Tag Archives: Integration

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

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Slovenia: Mayors and Roma

The mayors of Novo Mesto, Črnomelj, Kočevje and Ribnica have once again stressed the need for increased employment of Roma before a session of the government working group for addressing Roma issues. In their assessment, work is not paying off for the majority of the Roma population due to “disincentive social legislation”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Community Centres

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Slovenia and Community Centres

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has selected four projects for the establishment of nine centres across the country within the framework of a public tender for co-financing a network of multifunctional Roma centres, worth a total of 4.9 million euros.

Two of these will also start operating in Pomurje, in the area of Lendava and Murska Sobota, by the end of this year.

One can rightfully ask if those projects will really further integration in view of the current mood in the country about Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Desegregation

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Slovakia: Desegregation

Just two years ago, all poor children from the Pod Pustým hradom area in Zvolen sat in the classrooms of one elementary school. Students from the majority population gradually left it.

More than half (57 percent) of all socially disadvantaged children in Zvolen attended this school. The other five schools in the city had no such students at all or very few of them.

However, in 2022, the city of Zvolen began to address the segregation of Roma students by redefining school districts. Simply put, children from the poor community no longer belonged to one school district, and therefore to only one of the Zvolen schools.

They now began to assign them to school districts not by street, but by entrance numbers. Today, children from generational poverty no longer fall under one Zvolen school, but attend three – one private and two public.

This is good!

News Eastern Europe Serbia

A Bridge

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A Bridge

The bridge near the Health Center in Bujanovac, towards Novo Naselje, has received a new, refreshed look thanks to the joint action of the “You are Rom” Association, the Municipality of Bujanovac and the Mayor of the Municipality, Arber Pajaziti. “This bridge has a special symbolism – citizens of different nationalities pass through it every day: Albanians, Serbs and Roma. As a common space, the bridge symbolizes the connection and coexistence of all peoples who share the same city,” say the Roma Association.

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro: Mediators

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Montenegro: Mediators

The Montenegro Ministry of Education and Science has announced that a competition has been launched for the recruitment of educational mediators to support the education of Roma students for the 2025/2026 school year. The plan is to recruit 85 people, including 50 mediators for primary education and 35 for secondary education.

Well, nice intentions, but will it suffice?

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Roma in Transcarpathia

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Roma in Transcarpathia

On July 17th, a press conference was held in the Uzhhorod press club discussing the results of the project “Leaders of Change – Roma Children on the Path to Success”, which was implemented in Transcarpathia.

Recommendations for the “Action Plan for 2026-2027 on the Implementation of the Strategy for Promoting the Realization of the Rights and Opportunities of Persons Belonging to the Roma National Minority in Ukrainian Society for the Period Until 2030” in the Transcarpathian Region will also be presented.

Meanwhile, all Roma who can flee the region …

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Journalists

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Roma Journalists

Roma journalists spoke with Serbian State Secretary Ninoslav Jovanović about the future of the Roma community. Organized by Roma media and supported by Telegraf, an important meeting was held between representatives of Roma editorial offices and the State Secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Mr. Ninoslav Jovanović.

The occasion for the gathering was an open dialogue on the current position of the Roma community in the Republic of Serbia, as well as on the initiative to establish the Roma Foundation, a fund that is currently in the legal procedure phase and whose adoption is expected in the coming months.

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

North Macedonia and Integration

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North Macedonia and Integration

Shaban Saliu, Minister without Portfolio for Integration and Implementation of the Roma Inclusion Strategy 2022-2030, presented the work carried out last year and considered that avenues had been opened for the direct, systemic integration of Roma in all areas of life. According to him, the greatest progress has been made in integration into education, while efforts have also been made in access to health services and concrete projects aimed at ensuring decent housing.

Well, reality may be somewhat different …

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Roma Community Centre

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Roma Community Centre

The Roma Community Center “5. studeni” was officially opened in the Slavonski Brod settlement “Josip Rimac”, a space that will play an important role in the life of the Roma community and the wider local community in the future. The opening was attended by numerous guests and locals, including MP Veljko Kajtazi, President of the Roma Alliance in the Republic of Croatia Suzana Krčmar, and Director of the Office for Human Rights and National Minorities Alen Tahiri.

Whether this is a helpful project will be seen in the coming years.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Project

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Roma Project

A warranted critique of a planned project in Slovakia which plans to invest 20 million euros in the Roma Media House in Banská Bystrica.

