Roma In Romania Research Articles

A survey of quality of life indicators in the Romanian Roma population following the 'Decade of Roma Inclusion'.

Background: This study explores how the Roma in Romania, the EU's most concentrated population, are faring in terms of a number of quality of life indicators, including poverty levels, healthcare, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene. Methods: 135 surveys were conducted across five geographically diverse Romanian communities. Household participants were selected through a comprehensive random walk method. Analyses were conducted on all data using Pandas for Python. Results: These data indicate that the Roma in Romania face significant disparities in education, with Roma students less likely to progress beyond 8 th grade. In addition, the Roma population remains significantly disadvantaged with regard to safe and secure housing, poverty, and healthcare status, particularly in connection to diarrheal disease. In contrast, however, both Roma and non-Roma in rural areas face difficulties regarding full-time employment, sanitation, and water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure. Conclusions: These data demonstrate the challenges that remain to the Roma population in Romania, and also point to the myriad of ways in which all rural Romanians, regardless of ethnicity, are encountering hardship. This study highlights the areas in which improvements can be made to ensure the Roma, and indeed all Romanian citizens, have access to and confidence in sanitation services, clean water, and adequate healthcare treatment.

A survey of quality of life indicators in the Romanian Roma population following the ‘Decade of Roma Inclusion’

Background: This study explores how the Roma in Romania, the EU’s most concentrated population, are faring in terms of a number of quality of life indicators, including poverty levels, healthcare, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene. It further explores the role of synthetic populations and modelling in identifying at-risk populations and delivering targeted aid. Methods: 135 surveys were conducted across five geographically diverse Romanian communities. Household participants were selected through a comprehensive random walk method. Analyses were conducted on all data using Pandas for Python. Combining land scan data, time-use survey analyses, interview data, and ArcGIS, the resulting synthetic population was analysed via classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to identify hot-spots of need, both ethnically and geographically. Results: These data indicate that the Roma in Romania face significant disparities in education, with Roma students less likely to progress beyond 8 th grade. In addition, the Roma population remains significantly disadvantaged with regard to safe and secure housing, poverty, and healthcare status, particularly in connection to diarrheal disease. In contrast, however, both Roma and non-Roma in rural areas face difficulties regarding full-time employment, sanitation, and water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure. In addition, the use of a synthetic population can generate information about ‘hot spots’ of need, based on geography, ethnicity, and type of aid required. Conclusions: These data demonstrate the challenges that remain to the Roma population in Romania, and also point to the myriad of ways in which all rural Romanians, regardless of ethnicity, are encountering hardship. This study highlights an approach that combines traditional survey data with more wide-reaching geographically based data and CART analysis to determine ‘hot spot’ areas of need in a given population. With the appropriate inputs, this tool can be extrapolated to any population in any country.

Romanian Gypsies in Spain. A Migratory Phenomenon, Its Causes and Repercussions

Abstract In the following paper we will discuss about the situation of the Romanian gypsies living in Spain and the main problems involved by their presence in this country. We will analyze the causes that made them emigrate to Spain, together with a historical analysis of this process, the living conditions they have (housing, employment, education...). Also, we will present the social problems they suffer because of their particular culture, other than Spanish, the main settlements where they chosen to live in Spain and social acceptance from the point of view of the Spanish population. The present article is the direct result of a research program that was developed almost two years ago by the Research Center for Regional Development and European Integration of the University of Bucharest, part of a larger research program regarding the ethnic minorities of Romania. The main important aspect of this research is the fact that we used two target groups interviewed both in Romania and Spain and also, we used official information regarding Romanian gypsy located actually on Spanish territory, according with the official Spanish census. This way we managed to gather a large quantity of information and to provide to the reader a closer to reality image of the status of Romanian gypsy presently living inside Spanish border. Also, the novelty brought by this research is the fact that we tried to present the social and integration problems encountered by the Romanian gypsies located in the cities or villages of Spain. The article might be considered a starting point for future research upon this subject.

