{"id":1472,"date":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/11-04-2014-robert-kushen-the-integration-of-rroma-remains-a-challenge\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:48:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:48:25","slug":"11-04-2014-robert-kushen-the-integration-of-rroma-remains-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/11-04-2014-robert-kushen-the-integration-of-rroma-remains-a-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"11.04.2014 Robert Kushen: the integration of Rroma remains a challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinternational Rroma Day, the chairman of the European Rroma Rights Centre, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRobert Kushen, reflects on the situation of the Rroma in Europe and the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontinuing challenges for this minority (Kushen 2014). He arrives at a sober view: \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe decade of Rroma inclusion, which was adopted in Sofia in 2005, and encompassed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunfortunately cannot fulfil the expectations that it raised. Rroma are still \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taffected by widespread poverty, discrimination, unemployment and insufficient \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taccess to public institutions such as schools and hospitals: \u201cDespite this political recognition of an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunconscionable social crisis, Roma remain among the poorest, unhealthiest, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tleast educated and most marginalised European citizens. The data are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdevastating: Across Central and Southeast Europe, 90 percent of Roma live in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoverty. Fewer than one third of adults have paid employment. Only 15 percent \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof young Roma have completed secondary or vocational school. Nearly 45 percent \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Roma live in housing that lacks basic amenities. Life expectancy in Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcommunities is 10-15 years less than in non-Roma communities, with many Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlacking access to insurance and health care.\u201d<\/em> Kushen refers in his \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjudgement to information from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2013). Reasoning with such figures is not without dangers, since the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepresentation of the Rroma as uneducated, poor, and unhealthy is often \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinterpreted by the polemical, public discourse as a cultural peculiarity of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tminority, although these characteristics are inevitably a poverty phenomenon. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlthough is not to deny that numerous Rroma are poor and uneducated, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelevant question is whether such an argument can contribute to the\u00a0 integration of the Rroma. In addition, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsurveys often only take into account the visible Rroma, because the integrated \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tones are hard to identify as Roma and difficult to contact. Not only images of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmisery are needed, which generate compassion, but also images of success that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tallow a positive identification.<\/p>\n

Kushen continues with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinformation about the marginalization of the Rroma in Italy, France, Sweden and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHungary, and then gets on to the latest report from the European Union on the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsituation of the Rroma. The report published on April the second this year, can \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot present success stories either: \u201cIn \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tearly April, the European Commission convened a \u201cRoma Summit\u201d and issued a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treport assessing how member states are doing in addressing the interconnected \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tproblems of poverty and discrimination which the Roma are facing. The report \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnoted \u201cthe persistence of segregation\u201d in education, a large and in some cases \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twidening employment gap between Roma and non-Roma, big differences between Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand non-Roma in health insurance coverage, and an “absence of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprogress” in addressing the need for housing. Finally, the report noted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat discrimination remains \u201cwidespread\u201d<\/em> (compare European Commission 2014).<\/p>\n