Roma social inclusion through higher education

Abstract

IntroductionThe issue of Roma inclusion reveals discrepancies between public discourse on the matter and effective implementation in practice. Public discourse sounds progressive and well intended, but realities show that in many cases the beneficiaries have not found an area of comfort within the public space that easy. Some of the causes stem from sheer neglect by the authorities in the beginnings, to failed understanding on how to successfully engage the Roma community subsequently, to distrust and resistance of the beneficiaries themselves and at times, to prejudice and social (miss)-perception of the public at large. Central and Eastern European experiences in recent years taught us that some ingredients proved more effective than others in the recipe for social inclusion success.A World Bank report of September 2010 shows that the Roma Population is young: 35.7% is under the age of 15, compared to 15.7% as is the case for the general EU population. The average age for Roma is 25, compared with 40 across the EU. It is therefore important to consider the education status of these prospective candidates on the labour market. In fact, the vast majority of working-age Roma lack the education needed to find good jobs. (World Bank 2010)Regarding the Roma in Romania, within the census of 2011, approximately 3% of the population - or 621,573 respectively - declared themselves Roma, making it the second largest ethnic minority in Romania (after the Hungarians). Experts estimate however that the number of Roma is much higher in reality. According to the World Bank, the Council of Europe estimated that in 2010 Roma in Romania was in the range of 1,200,000 to 2,500,000 or between 6% and 12% of the total population (World Bank 2014:5).Many studies and reports (Open Society Institution 2007, Fleck and Ruginis 2008, World Bank 2010, Tarnovschi 2011, World Bank 2014) conclude that the Roma in Romania are poor, vulnerable and socially excluded. Roma households' surveys indicate a bleak picture of the current situation of the Roma: most of the Roma in Romania and in other Eastern European countries continue to live in poverty, more so than neighbours living in the same community or nearby. A UNDP report (2012) shows that two thirds of the Romanian Roma population lives in rural areas, which creates additional problems in achieving social inclusion. (Bruggemann 2012).A 2012 report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights presents the first results of the pilot survey and the FRA Roma pilot survey and the UNDP / World Bank / European Commission regional Roma survey carried out in 2011. According to the report, the Roma is Europe's largest minority of 10 to 12 million people that continues to experience discrimination and social exclusion.1 The social inclusion of Roma in European policiesThe concept of social inclusion is typically considered in tandem with its opposite, the social exclusion. But just as social inclusion is not necessarily the equivalent of good welfare, social exclusion problem is also different from poverty. Social exclusion is rather a discussion of social stratification, says Fleck and Ruginis (2008).Neither the two opposing concepts (inclusion - exclusion) appeared suddenly nor can one speak of an international consensus terminology. In European context the term was first noted in the political discourse of the 70s in France, - in 1974, Rene Lenoir, Secretary of State of Social Affairs in the government of France published the work Les Exclus. The excluded ones were those who slipped through the social net of France of those years. Socialist governments during Francois Mitterrand's presidency years extended the scope of the term and made it part of French social policy documents to this day (Arpinte et al. 2008). Since then European anti-poverty programs have repeatedly brought forward the concept (Zamfir, & Preda 2007) and, increasingly, in tandem with that of social inclusion. …