However, it is a project that has more of a marketing character than a real impact. It lacks professional anchoring, transparency, and connection to the needs of the community itself. The chosen location – Banská Bystrica – is not the natural centre of the Roma population. This choice raises legitimate doubts about whether the project serves the community or the interests of the Slovak government’s representative for Roma communities, Alexander Dašek, whose office is based in this city.

However, the fundamental problem is not only geography, but also the lack of expertise. How many Roma journalists with experience in professional editorial offices do we have in Slovakia? Who will provide direction, camera, dramaturgy, sound, editing? Who will write in such a way as to create content that has the ambition to compete with non-Roma media – strong content, factually accurate, editorially polished? Without experts, this project will be just a laugh!

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

North Macedonia and Housing for Roma

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North Macedonia and Housing for Roma

President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova said at the “Conversations for Equality” event, on the theme “Roma Right to Housing,” organized by the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, that despite the continued work of non-governmental and international organizations, the lives of Roma have not improved significantly.

Well, it will not unless the majority population changes their minds…

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Some Help

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Some Help

For a change, a positive article in the Slovene press about Roma. Long-time volunteer Boris Muhič described the meeting on his Facebook profile, which gives hope and sends the message: Let’s not throw all Roma into the same basket.”I would like to have a cup of tea with you”. “In the morning, I met Roma from the Pušča Roma settlement at a gas station. One of them approached me and said: ‘I would like a cup of tea with you’,” wrote Boris Muhič. At first, he thought he needed help, but the person he met explained that it was the other way around – they wanted to help him.

Roma pensioners who have worked in Austria for several years have expressed their desire to join voluntary and charitable campaigns. They said that they can do all kinds of work – from masonry and roofing to electrical and facade work, but they don’t do ceramics.

News Eastern Europe Romania

Romania: Minister

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Romania: Minister

The appointment of Florin Manole as Minister of Labour is not just a first. It is a fracture in the status quo of a Romania accustomed to keeping the Roma in the invisible corner of democracy, writes human rights activist Ciprian Necula, in an opinion piece hosted by HotNews. It is no coincidence, he says, that the first Rom becomes a minister under duress, in a government bound by an imperative reform agenda.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma Minority

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Slovenia and Roma Minority

The Government Office for Nationalities of the Republic of Slovenia, which operates under Luka Mesec’s Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, sent a proposal for an amendment to the Roma Community Act for public discussion. The purpose of the amendment is said to be to upgrade the legal framework for a more effective integration of the Roma community into Slovenian society.

The new law brings four key changes: it introduces municipal coordinators as a bridge between the state and local levels, changes the composition of the Council of the Roma Community of the Republic of Slovenia (the Council), regulates the basis for co-financing associations, and speeds up procedures for spatial planning of Roma settlements.

Jožek Horvat Muc, a Roma activist, warns that the proposed changes mean a break in continuity in solving Roma issues and a devaluation of the long-standing work of institutions operating in Murska Sobota.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Inclusion in Slovakia

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Inclusion in Slovakia

At a working meeting in Valaská, representatives of community centers or social enterprises, the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities Alexander Daško, and the Acting Head of the European Commission Representation in the Slovak Republic discussed effective and sustainable support for Roma inclusion in Slovakia. The aim was, among other things, to summarise experiences and good practice examples in the context of the creation of the new EU programming period.

Well, let’s hope that they come up with better ways than planting trees – which is currently part of the program …

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

The usual French things. First, an “explanation” of the French confusion between Roma, Tsiganes, Manouches, and Gitans. Well, the explanation is worthless. In Strasbourg, they are trying to integrate Roma, lodging them in better housing and making sure the children are educated. Finally, one large Roma camp in Toulouse, in the South of France will be closed. Of course, without any planned relocation.

News Western Europe Sweden

Roma and Reisende Students in Sweden

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Roma and Reisende Students in Sweden

A new project is furthering the interactions between Vlach Roma and local Reisende students in Sweden. Reisende are the descendants of Roma deported from nowadays UK but also of Sinti, and are closely related also to the Finnish and Baltic Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Industry in Slovakia

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Industry in Slovakia

A new industrial park is being prepared in the Stará Ľubovňa district. The project aims to improve the future of the Roma in the district.

“Together with partners, we are preparing the establishment of an industrial park near the village of Šarišské Jastrabie, which will be focused on social entrepreneurship and the employment of long-term unemployed residents from marginalized communities,” the office informed. One of the first projects will be the ecological production of briquettes, which has the ambition to significantly reduce the problem of illegal logging and the burning of unsuitable materials in households. This step will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but will also bring concrete work to people who need it most.

Let’s see …

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