Roma integration has long way to go in EU
Exclusion, inequality, and discrimination still plague Europe’s Roma community, despite this ethnic minority group being the largest in the bloc.
EU First Vice-President Frans Timmermans made a joint statement with EU commissioners on Tuesday on the state of Roma integration, ahead of International Roma Day today.
They stressed that Roma families still do not have equal access to jobs, education, housing, and healthcare.
There are around 6m Roma immigrants living in Europe today. According to the Fundamental Rights Agency, a third of Roma immigrants are unemployed, and over nine in ten live below the poverty line. A fifth have no health insurance, and a high proportion of Roma immigrant children never complete their primary education.
The negative perceptions of the Roma community may be self-perpetuating. Speaking at a debate on anti-Gypsyism in March, European Parliament President Martin Schulz warned that Roma people are victims of violent attacks and political scapegoating, despite years of policies to integrate them.
He said that progress so far has been successful but limited, and that "the path is still long to achieve Roma integration on the ground."
In his statement yesterday, Vice-President Timmermans said: "Change will not happen overnight, but the European institutions and member states are committed to fighting discrimination and improving integration."
Our author Martin Kahanec writes about the issues surrounding Roma integration, noting a "vicious circle" of segmentation via statistical discrimination, and ill-chosen policies which reinforce negative perceptions. He says that policy interventions must target whole communities to combat residential and social segregation, and the poverty and human capital gaps that endure across generations.
Read more here.
Related articles:
Roma integration in European markets, by Martin Kahanec
Intergenerational return to human capital, by Paul J. Devereux