Education- the Key to Roma Inclusion

Some 90% of Roma people across Europe live under the poverty line, being often victims of discrimination in many forms.

Corina Cristea, 03.05.2013, 15:52

Most Roma resort to beggary, allegedly in order to survive. 51% of Roma families say they suffer from hunger at least two days a year, while 15% argue that hunger is a permanent ordeal. Statistics indicate that in some countries up to 30% of Roma families live on social welfare, while 24% subsist on child-rearing benefits. According to the latest census, Roma people account for the second-largest ethnic group in Romania after ethnic Hungarians, standing at some 500,000 people. According to the overall perception, they are twice as many in reality. The problems of ethnic Roma have recently been the topic of a conference held in Bucharest, where Labour Minister Mariana Campeanu highlighted education as the main solution for Roma inclusion and for improving the living standards of their community. Unfortunately, a lot of time has already passed without any real progress.

Mariana Campeanu: “If we had focused more on educating Roma children in the first place during the past 20 years, at present we would have had a generation of children with high chances of integrating into any European society, with very high chances of holding well-paid jobs, which should allow them a decent living, and which in turn would allow their children to access all the benefits that a modern society has to offer”.

The Roma’s worldview is on the whole uncomplicated. Most Roma who responded to an opinion poll believe that “a person needs good health, luck and diligence to be successful”. State benefits rank 4th on the same list of requirements in terms of importance. Nine in ten Roma are currently victims of discrimination in its various forms. And that’s not just Romania, but the entire European Union, according the data made public by the European Commission. Gelu Duminica, the head of the “Together” Community Development Agency believes there is some good news among these figures, although change requires a lot of time.

Gelu Duminica: “20 years ago there were some 0.1% of Roma young people who completed higher education studies. At present this figure has risen to 1.2%. It is a significant increase, although it remains low as compared to the national average, which stands at 10%. There are also certain areas that have seen some improvement, such as access to healthcare services”.

But Gelu Duminica also sees the matter from a different perspective. He believes Roma should not be viewed as a social problem, but rather as an opportunity for Romania in terms of the demographic evolution in the coming years.

Gelu Duminica: “According to Eurostat, in 2050 Romania will have around 16 million citizens, of which the number of Roma will be standing at the same 1-1.3 million. But the young Roma population will be prevalent in the 16-45 year age bracket, that is, active population. In other words, it is them who will be paying the pension benefits and access to health and education for my generation, who are 35 years old today.”

The need for Roma inclusion is a major issue at European level. Special institutions, scores of NGOs and programs focus on this particular problem, including in Romania and Bulgaria, which have sizeable Roma communities. Minister Mariana Campeanu acknowledges the role of national policies for Roma integration, but also calls for the involvement of European institutions, if viable solutions are to be found.

Mariana Campeanu: “The European Union must accept the idea that the Roma issue is an EU-wide issue, just as it is an issue for each member state. And only together, through cooperation and by finding the best solutions, can we help these people out of their current pariah status. It’s no point in offering money to people, in exchange for leaving a state and returning to their home country, because after a while they will come back.”

The same view was expressed in Bucharest by the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Laszlo Andor. According to him, the integration of the Roma should not be limited to a particular community, town, region or country. If Roma integration fails anywhere in the EU, the entire European society stands to lose. In order to truly make a difference in the daily life of the Roma, particularly of those who live in underprivileged environments, common efforts are needed, as well as the long-term involvement of European, national, regional and local stakeholders.