Category Archives: Slovakia

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Slovakia and Integration

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Slovakia and Integration

A few new articles about the 200 mio Euroos that Slovakia di spend in 2024 on Roma integration …

Not all positive.

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Slovakia: Stereotypes

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Slovakia: Stereotypes

A re-edition of an article of a while back of a Vlach Romni from Slovakia who is teaching in a school. Unfortunately, all stereotypes are present: arranged early marriages, patriarchal society, etc…

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Slovakia and Roma Projects

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Slovakia and Roma Projects

The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities (ÚSVRK) has contracted approximately 480 projects worth almost 200 million euros over the past year, within which it provided over 95 million euros for the support of Roma and the development of infrastructure. This was stated by the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma Communities Alexander Daško at a press conference in Šumiac, Horehronie, on Thursday as part of the annual activity report of the office.

Frankly, the results are not yet visible…

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Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

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Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

The co-founder of the Roma Civic Association Lovári, Jaroslav Bihary (60) from Nitra, told us more about how these holidays take place in Roma families.

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Beautification?

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Beautification?

From November 25 to December 3, 2024, a large-scale artistic visual work was realized in Humenné, Slovakia, on one of the apartment buildings in the Podskalka area.

“The mural is the result of more than six months of the Muse, Walls, Murals project and the authors of the design are renowned artists Viktor Feher and Samuel Velebný. The goal was to search for the history, roots, traditions and stories of the settlement through community-educational meetings with children from the Podskalka locality. This is how the idea for creating a mural that describes Podskalka arose,” explained the project representatives.

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On Slovak Racism and the EU

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On Slovak Racism and the EU

Traditional Slovak racism thinks that Roma are mostly backward, uneducated, refuse to adapt to our culture, at best they just rub their hands together, take what they can from the system but give nothing back, at worst they cheat and steal – like Slovaks in the European Union.

There are, of course, certain differences here. For centuries, we have purposefully pushed Roma to the margins of society, we have not allowed them to settle, own real estate, or perform most professions.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Discrimination

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Slovakia: Discrimination

The Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNHRC) warns of discrimination against Roma in restaurant. It revealed this based on monitoring in ten cities in eastern Slovakia. In as many as six of them, discrimination was detected. A Roma couple tested the restaurants, and, if the result was discriminatory, another couple came to verify. The centre thus teste the services in 137 restaurants in total.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Roma Minority in Slovakia

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Roma Minority in Slovakia

Roma have been in Slovakia since the 14th century. The first written document about the Roma population in Slovakia is a document from 1322, in which the presence of Roma in Spiš is mentioned by the Spišské novoveske mayor Ján Kunch. Later, larger groups of Roma arrived in Slovakia. In 1423, Sigismund of Luxembourg issued a document at Spiš Castle that guaranteed the Roma certain guarantees of protection and self-governing judicial powers.

The difference in number of Roma in the 2021 census and the number of Roma residents in the latest Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019 is almost threefold. While the 2019 atlas indicates that at least 417,535 Roma people live in Slovakia, in the 2021 census, only 156,164 Roma people declared themselves Roma.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Relocation

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Slovakia and Relocation

Roman Lacko lived with his wife and two children in a shed in a Roma settlement in Važec, Slovakia. He lost his house in a fire in November. The municipality sayas that it tried to help them.

The Liptov village of Važec offers its residents emergency housing 100 kilometres away in another district and region. It bought apartments and a family house there, allegedly because they were cheaper than under the Tatras. According to the association of local governments, however, the problems of socially excluded communities cannot be shifted onto the shoulders of other local governments.

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Slovakia: Tibor Horvath

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Slovakia: Tibor Horvath

Tibor Horváth, a Roma advisor to the chairman of the Košice Self-Governing Region for Roma communities, died this last weekend. The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities reported on his passing: “These days, friends, selfless colleagues, great people and dedicated activists in the field of work with the Roma community have unexpectedly left us forever. Tibor Horváth from Košice, a fighter for a better life for the Roma, the only Roma advisor on the issue of the MRK from eight Slovak regions, passionate about the work to which he sacrificed everything.”

May he rest in peace.

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Slovakia: Discrimination

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Slovakia: Discrimination

Klaudio Virág (27), a resident of the city of Levič, tried to get a job at the Slovak Power Plants in Mochovce as a locksmith. He claims that in a phone call, the job broker told him that they didn’t want Roma people in Mochovce, allegedly because of bad experiences.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

A Fire in Zvolen

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A Fire in Zvolen

Five families in Zvolen, Slovakia, saw their homes burn down in mid-November, and it caused almost no commotion. They were Roma from the area below Pustý hrad. The families refused to go to a community centre temporarily; they were afraid they would lose their children. They moved in with their relatives and acquaintances and don’t know how they will survive the winter.

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Slovakia: Roma Spirit

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Slovakia: Roma Spirit

Ethnologist Oľga Bodorová has been nominated for the Roma Spirit 2024 award for her lifetime contribution to ethnography and museology, especially for her documentation of the material and spiritual culture of Roma in Gemer-Malohont. Her publishing and presentation activities and efforts to preserve cultural heritage are of invaluable value for future generations.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Roma Strategy

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Slovakia: Roma Strategy

The non-legislative document Action Plans for the Strategy for Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma by 2030 for the years 2025-2027 was submitted to the interdepartmental commentary procedure. The strategy highlights a set of starting points and goals that aim to stop the segregation of Roma communities, a significant positive turn in the social inclusion of Roma, non-discrimination, changing attitudes and improving coexistence.

But it also pushes for de-facto segregated schools by promoting teaching in Romanes.

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Slovakia and Education of Roma

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Slovakia and Education of Roma

Vlado Rafael, the Head of eduRoma MGO says Roma children can also study to become psychologists in Britain. Here they end up in special schools.

The article addresses the largest misinformation about Roma and education currently circulating in Slovakia: What is the status of the lawsuit filed against Slovakia by the European Commission for the segregation of Roma children in education, what impact does their placement in special schools for students with mild mental disabilities, where up to 70-80 percent of them end up, have on the future of Roma, why, according to non-governmental organizations, the amendment to the Education Act will further exacerbate the problem, and how Roma students are treated differently in Great Britain, where many of them successfully graduate from universities.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Gypsy Fest Festival

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Gypsy Fest Festival

The 15th annual Gypsy Fest took place in Bratislava. It is the fourth largest Roma festival in the world. It was unusually held in November.

Gypsy Fest is not just a music festival. The organizers also try to show the public positive examples from among the Roma.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

A Young Talent

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Last spring, only his classmates from the conservatory in Rimavská Sobota and friends from Detva in Slovakia knew him. But then in May he published a song with a video clip on the Internet and everything changed.

He is Rom, queer, and sings about the difficulties he is facing in a small Slovak town.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

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Slovakia and Segregated Schools

The elementary school on Krčméryho Street in Nitra is now attended exclusively by Roma children, but several Ukrainian students have also joined. Years ago, it was a mixed school, but parents of non-Roma children withdrew their children. A view of what this means first hand

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Roma, and Work

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Slovakia, Roma, and Work

Often called an “Ambitious fool,” Ivan Mak came up with the idea that he would employ Roma, the disabled, the long-term unemployed, single mothers, people without education and difficult to place on the labour market. For 10 years, Ivan has been giving work in the laundry and ironing shop in Horehroní, regardless of the colour of the skin or the disability of the people. It is said that people used to look at him like a UFO.

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