roma Education Practices
One place to turn is financial statistics, as they provide a more tangible explanation for the continued exclusion of Roma from major society. The World Bank estimates that the Czech Republic loses up to 367 million EUR annually due to the failed integration of Roma into the workforce and their “low education level.”43 The amount of money that could be saved from the inclusion of working-age Roma into the labor market is monumental; however, it all starts with proper educational opportunities. Czech Roma who completed secondary education have an average 110% higher earnings rate than Roma who only completed primary school.44
Furthermore, the government would be able to spend from two-and-a-half to eight times more per Roma student than it already does, if all fiscal gains from equal labor market opportunities were invested into public education for Roma children ages three to seventeen.45 A commitment like this from the Czech government would indicate a positive cultural shift in attitude towards the Romani; however, all evidence points to the contrary. The long history of placing Roma in schools with handicapped children is as relevant as ever, and through understanding how this practice began, we can look for ways to change it.
In Maria Andruszkiewicz’s contribution to Promoting Social Cohesion through Education: Case Studies and Tools for Using Textbooks and Curricula (2006) entitled “Romani Children in European Schools: Recent Experience,” she discusses the history of placing Roma children into special schools. Under the communist era, new schools were constructed in rural and impoverished areas with the mentality of easy access to education for all, and Romani children flourished.46 After the fall of communism, however, a strong assimilationist attitude arose in which differences of language, behavior, and culture began to define Romani children as unteachable.<a data-cke-saved-href="#endnt47" href="#endnt47" id="refnt47" name="refnt47>47 Roma children internalized this emphasis on conforming, and either denied their ethnicity or dropped from school all-together.48 So-called “gypsy-schools” were poorly staffed, underequipped, and had few resources with which to improve their facilities.49
Roma in “Special Schools”
According to Andruszkiewicz, Central and Eastern Europe have had, for decades, a medical model of disability that includes a wide range of “real or perceived” disabilities, making it possible to quickly diagnose a child with little evidence to support his or her exclusion from regular school.50 Arthur Ivatts, in his 2013 piece “In the Czech Republic, Segregation of Roma Children Continues,” speaks about his experience working with teachers in the Czech Republic in 2003 to reform educational practices to coincide with European Union standards.51 He witnessed the testing of Roma children and deemed it to be culturally biased and discriminatory in nature, easily allowing the children to be placed into special schools.52 Not only is the testing biased, but the teachers continue to promote and validate their status as special teachers in this system of “distorted testing arrangements.”53 Arthur Ivatts’ invaluable personal account sheds light on the ingrained prejudice Roma children face that ultimately condemns them before they even have a chance to try.
Consequently, Roma children are placed in schools with a lowered curriculum intended for individuals with “learning difficulties and mild mental disability,” and graduate not only with zero educational credentials, but are actually barred from progressing to institutions of higher learning.54 Parents are encouraged to send their children to special schools so that they aren’t bullied or discriminated against, a phenomenon that is counterintuitive to the progress of cultural understanding and acceptance.55 If Roma children are being pushed into lesser quality schools with no hope of a higher education, then the discrimination has already occurred. Furthermore, if Roma children continue to be exclusively forced into systems of lowered standards, their white European peers will maintain that the differences between them are racial and not constructed.
To assist the public in appreciating the full scope of this problem, the ERRC released a report in 2014 entitled “A Long Way to Go: Overrepresentation of Romani Children in ‘Special Schools’ in Serbia.” This report ultimately found that even though the total number of Romani students in special schools has decreased, their share of students in specialized educational institutions remains unacceptably high.56 In Vojvodina, Serbia, between the 2012 and 2013 school years, there was a 14.6% decrease in the number of Roma students in special schools.57 While this is encouraging, the Romani still account for over a fifth of the special school population.58 With statistics like these from 2014, the following 2007 court ruling will exemplify exactly how difficult it is for effective change to take place.
In 2007, the court case D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic sparked awareness of the discrimination and violation of human rights experienced by Roma children living in one of the most ethnically segregated and charged countries. The European Roma Rights Centre represented 18 students from the Ostrava region of the Czech Republic who felt they had received an inferior education from the special schools they attended due to a “diluted curriculum.”59 According to the European Court of Human Rights, the applicants alleged that their right to education, a right ensured to them, had been violated due to their ethnicity.60 At first, the chamber of the court denied any human rights violation, but in 2007, the court ruled in favor of the applicants in a landmark decision that, for the first time, solidified intolerance to violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.61 While the court ruling favored the Roma students and explicitly stated that denying access to a proper education was a violation of human rights, it is obvious from the current statistics that little change has occurred.
