Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000This paper aims to identify the successful strategies, through literature review, to be used in Kosovo to help integrate the Roma community and to reduce the community’s overall…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the successful strategies, through literature review, to be used in Kosovo to help integrate the Roma community and to reduce the community’s overall social exclusion. This paper further examines the gaps between strategies and implementation results in reducing the social exclusion of the Roma through experiences of other European countries with similar political and socio-economic history as Kosovo.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a literature review and further examines the experiences of other European countries, with similar political and socio-economic history as Kosovo and their strategies in eliminating the social exclusion for Roma communities. A holistic socio-ecological approach is used as a recommended model to be used for the development of a strategy to reduce social exclusion among Roma Communities in Kosovo.
Findings
The social and economic implications are extremely negative for countries with large Roma minorities, such as Western Balkan countries and the European Union (EU) as a whole. Roma inclusion policies both in the EU and Western Balkans contain considerable flaws and tend to ignore the variables of discrimination and antigypsyism. There is an obvious need to act more urgently to prevent the exclusion of Roma and to create strategies for better inclusion. Overall, gaps seem to remain between the strategies and implementation results.
Practical implications
This paper aims to add to the existing literature about the ongoing efforts of the international development assistance community and communities in the developing world. This paper also aims to show the gaps in ongoing efforts and provide generic recommendations that may be applicable in many diverse situations with the aim of leading communities toward a self-sufficient sustainable future.
Originality/value
The Kosovo anti-discrimination law protects all individuals from discrimination; however, in practice, studies show that the Roma exclusion is very high in Kosovo. This paper stands among the first to analyze comparative literature and policy reviews.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to compare the health status of Roma in Europe and Aborigines in Australia, examining access to health care (both primary and long‐term), administrative and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to compare the health status of Roma in Europe and Aborigines in Australia, examining access to health care (both primary and long‐term), administrative and communication problems, environmental risks associated with location of residences, women's health, substance abuse and mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses issues generated by cultural practices by both health care providers and the target groups.
Findings
Both Roma and Australian Aborigines have significantly poorer health status than the majority of the societies they are embedded in, and are clearly amongst the most disadvantaged members of their respective societies. Nevertheless, affirmative action programs for Aboriginal people over the last 40 years have produced some significant changes, with Aboriginal doctors and nurses, and culturally appropriate service provision being found in many areas.
Originality/value
Although there are considerable similarities between the health status and situation of Romanies and Australian Aborigines, clearly, there are also substantive differences. The paper suggests possible culturally appropriate service provision for Roma, based on Australian Aboriginal experiences and models.
Details
Keywords
Zoë James and Rebekah Southern
The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why Gypsies and Travellers are socially excluded in England and how their experience may be reflected in other European contexts…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why Gypsies and Travellers are socially excluded in England and how their experience may be reflected in other European contexts. Specifically, the paper explores the impact of planning policies on accommodation provision for Gypsies and Travellers in England and subsequently how their exclusion manifests due to the sedentarist binary definition of nomadism embedded within that policy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on evidence from empirical research carried out by the authors in the South West of England in 2015 as part of an accommodation needs assessment of Gypsies and Travellers. The research was commissioned by a local authority but the analysis presented here was carried out in addition to the core report. The decision to comment further on the research findings in relation to policy and theory was agreed with the project funders.
Findings
The research findings show that there continues to be a lack of accommodation provided to Gypsies and Travellers in England, despite policy and legislative initiatives to the contrary. The paper identifies that current government policy in England is likely to diminish access to appropriate accommodation in the future for Gypsies and Travellers, particularly for the most vulnerable. Finally, the paper concludes that a sedentarist binary definition of nomadism has failed to recognise Gypsy and Traveller communities’ culture or mobility.
Originality/value
This paper sets out how an underpinning “sedentarist binary” definition of nomadism is used in England to determine policies of provision for Gypsies and Travellers. That definition is based on the sedentary notions of nomadism that are binary, distinguishing only between people who are mobile and people who are not, rather than acknowledging the cultural nomadism of Gypsies and Travellers. The findings are useful beyond the UK context as they help to explain why Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in wider Europe remain excluded within states despite extensive European initiatives for inclusion.
Details
Keywords
Andrea Slobodnikova and Brandon Randolph-Seng
One of the goals of various European Union (EU) organizations (i.e. Roma and non-Roma nonprofits) is the integration of Roma into the educational system. A challenge for the…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the goals of various European Union (EU) organizations (i.e. Roma and non-Roma nonprofits) is the integration of Roma into the educational system. A challenge for the educational systems of EU countries, therefore, is to determine how to support the academic performance of Roma. Understanding the positive and negative factors related to Roma’s academic performance and achievement is an important first step in increasing academic success among this minority group.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative experimental design was used both online and face-to-face to examine whether stereotype threat had an influence on the academic performance of Roma in Slovakia and second, whether such threat was moderated by social identification and academic self-efficacy.
Findings
The results showed that stereotype threat does influence Roma in Slovakia and there were direct effects of social identity and academic self-efficacy on academic performance of the face-to-face participants.
