Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in Central and Eastern Europe

Andrea Óhidy, Katalin R. Forray, Andrea Óhidy, Katalin R. Forray

• Editorial: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781838672614
• Categoría: Education
• Categoría: Comparative Education

Access, attainment and success of Roma people in education are at a crisis point across Europe. Recent research has revealed that Roma people are the most underrepresented group in schools and other educational institutions. Policy makers across Central and Eastern Europe face the challenge of reversing the disadvantaged situation of the Roma minority. There is a whole host of policy strategies, measures and projects across Europe which offer similar solutions on national, regional and local levels.
This book discusses the current educational climate and the impact of these policy measures for Roma people in eight Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. There is a severe lack of information about the Roma people in the public domain. This book seeks to raise awareness of this forgotten minority and evaluate the policies implemented to integrate the Roma people into the education system, using many different cultural perspectives written by experts across Central and Eastern Europe.
This book will prove invaluable to those in the field of comparative education, educational leaders and practitioners in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

Chapter 1

Bottom Up, Top Down and Human Rights: Roma Organisations, Policy Frameworks and European Institutions

Natascha Hofmann

Abstract

In this chapter, Natascha Hofmann discusses the policy measures for improving the (education) situation of Roma in Europe. It concentrates on the post-war turning points and corresponding discourses before reviewing aims, outcomes and legacies of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015 proclaimed by the European Union (EU). According to Hofmann, the past decades reveal a shift in the discourse of how Roma living conditions and perspectives are perceived in Europe. Indications that underpin that argument can be found in processes referring to fields of bottom-up movements of Roma organisations, top-down approaches of the EU and its member states, shifting borders and the implementation of human rights. Outcomes of the Decade of Roma Inclusion show not only the importance of educational achievements, but also the importance of educational work of mentors and mediators within the communities and within the regional and national societies. Regarding the bottom-up movement of Roma organisations, there seems to be a generation change not only regarding educational achievements, but also by dealing with being visible as Roma and promoting new narratives of being Roma.

Keywords: Decade of Roma inclusion; European Union; Roma Education Fund; bottom-up; top-down; human rights

Transitions of societal structures, social positions and values are intertwined with the power of predominant discourses and practices (Foucault, 1981, p. 74) as well as dialectical, intergenerational learning processes and continuous refinement of living conditions (Berger & Luckmann, 1987, p. 201). Referring to Huffschmid (2001) discourse is not only part of ruling systems, but is also a tool of the prerogative of interpretation with which and for what politics, media and social movements fight for (p. 39). The past decades reveal a shift in the discourse of how Roma living conditions and perspectives are perceived in Europe. Reasons for that can be seen in processes referring to fields of bottom-up movements of Roma organisations, top-down approaches of the European Union (EU) and its member states, shifting borders and the implementation of human rights (Law & Kovats, 2018). Regarding bottom-up movements of Roma organisations, top-down approaches of the European Union (EU) and the strengthening of human rights (Law & Kovats, 2018), this chapter will briefly outline post-war turning points and corresponding discourses before reviewing aims, outcomes and legacies of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015 proclaimed by the EU.

Roma Self-organisation and Positions of European Institutions after 1945

Before a worldwide Roma social movement arose with the first Roma World Congress 1971 as a starting point, Roma grassroots organisations emerged in Western and Eastern Europe on national levels, for example, in France in 1950s, in the UK in 1960s, in Germany in the 1970s (Law & Kovats, 2018, p. 102) and Hungary in the 1950s (Guy, 2001, p. 76). Their impact on national policies remained small and limited. However, consistent political work of international, national and regional Roma organisations formed a bottom-up movement since the 1970s (Reemtsma, 1996, p. 137). This social movement has been able to fight for their rights and occasionally gain attention from governments; to name just one historical milestone on a national level, for instance, in 1982, the German government acknowledged the genocide on Romany and Sinti by the Nazis during Second World War. Before that, the official discourse denied ethnic reasoning behind their persecution and murder (Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma, 2017, p. 34).

Comparing discourses on Roma and Roma policy in Western and Eastern European countries after 1945, policy contexts obviously differed as, for example, communist governments introduced rather assimilationist Roma policies with ‘the notion that Gypsies are a social and not an ethnic layer’ (Guy, 2001, p. 71). Discourses to talk about Roma and non-Roma, though, were ‘equally pernicious’ and familiar in eastern and western parts of the continent (Guy, 2001, p. 72). The awareness of European institutions towards a ‘transcontinental Romani diaspora’ increased with the end of the Cold War division of Europe (Kavats, 2002, p. 1).

The Organization für Security and Co-operation (OSCE) and the Council of Europe in particular, who aim to restore peace, democracy and stability in Europe and designate themselves as guardians of human rights (Seeger, 2013), focussed on living conditions of Roma after 1989. It was a resolution of the Council of Europe in 1993, based on earlier European Conventions on Human Rights in 1950, which gave a significant impetus for protecting Roma and other minorities in Europe (Kovats, 2002, p. 1). The elaborated Framework Convention of the Protection of National Minorities had been signed 1995 by 22 member states, which came into effect in 1998. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) was contemporaneously founded by Roma activists in Budapest, inspired by the civil rights movement in the United States and held similar aims of the organisation Voice of Roma to fight for equal rights and against discrimination with their advocacy work. The Forum of European Roma Young People, founded in 2002, as well as the European Roma Information Office, founded in Brussels in 2003, aim at fighting for rights of Roma people, encourage active Roma participation in decision-making processes at European, national and local levels and ensure that their voices are heard by the EU and its member states. No later than the Eastern enlargement of the EU in 2004, the political voice of European Roma communities was again strengthened by the establishment of the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF)¹. As a NGO, the ERTF has worked side by side with the Council of Europe since 2005. Nevertheless, the ERTF is an autonomous association which takes an active part in fighting against discrimination and for human rights by positively influencing ‘policy makers to ensure that policies reflect the real needs of the Roma community’ in Europe (European Commission, 2005). The shift of political discourse of the EU towards Roma issues became apparent at the same time and can be labelled as a turning point in inter-governmental Roma policy. By proclaiming the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005–2015), the EU established a policy framework aiming to improve living standards of Roma communities on national levels in Europe. This shows how shifts of borders, new responsibilities and challenges influence political awareness of international institutions and officials of the EU are intertwined with bottom-up movements of self-organisations.

Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005–2015): Aspiration and Reality

The initiative to call for a Decade of Roma Inclusion traces back to the conference ‘Roma in an expanding Europe: Challenges for the Future’ in Budapest 2003. It has been launched by governments of Central and Eastern European countries, Roma activists, the World Bank, Open Society Institute, European Commission and international partners as UNDP, Council of Europe, the OSCE, the ERRC and other NGOs. Four key sectors had been named to improve social participation and counteract discrimination and poverty, based on action plans which were supposed to be developed on national levels: (1) education – promotion of access and quality education, reduction of desegregation, teacher training; (2) employment – raising levels of qualification and skills; (3) housing – desegregation of settlements and improvement of housing standards; and (4) health – improvement of health access.

At the beginning of the Decade there was so much effort that it felt as if a flame was burning […]. (Rorke, Matache, & Friedman, 2015, p. 6)

This statement of Roma activist Tano Bechev from 2015 captures the existent spirit of commitment, courage and hope to make a change for Roma living standards in Europe. The development of bottom-up projects and networks from Roma self-organisations as well as of institutional top-down approaches flourished since 2005. EU candidate countries were particularly willing and expected from the EU to put effort to develop and realise national action plans. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) was established by the EU in 2007 and, for example, the European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC) has been constituted by a network of national and international NGOs to monitor and evaluate living conditions of Roma. In addition to this, national governments, the EU and NGOs published country reports documenting progress made (Danova, 2008; Haupert, 2007; Kullmann, Kushen, Rorke, Rövid, & Zentai, 2013; Kullmann, Kushen, Rövid, Szendrey, & Zentai, 2014).

Shortly after the declaration of the Decade of Roma Inclusion (Europäische Union, 2011), survey results from 2007 demonstrated that an extreme number of Roma live below the poverty line in South Eastern Europe (FRA, 2007; UNICEF Serbia, 2007). The percentage of Roma children not attending school is significantly high and varies from 80% (Bosnia) to 20% (Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia). The rate of unemployment was at an above average level and varied between 44% (Romania) to 71% (Macedonia). Large numbers of Roma live in segregated areas and in conditions which fall far below minimum standards for housing, that is, without adequate access to public utilities such as water, electricity or gas. Access to health care is strongly linked to housing and disposable income. Thus, only 21–40% Roma in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia said they could afford to pay for a doctor’s visit and medicine, compared to 53–91% non-Roma. Beside of that, surveys also revealed the phenomenon that Roma groups are predominately disadvantaged and discriminated in all European countries and many of them can be considered to be at the bottom of European societies (ERPC, 2008, p. 2; FRA, 2007, p. 159). As already mentioned, the claim for Decade of Roma Inclusion let to framework conditions in which NGO programmes flourished, existing networks were strengthened and new ones established. An important role can be ascribed to the Roma Education Fund (REF) aiming, for example, to support quality education and giving scholarships to Roma students. As education is recognised as a key issue for Roma inclusion (Miskovic 2013), various networks working courageously on international as well as national and regional basis put that on their agenda. To name just few: European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network (ERGO) is a network-founded bottom-up by Roma organisation directly helping local communities to make their voices heard. ERGO’s work is based on different pillars, for example, monitoring youth employment, national Roma integration strategies, community-led local development, local policy score cards; or empowerment by youth work, capacity building and connecting Roma with non-Roma and fighting prejudices through the platform RomaReact. Another international network called ternYpe has been established by youth organisations from Albania (Roma Active Albania), Bulgaria (Youth Network for Development), Germany (Amaro Drom e.V.), Hungary (Romaveritas), Italy (Roma Onlus), Macedonia (RROMA), Slovakia (Roma Education Centre), Spain (TernYkalo and Yak Bari) and Poland (Harangos) in 2010.

ternYpe is a network, ‘which creates space for young people to become active citizens through empowerment, mobilization, self-organization and participation’. A consensus of these youth organisations is that they ‘believe in the common efforts by creating trust, and mutual respect between Roma and non-Roma youth’.

Retrospective Roma activists and organisations claim that there has been little progress and change for the living conditions and perspectives for Europe’s Roma and question if it had been a lost decade (Rorke, Matache, & Friedman, 2015). Tano Bechev, the Roma activist already mentioned, stated in 2015:

At the beginning […] there was so much effort […] as if a flame was burning. Unfortunately, as each year passed by the flame grew dimmer, went down, and down. By the end of the Decade, there’s no flame, the flame went out! (Rorke, Matache, & Friedman, 2015, p. 6)

Brüggemann and Friedmann analysed the development of the decade and came across similar conclusions. They worked out two paradigmatic problems according to aspiration and reality of international policies aimed at Roma inclusion (Brüggemann & Friedman, 2017, p. 3). One problem refers to Roma participation. It had been a distinct aim to involve Roma civil society, national governments and organisations working side by...