Education Reform
With nothing to look forward to but vocational training that, with luck, leads to low-income jobs, Roma children are set up to fail. However, in recent years there have been movements towards Roma education reform. New policies, NGO innovation, and government reform have all contributed some of their efforts to revamping “gypsy” schools, while integration into mainstream educational systems continues to be slow.62 An interesting component of these attempts at improvement involve targeting teachers for pre- and in-service training that entails observing successful multi-cultural classroom models.63 This refocused energy on changing the teachers instead of the students created a space for self-reflection and evaluation.
The introduction of the mediator, or someone with a background in education advocacy, community development, and social work, creates a more involved and personal approach to ensuring Roma children attend school and keep up with their classwork.64 These mediators are not always well-trained or well-intentioned, and much work needs to be in done in order for principals, teachers, mediators, and classroom assistants to harmoniously come together and create more effective teaching strategies.65 Nonetheless, preventative strategy and early intervention seem to be the most influential factors of these reform policies.
Consequently, preschool has become the battle ground for innovation and creativity regarding failed Roma educational integration. Preschool enrollment has always been historically low for the Roma, due to their traditionally familial preferences, which also affects mainly teenaged Roma girls who are expected to care for younger children.66 Bernard Rorke’s 2012 piece, “A Good Start: The Key to a Better Future for Roma Children,” explains how Roma children who attend preschool regularly have a better chance at entering secondary school, but that efforts need to be made to involve substantially more Roma children into adequate preschools.67 The Roma Education Fund pilot project, also entitled “A Good Start,” worked with 4000 Roma children in four countries to ensure access to early childhood education and care services and was ultimately instrumental in creating a mold for future policy agendas.68
Furthermore, according to the Roma Education Fund website, the project goal was to “prevent inequalities before life trajectories are established.”69 The “A Good Start” pilot project also surveyed the parents of the children involved in the program to get a sense of their attitudes towards education and their satisfaction with the program.70 This kind of involvement in the feelings of those participating in the program will serve to create more effective policies in the future. “A Good Start” works with parents in a way that no other program has, ensuring that they understand the long-lasting benefits of early childhood education while reaching out to Roma communities to create an atmosphere of inclusivity and familiarity.71
While effective programs such as “A Good Start” exist, there remains an enormous inequity that seems immobile. I am reminded of Professor Zuzana Jurkova’s comment that social work is only effective in small groups, and I now believe that the sentiment is true of educational reform policies as well. The evidence and research show no successful implementations of country-wide reformations or policies that are effectively enforced and yield positive results. The reality of the situation is that small groups are easily managed, constructed, and maintained, while at the same time providing more individualistic care.
The progress is painfully slow. Bernard Rorke writes in his 2013 piece, “Roma Education in 2013: Time for Europe to Remedy its Democratic Deficit,” that the continued failure of integration policies and promises of financial commitment are indicators of persistent racism and lack of true dedication.72 There seems to be a vacuum into which Roma integration and educational reform policies get sucked, because in the years and years of European Union funding and proposals, nothing significant has changed. Rorke suggests an emergency Roma fund to jumpstart current efforts; however, he acknowledges that money cannot change a history of racism and oppression.73
Employment
Ann Hyde writes in her 2006 piece, “Systematic Exclusion of Roma from Unemployment,” that only one in three working-age Roma is employed.74 Sixty-eight percent of Roma who are employed work low-income jobs related to the education level they attained.75 This correlation is disturbing, considering how we’ve just uncovered the enormous difficulties in changing educational policy. The life chances of young Roma are wholly dictated by the system. If the system doesn’t change, these unemployment rates will only continue to bring down the economic opportunities for growth and elevation of status. Niall O’Higgins and Andrey Ivanov write in their 2006 work, “Education and Employment Opportunities for the Roma,” that public works and private business employment would ultimately ensure income security and improve job skills for the Romani in the long run.76 Income security and becoming marketable to employers are two huge factors that would change the lives of the Romani living in Europe.
Conclusion
The life chances of the Romani are entirely dependent on their early childhood educational opportunities and subsequent access to employment. The full scope of racism I observed while traveling through Europe did not become clear to me until conducting this research. The limited access to adequate education and the unwelcoming social, political, and economic climate have impacted the Romani gravely in terms of desolate poverty, high rates of unemployment, and the inability to integrate into mainstream society. In fact, upward social and economic mobility is nearly nonexistent. Placement of Romani children into special schools destroys the future of the Roma. The most influential social work practices revolve around early childhood intervention and family-oriented care, but as it stands, European governments have proven themselves ineffective in enforcing anti-discriminatory and integration laws. It is the task of social workers working with Romani youth to engage and enforce the importance of education and to continue to advocate for their inclusion in the public realm. Radical changes in policy are desperately needed, and if the government continues down its path of indifference, the only solution is to elevate the Romani’s collective consciousness and force the change that is necessary in order to achieve equality.