A survey of quality of life indicators in the Romanian Roma population following the ‘Decade of Roma Inclusion’

Background: This study explores how the Roma in Romania, the EU's most concentrated population, are faring in terms of a number of quality of life indicators, including poverty levels, healthcare, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene. Methods: 135 surveys were conducted across five geographically diverse Romanian communities. Household participants were selected through a comprehensive random walk method. Analyses were conducted on all data using Pandas for Python. Results: These data indicate that the Roma in Romania face significant disparities in education, with Roma students less likely to progress beyond 8 th grade. In addition, the Roma population remains significantly disadvantaged with regard to safe and secure housing, poverty, and healthcare status, particularly in connection to diarrheal disease. In contrast, however, both Roma and non-Roma in rural areas face difficulties regarding full-time employment, sanitation, and water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure. Conclusions: These data demonstrate the challenges that remain to the Roma population in Romania, and also point to the myriad of ways in which all rural Romanians, regardless of ethnicity, are encountering hardship. This study highlights the areas in which improvements can be made to ensure the Roma, and indeed all Romanian citizens, have access to and confidence in sanitation services, clean water, and adequate healthcare treatment.

“Good Romanian Gypsy Looking for a Home”. Housing Policies and Politics of Identity among Roma and non-Roma in Turin, Italy

A strong tradition of anthropological studies highlights how institutions tend to produce classifications and put in place a process of framing in which immigrant groups are identified in advance and are therefore constructed as objects of policy. These framings direct social interventions and shape the public perception of the Roma. This article is the result of ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Roma and non Roma Romanian immigrants in four neighbourhoods in Turin, Italy and in Caraș-Severin, their departure region in Romania. Research brought to light complex dynamics by examining some illustrative life stories. In response to the attitude of the institutions, the protagonists of these stories make strategic use of cultural features, exacerbating the difference, or hiding it with processes of mimicry. Some rediscovered their ethnicity, benefitting as “nomads” from special housing projects; some dealt with the features of identity in a “segregating” form; some, despite not having Roma ancestors, in Italy define themselves as “Gypsy”, adopting the distinctive economic survival strategies of the Roma. This research study has shown how, in Italy and in Romania, the boundaries between identity categories are constantly negotiated.

Power, Gender, and Ethnic Spaces

This study examines the inextricable (and understudied) link between ethnicity, gender, power, and space, to assess how gender and power relations operate in, and mark, the ethnic spaces of one community of Roma in Romania. Drawing from ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with Romani women who work as health mediators, this article identifies and theorizes the negotiated meanings that arise among the mediators’ roles and spaces. I argue that perceptions of the mediators’ power roles change between institutional landscapes (spaces of hegemonic directives), Romani communities (conceived space where the women have symbolic control), and the lived space of resistance and internalized discrimination; the latter is both an active constituent of, and a challenge to, racism against the Roma.

The Role of Values in Attitudes towards Violence: Discrimination against Moroccans and Romanian Gypsies in Spain.

The first objective of this study was to investigate whether police violence is more tolerated when the victim is a member of a social minority (e.g., Moroccan immigrants and Romanian Gypsies in Spain) than when the victim is a member of the social majority (e.g., Spaniards). The second objective was to use Schwartz value theory to examine the moderating role of values on attitudes towards tolerance of police violence. The participants were 207 sociology and social work students from a public university in Madrid. Overall, in this study, police violence was more accepted when the victim was a member of a social minority; F(2, 206) = 77.91, p = .001, ηp 2 = 0.433, and in general, values moderated this acceptance. Thus, greater adherence to the conservation and self-promotion values subsystems would strengthen support for police violence towards a social minority member. On the other hand, greater adherence to the openness to change and self-transcendence subsystems diminish this support.

