Roma and Sinti children are facing discrimination in German schools.
Kiba Lumberg’s novel entitled Black Butterfly (Musta perhonen)., describes the oppression of women in the patriarchal community of Finnish Roma.
“My curse and blessing is that I was born a Roma woman,” begins the story of Memesa Grönlund, the main character of the novel. It tells the story of a girl growing up in the Kale Roma community in the city of Lappeenranta in eastern Finland. Memesa describes life in their patriarchal community, the relationships between her and the rest of her family, but also the bullying she encounters at home and at school.
An article with testimonies of racism towards Roma, but also Ukrainians, Moslems, etc.
“He shouted at us that we gypsies should not be here, that we stink, that we should sit in the back and not in the front, that they treat us like gypsies, that we are dirty gypsies.”
“I faced discrimination when they refused to serve me in a café and a bar because of my Romani origin. It was very humiliating and embarrassing for me.”
An unusual article about Roma in the Ukrainian Transcarpathian region. It states that over 10’000 Roma have left the region, and that the rest is living under difficult conditions. Journalists from the website zaholovok.com.ua talked with Myroslav Horvat, leader of the Roma community, Ivan Jonash, deputy of the Mukachevo City Council, and Viktor Ilchak, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, about what the past year was like for the Roma community, whether changes are felt, whether there are positive developments, as well as about the negatives.
An interview with Aziza Sally, coordinator of the association “Initiative for the Rights of Roma Women from Shuto Orizari”. She says that since the pandemic, not a single patronage nurse has visited a mother from the Roma community. Roma women have been facing the same problems in the country for decades – from discrimination in the educational process to institutional belittling and humiliation.
Bad.
Marek Badžo and Darina Berková, a Roma couple, bought a house in the centre of the village of Nižná Myšla in the Košice-okolie district. Some residents didn’t like it, so they wrote a petition. They mentioned the Roma origin of the new owners and their concerns that they might be unadaptable people who would cause problems in the village.
The residents justify their position by the mayor’s long-term failure to resolve the situation in the Roma community, and they also have reservations about the way the house was sold. Meanwhile, several politicians have been involved in the events in the village, who see discrimination and segregation in the behaviour of the locals.
Well, you don’t need a Ph.D. to see that.
To be a Rom in Slovakia is not easy. The stereotypes are hard to overcome: poor, with many children, uneducated, not willing to work and integrate, dirty, etc.
Lana, a 28 years old Romni from a small town in eastern Slovakia who now lives abroad, founded the Instagram profile “Kamiben” to counter these stereotypes and told about her experiences as a Romni iN Slovakia. Scary, for example, a customer refused to pay for groceries because a Romni touched them. It says a lot.
Michal Sivák, a gifted teacher and Rom has a job in a school in Bratislava. The problem: he can’t find an apartment as his applications are rejected because he is Rom.
He now says he won’t stay in education. What a waste.
Another article about the survey of discrimination of Roma in restaurants in Slovakia. The survey came out last year, with a flurry of articles, but it is still “news” in Slovakia. Here, more on the fact that this could happen nowadays.
Well, it does.
Slovakia is fifth among European countries for long term unemployment. Slovakia’s Minister of Labour Erik Tomáš from Hlas has now come up with a solution that his critics describe as a whip for the unemployed. They could lose it for several months if they do not start working. They plan to offer them work along the lines of Hungary’s Orban Közmunca – a form of forced employment often under 19th century conditions.
The minister claims that they will affect all unemployed people and should not be considered discriminatory. However, the data shows that the percentage of Roma is highest in the districts of Slovakia where long-term unemployment is also the highest.
Thousands of children from the Roma and Ashkali communities are excluded from the education system, despite all strategies aimed at increasing their inclusion. Some of them attend Serbian schools, where they learn with texts that foster ethnic divisions and stereotypes. This situation raises concerns about integration and inter-ethnic coexistence in Kosovo.
Researcher Michaela Ujházyová and lawyer Lucia Gandžalová from the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights did test Slovak restaurants. They focused on discriminatory practices against Roma in ten cities in eastern Slovakia.
During a test visit, a Roma couple in a restaurant was told that some products on the menu were not available. Or the staff told a Roma couple that the lunch menu or dessert was not ready yet or that they had already sold out. There was no problem with a non-Roma couple.
The research team involved couples in the situational testing who did not come directly from the places where the selected restaurants were located and who had not even been there. “In no case could it be an experience with specific guests who had previously behaved unacceptably there, disturbed other guests or had debts there,” explains Michaela Ujházyová.
The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR) of the Slovak Republic presented a specific bill regulating the reduction of social benefits in the event that a person able to work refuses to work. The discussion on the withdrawal of social benefits began in the middle of last year.
The issue here? Roma. And the work that the ministry is proposing is very much in line to what is being done in Hungary, so called közmunka [communal / public work] meaning cheap labour based on 19th century technology.
Bad.
A small town in Eastern Slovakia, Gelnice, want to build social housing in the town. This raises fears, as many of the social beneficiaries are Roma. And their housing is bad.
But then, no one wants them as neighbours.
Bad.
An article about a politician asking how much money has been spent on Roma projects in the Roma settlement of Dobruška vas, where around 350 people live in the Municipality of Škocjan. A new kindergarten was inaugurated recently after the previous one was destroyed by arson. But apparently, this is the third time, money has been spent on a kindergarten.
Skopje’s public transportation is apparently discriminating against Roma, not stopping at stops in the Roma neighbourhood.
Bad.
In Fil’akovo, a third of the city’s population are Roma. However, there are no excluded communities and makeshift dwellings like in eastern Slovakia. There is a different historical development behind this.
The local Roma mostly speak Hungarian, the majority language in the city. They attend secondary schools, and some then go on to study at universities. Jobs in this region are still scarce, far away, and poorly paid. For Roma, this means that it is even more difficult to find one, which is why many choose to go abroad.
Romnja from the Bardejov district in Slovakia have been trying to improve their financial situation by getting a job for years, but many are not successful. The obstacles are persistent racism, practical problems of life in the settlement, but often also resentment from their own families. Women from marginalized Roma communities thus remain the least working group.
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.
From 10 to 13 December 2024, the Roma and Travellers Division of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Agent of the Hungarian Government before the ECHR and the Hungarian police authorities, organised a training of trainers based on the toolkit for police officers, focusing on the Council of Europe standards on racially motivated crimes and non-discrimination.
Well… Discrimination in Hungary is rampant. And the government has done nothing in the last 20 years against it…
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