Endnotes
1 Szilvaisi, I., Csik, J., & Hooker, L. (2014, June 11). Personal Communication.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Popham, P. (2011, July 10). “Hungary in Crisis: Tensions with its gypsy population threaten to rip the Eastern European country apart.” Retrieved July 26, 2014, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hungary-in-crisis-tension....
6 Ibid.
7 Kali-Horvath, K. (2011, November 29). Fourth Forum on Minority Issues. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/docs/session4/It....
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Popham, 2011.
14 Ibid.
15 Kali-Horvath, 2011.
16 Jurkova, Z. (2014, June 1). Personal Communciation.
17 Ibid.
18 “History.” (2008, January 1). Farní charita Roudnice. Retrieved July 27, 2014, from http://www.charitaroudnice.cz/.
19 “Homepage.” (2008, January 1). Farní charita Roudnice. Retrieved July 27, 2014, from http://www.charitaroudnice.cz/.
20 “History,” 2008.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 DuBois, B., & Miley, K. K. (2011). Social work: an empowering profession (7th ed.). Boston, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, 23.
24 Ibid, 358.
25 Ibid.
26 United Nations Human Rights. Convention on the Rights of the Child. (1989, November 20). Retrieved August 4, 2014, from http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Connolly, M. “Differential Responses in Child Care and Protection: Innovative Approaches in Family-Centered Practice.” Protecting Children 20, 8-22. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from http://www.americanhumane.org/assets/pdfs/children/differential-response..., 8.
30 Ibid., 10.
31 Ibid., 11.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid., 14.
35 Ibid., 13.
36 Szilvaisi, 2014. Roma Initiatives Office. (2006, December). “Monitoring Education for Roma.” Open Society Foundations. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/monitoring-education-roma, 2.
37 Ibid.
38 European Roma Rights Centre. (2013). “Czech Republic: Country Profile 2011-2012.” Budapest, Hungary, 7.
39 Ibid., 1.
40 Czech Statistical Office. “Population.” 2011 National Census. Retrieved August 6, 2014, from http://www.czso.cz/eng/redakce.nsf/i/population.
41 Schaefer, R. (2005). “Understanding Race and Ethnicity.” In Race and ethnicity in the United States (Revised/Expanded ed., p. 8). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
42 De Laat, J. (2010, April 1). “Economic Costs of Roma Exclusion.” Retrieved August 6, 2014, 3.
43 Ibid., 4.
44 Ibid.
45 Andruszkiewicz, M. (2006). “Romani Children in European Schools: Recent Experience.” In Promoting Social Cohesion Through Education (pp. 81-105).
46 Washington DC: The World Bank, 82.
47 Ibid., 84.
48 Ibid., 83.
49 Ibid., 84.
50 Ibid.
51 Ivatts, 1.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Andruszkiewicz, 85.
55 Ibid., 87.
56 European Roma Rights Centre. (2014). “A Long Way to Go: Overrepresentation of Romani Children in ‘Special Schools’ in Serbia.” Budapest, Hungary, 6.
57 Ibid., 20.
58 Ibid., 21.
59 European Roma Rights Centre. (2013). “D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic.” Retrieved August 7, 2014 from http://www.errc.org/article/dh-and-others-v-the-czech-republic/3559.
60 D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic (2007). Retrieved August 7, 2014 from http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-83256.
61 European Roma Rights Centre, “D.H. and Others…” 2013.
62 Andruszkiewicz, 89.
63 Ibid., 92.
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid., 93.
66 Ibid.
67 Rorke, B. (2012, June 14). “A Good Start: The Key to a Better Future for Roma Children.” Retrieved August 5, 2014, from http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/good-start-key-better-futur....
68 “A Good Start: the EU Roma Pilot.” (2012, June 4). Roma Education Fund. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://www.romaeducationfund.hu/good-start-eu-roma-pilot.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., 5.
71 Rorke, 2012, 1.
72 Rorke, B. (2013, January 17). “Roma Education in 2013: Time for Europe to Remedy its Democratic Deficit.” Retrieved August 6, 2014, from http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/roma-education-2013-time-eu....
73 Ibid., 3.
74 Hyde, A. (2006, March 31). “Systematic Exclusion of Roma from Employment.” European Roma Rights Centre. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://www.errc.org/article/systemic-exclusion-of-roma-from-employment/2....
75 Ibid.
76 O’Higgins, N., & Ivanov, A. (2006). “Education and Employment Opportunities for the Roma.” Comparative Economic Studies 48, 19.
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