The plight of Romanian social protection: addressing the vulnerabilities and well-being in Romanian Roma families

To adhere to the European Union, Romania was obliged to adopt the entire range of international human rights laws for children's rights, disability rights, women's rights, minority rights and non-discrimination. However, Romania's practice of human rights falls behind the letters of these laws, especially for populations exposed to intersectional vulnerabilities (e.g. being both Roma and child or woman). The introductory sections of this article describe the cumulative vulnerabilities faced by the Roma, and discuss the main anti-discrimination policies and international treaties adopted in Romania in the context of recent EU developments, including the strategies for the Roma Decade. The main body of the article discusses the barriers to effectively addressing the rights of the Roma in Romania. Using available (yet scarce) ethnically segregated data, we draw attention to the multiple risks faced by Roma families in Romania confronted with traditionalism, poverty, violence, lack of services and proper housing, and other risks. By exploring the attitudes of social workers and other care-staff towards Roma beneficiaries in Romania, the authors seek to understand what contributes to the failure of anti-discrimination laws and policies in that country in protecting those most exposed to poverty. Looking at the poverty and other vulnerability indicators of the Roma in Romania, we acknowledge the social distance that exists between the disadvantaged Roma living in Romanian rural areas and their helpers. We consider the current status of anti-discriminatory social work practice in respect of the Roma population in Romania. The evidence considered regarding the plight of the Roma in Romania leads to the conclusion that policies should (a) elaborate more on bridging the gap between professionals and their beneficiaries and (b) translate anti-discrimination policies also into codes of conduct designed to more effectively protect and empower victims such as the Roma children and women who receive the services of professionals such as social workers.

Roma social inclusion through higher education

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. …

Affirmative action in Romania’s higher education: Roma students’ perceived meanings and dilemmas

This qualitative paper explores Roma students’ perceptions on the policy of assigning ‘special places’ for Roma in Romania’s universities. Findings suggest that Roma see themselves as occupying a precarious social space, concerned not as much to hide perceived merit violation but to handle (alleged) inadequacies given by their stigmatized ethnicity.

Educational Attainment and School-to-work Conversion of Roma in Romania: Adapting to Feasible Means or Ends?

Education is one of the surest ways for individuals to expand their capability set and can even be inherently valuable. This paper questions the assumption that education is something that all ‘have reason to value’ if it does not bring clear benefits but rather interrupts the pursuit of other valuable opportunities. This is a particularly salient trade-off for many desperately impoverished Roma. This statistical analysis reveals that, ceteris paribus, Roma have 77% lower odds of finishing eighth grade. Regardless of education, they have 57% lower odds of employment and two and a half times the odds of winding up in unskilled labor. Not only are Roma completing fewer years of schooling than non-Roma, they are less able to convert that schooling into gainful employment, forcing us to ask whether Roma might be exhibiting adaptive preferences not just regarding the feasibility of getting an education but regarding the ends of that effort.

Romany Issue(s): The Images of Romanian Gypsies at Home and Abroad

In a country where the Roma minority was enslaved during the 18th and 19th centuries, where during Ceausescu’s era it did not have the right to exist and where calling someone a ‘tzigan’ is worse than insulting someone’s mother, being a ‘gypsy’ cannot be easy. As a European country belonging to the European Union, Romania has to ensure equal chances for all its citizens, no matter what ethnic group they belong to. Reality is far from the written rules – some Romanians are more equal than others. Discrimination against the Roma minority goes beyond Romanian borders. Italy, France and other EU countries reject the difference of a people that does not have the same notions of social life. Discriminated against, but cherished; for ‘gypsy’ culture (music, rituals, ways of dressing) inspires and attracts people looking for a joy of life and a freedom of spirit it seems to provide. Between the rejection of individuals and the acceptance of their culture, at the crossroad of their history and the place they are allowed to have in History, the way the Roma are perceived today gives a powerful insight into the Romanian mentality. My paper will try to show the duplicity of this image as it is presented in the Romanian medias – newspapers, magazines, TV channels, web sites – there where the ordinary Romanian gives and receives the projection of him/herself as he/she conceives it.