Originality/value
Consistent with stereotype threat theory, to the best of authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to show that a stereotype threat did harm the academic performance of the face-to-face Roma sampled. Further, although many studies have examined stereotype threat effects on academic performance, little is known regarding whether social identification and academic self-efficacy have an influence on such threats. The results of the study show that social identification and academic self-efficacy had a significant direct influence on academic performance.
Details
Keywords
The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of the disability category in Swedish welfare policies. The paper seeks to focus on two cases that illustrate how the social…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of the disability category in Swedish welfare policies. The paper seeks to focus on two cases that illustrate how the social dimension in the understanding of disability permitted the inclusion of individuals, previously considered as “unwanted strangers”, in the Swedish welfare context. The first case is that of refugees classified as unfit for work after the Second World War. The second deals with the Roma groups who obtained the right of formal Swedish citizenship during the same period.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on data collected during two research projects. The first concerning the Roma policy of the Swedish Government from 1880 to 1970, primarily based on the analysis of public documents collected in the Swedish National Archives, including government reports and accompanying background material. The second research project deals with the development of an institutionalised reception of refugees by the Swedish welfare services after the Second World War. This research mainly uses documents produced during the international negotiations dealing with refugees interned in different camps in Europe and related documents in the Swedish National Archives related to the history of the organised reception of refugees in Sweden. In the case of refugees, the analysis focuses on the construction of disability in the classification system of the international refugee camps and in the organised reception of these refugees in Sweden. In the case of Swedish Roma, the analysis focuses upon the construction of social disability both in the arguments elaborated by Swedish authorities for the inclusion of Roma and in the practical organisation of their inclusion in the Swedish welfare system.
Findings
The paper provides insights about the crucial importance on the disability category in the organisation of Swedish social welfare after the Second World War. The policies developed raise important questions about basic requisites to obtain citizenship and also call into question the unequal conditions of citizenship. The case of Swedish Roma and the refugees interned in international camps illustrated how changing perceptions of poverty and deviance were strongly influenced by medical representations of disease and disability. Disability, previously perceived as a principally medical category with social consequences, now acquired a social dimension that enabled new refugees and Roma groups to be considered as members of the nation state.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is primarily descriptive. Further research is needed in order to develop a better understanding of how the social dimension of disability is constructed and how this social dimension was used to include new groups. The contents focus on the emergence of new social policies in Sweden after the Second World War; further research should focus on how these policies and processes still have a considerable influence on present policies and representations on migrants and Roma groups.
Practical implications
The paper provides important insights on taken for granted representations in Swedish welfare authorities' work with refugees and Roma groups. The institutionalised representation of Roma and refugee groups as disabled probably is an obstacle in the social incorporation of these groups.
Originality/value
Based on two cases the paper discusses how the concept of social disability, with its origins in medical sciences, was adopted by the Swedish welfare authorities and applied to groups considered deviants. In later policies the authorities widened social disability to include culture and ethnicity. Refugees and Roma groups classified as disabled were treated according to established practises created for people classified as unable to be incorporated into a “normal” social life.
Details
Keywords
Zoë James and David Smith
This paper proposes that the UKs exit from the EU is unlikely to impact heavily on the lived reality of Roma, given its negligible impact prior to Brexit. The paper sets out a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes that the UKs exit from the EU is unlikely to impact heavily on the lived reality of Roma, given its negligible impact prior to Brexit. The paper sets out a critique of existing EU approaches to anti-Gypsyism that are based in discourses of racism and anti-nomadism and are typified in the EU hate crime agenda. The paper argues for recognition of the systemic social harms caused by discrimination against Roma in the EU and the commonality of their experience with other socially excluded groups that do not conform to the requirements of contemporary neoliberal capitalism. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper comprises an opinion piece that sets out a critical examination of existing literature on policy and research in Romani studies and utilises theoretical work within criminology and social policy.
Findings
The paper explains the inability of existing EU approaches to tackle social harms experienced by Roma throughout the EU. In doing so it suggests that the UKs exit from the EU may not have a significant impact on Roma in the UK.
Originality/value
The paper challenges extant discourses and proposes new ways of thinking about anti-Gypsyism.
Details
Keywords
Loizos Symeou and Yiasemina Karagiorgi
In this paper, the authors focus on a professional development programme in Cyprus aiming to enhance teachers’ intercultural understanding, awareness and competencies. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors focus on a professional development programme in Cyprus aiming to enhance teachers’ intercultural understanding, awareness and competencies. This paper aims to focus on trainers’ and teacher trainees’ reflections upon a teacher professional development programme in the primary school in Cyprus with the largest number of Roma children.
Design/methodology/approach
The training was provided by a small team of six trainers. Immediately after each training session, each trainer participated in an interview, while three of the trainers participated also in a focus-group interview at the end of the training. The trainers’ data were complemented by semi-structured interviews with a number of trainees either before or after the training. All interviews were transcribed, while interview questions comprised the framework for the qualitative analysis. The findings are presented by means of content analysis which formed the basis for emerging themes.
