Characteristics of Socio-Economic Inequalities of Ethnic Minorities and Immigrant Groups in Lithuania

Abstract

out the last 10-15 years. By now, the Roma became the most disliked ethnic group in the country, and there is a range of indicators that their social exclusion has deepened. Media images of drug­ trade and poverty from a ghettoized settlement in the outskirts of Vilnius became an icon associ­ ated with the Roma. Factor analysis reveals that Roma are associated by the majority with a set of "socially problematic" groups such as former criminals, drug-addicts, or alcoholics, and not with a set of other ethnic groups (no matter, liked or disliked ones). At the same time, both Roma and the society tend to expect that Roma will socially advance only through the narrow niches of musical or other craft occupations, without encouraging other channels of social mobility. Although socially mobile Roma tend to distance themselves both from negative images and from real contacts with people from a ghettoized settlement, they encounter prejudice anyway. Thus individual advancement, although suggested by majority, is in fact being hampered, and social mobility depends on change of a group status.