The Elusive Search for Nora Luca: Tony Gatlif's Adventures in Gypsy Land

This essay examines Gypsy filmmaker Tony Gatlif and his 1997 film Gadjo Dilo (The Crazy Foreigner). The film ventures on the icy roads of Romania and casts a young French man in search for Nora Luca’s voice, a woman taped by his musicologist father. The young man is adopted by a Romanian Gypsy community and initiated to Gypsy culture. The film reverts stereotypes associated to Gypsies and questions the place of the white traveler in late 20th century Europe. Questions of otherness and exoticism are raised amidst the Western urge to preserve and collect other cultures. The essay is informed by current Gypsies studies on Gypsy law that locate the interaction Rom cultures have had with non-Rom cultures. The film may be seen as a trilingual road movie set in Eastern Europe, yet Gatlif, a man for whom “the road is his country” stretches the limits of the genre, usually situated in the vast open spaces of North America. Gender is important in the analysis of the film as Rom women encountered act as mediators between two different cultures and spaces. Last, the essay reconsiders the place of Tony Gatlif, a now recognized French filmmaker, a spokesperson for Gypsies who delocalised the story and traveled to Eastern Europe. An analysis of the reception of the film adds to the discussion of a filmmaker, born in Algeria, of Berber and Andalusian descent.

Neonatal screening for biotinidase deficiency in Hungary: clinical, biochemical and molecular studies.

From 1989 to 2001, 1,336,145 newborns were screened for biotinidase deficiency in Hungary. Fifty-eight children with the disorder were identified as enzyme-deficient. We have characterized the clinical and biochemical features and mutations of 20 of these children. Eleven children had profound biotinidase deficiency, 7 had partial biotinidase deficiency, and 2 were found to be heterozygous for profound deficiency by mutation analysis. Seventeen different mutations were identified in this population including seven novel mutations. Six of these new mutations are missense, 245C>A, 334G>A, 652G>C, 832C>G, 1253G>C, 1511T>A, and one is a unique allelic double mutation [212T>C;236G>A]. Of five Romanian Gypsies, four were homozygous for the 1595C>T mutation and one was heterozygous for this mutation. Most of the children with profound deficiency have been asymptomatic on therapy; however, four exhibited minimal brain abnormalities, motor delay and abnormal blood chemistries. Compliance with therapy must be questioned in these cases. Of clinical importance, all of the children with partial deficiency exhibited mild symptoms at the time of diagnosis, at several weeks to months of age. These symptoms resolved following biotin therapy. This is in contrast to the experience in the United States, where the children with partial deficiency have been asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. This finding further indicates that children with partial deficiency should be treated. The incidence of biotinidase deficiency in Hungary is more than twice that observed in a worldwide survey. These results indicate that newborn screening in Hungary is effective and warranted.

The Migration of the Romanian Roma to the UK: A Contextual Study

This article examines the reasons for the recent migration of Romanian Roma to the UK. Commencing with a historical overview of the treatment of the Roma in Romania, it goes on to consider the extent to which conditions have changed for this minority group in the post-Communist era, from both a national and international perspective. The article then presents the results of empirical work undertaken in Romania between July 2001 and February 2002, in which a number of Roma who travelled to the UK and returned to Romania were interviewed and asked about their motivations for migrating. Finally, it discusses the UK’s handling of Roma asylum cases, both by the Home Office and Immigration Appellate Authorities. The article’s conclusion is that the Romanian Roma continue to be a marginalized people whose fundamental human rights are either protected in limited form or not at all. Yet European Union states and international bodies, such as the European Commission and the UN, continue to hold to the view that persecution is now seldom in evidence and that, in any case, the responsibility for protection rests on the somewhat narrow shoulders of the home country.

The Gypsies of Romania Since 1990*

The Roma or Gypsies entered Romania's historic provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia, in the twelfth century. Over the next 200 years, the Roma, who had come to the Balkans from northern India, were enslaved. By the fifteenth century, the practice of Gypsy slavery was widespread throughout the two provinces. In part, their enslavement came about as a means of securing Gypsy skills as craftsmen, metalsmiths, musicians, and equine specialists. Over time, a complex body of laws was passed in Wallachia and Moldavia to strengthen the control of Romanian noblemen over their Gypsy slaves (robi). However, by the eighteenth century, some mild efforts were undertaken to better the plight of Romanian Gypsy slaves.