Findings
The authors claim that trainee teachers appeared culturally aware and sensitive, as well as knowledgeable about intercultural education; furthermore, they seemed to implement different teaching methodologies and curriculum interventions to support Roma children’s inclusion in the local school community. At the same time, they seemed to adopt instrumental approaches towards the content and purpose of the programme, seeking explicit instructional guidelines, plans and heuristics to deal with Roma inclusion. Considering the mis-recognition of teachers’ efforts by stakeholders outside the school and the expectations of the educational authorities – voiced via their school inspectors – teachers desperately asserted the need for tangible strategies to help them cope with difference in their classrooms.
Research limitations/implications
The authors argue that such professional development programmes should aim at facing, deconstructing and bringing to the fore prejudices and discrimination against the Other/s by valuing teachers, first, as reflective individuals and, second, as professionals with their own cultural backgrounds and identities, on which any training programme, of the kind presented in this paper, could start from and build on.
Practical implications
Even though there is no tailored magic recipe to make teachers’ daily professional enterprise in multicultural settings easy, to help teachers master the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence, the authors suggest that training should be directly linked to classroom practice and acknowledge stress and helplessness that accompany work in multicultural school settings.
Social implications
The inclusion strategy in many educational systems needs to become more comprehensive to cope with varying sources of social exclusion, faced by vulnerable groups of a different cultural background, such as Roma. Teacher training thus needs to meet the challenges of working in a diverse and multicultural environment in general and with Roma children in particular. In view of the multicultural character of local societies, a more critically oriented humanistic education is needed based on tolerance and understanding.
Originality/value
The limited participation of Roma in the school system could be related to teachers’ (mis)conceptions about the Roma culture and that the widely different ways in which Roma relate to schooling are often disregarded by the school.
Details
Keywords
Lois Orton, Rachel Anderson de Cuevas, Kristefer Stojanovski, Juan F. Gamella, Margaret Greenfields, Daniel La Parra, Oana Marcu, Yaron Matras, Celia Donert, Diane Frost, Jude Robinson, Eve Rosenhaft, Sarah Salway, Sally Sheard, Elizabeth Such, David Taylor-Robinson and Margaret Whitehead
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of “Roma health and wellbeing” as a focus of attention in European research and in policy and the possible detrimental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of “Roma health and wellbeing” as a focus of attention in European research and in policy and the possible detrimental consequences of action founded on a generic representation of “Roma health.”
Design/methodology/approach
Based on discussions with and research conducted by scholars who work directly with Roma communities across European regions from a wide range of academic disciplines it suggests how future research might inform: a more nuanced understanding of the causes of poor health and wellbeing among diverse Roma populations and; actions that may have greater potential to improve the health and wellbeing among these populations.
Findings
In summary, the authors promote three types of research: first critical analyses that unpick the implications of current and past representations of “Roma” and “Roma health.” Second, applied participatory research that meaningfully involves people from specific self-defined Roma populations to identify important issues for their health and wellbeing. Third, learning about processes that might impact on the health and wellbeing of Roma populations from research with other populations in similarly excluded situations.
Originality/value
The authors provide a multidisciplinary perspective to inform research that does not perpetuate further alienation and prejudice, but promotes urgent action to redress the social and health injustices experienced by diverse Roma populations across Europe.
Details
Keywords
Inclusive education of Roma students is a priority goal of the European Union. However, synthesising analyses reveal precious little progress scored in this area. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Inclusive education of Roma students is a priority goal of the European Union. However, synthesising analyses reveal precious little progress scored in this area. This study aims to explore the factors that have affect Roma students’ academic achievement, specifically, whether the views of their teachers have an impact on the performance besides individual and family background factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A large-sample questionnaire-based research study was conducted in the 2019/2020 academic year involving 4,674 seventh-grade students and 2,656 teachers from 194 Hungarian schools. On a self-admission basis, 374 of the students were Roma.
Findings
In the schools examined, the performance of Roma students is poorer, their commitment to learning is weaker, yet they have a higher opinion of their school and their teachers than their non-Roma peers. The involvement of majority students in extracurricular private tutoring, particularly foreign language learning, is greater. Roma students’ academic achievement is mainly affected by individual background factors, in particular by their school history.
Originality/value
The findings suggest that although the role of the school and pedagogical views is important, they are not predominant factors determining Roma students’ performance. The explanatory power of individual characteristics is stronger than that of school factors. The comparison between Roma and non-Roma students also shows that cooperation between different sectors (education, social and health) would be essential within and outside school in terms of home learning conditions, digital access and student well-being.
Details
Keywords
Carmen Gago-Cortés and Isabel Novo-Corti
The persistence of shanty towns in cities is a major public issue due to the situation of poverty and abandonment of its inhabitants. Despite public authorities are concerned…
Abstract
Purpose
The persistence of shanty towns in cities is a major public issue due to the situation of poverty and abandonment of its inhabitants. Despite public authorities are concerned about this serious issue, they often fail to address suitably the problem due to their short-term goals. The purpose of this paper is to assess the public policies and green economy projects to improve the quality of life of people living in shanty towns in northwest Spain from the point of view of sustainable development and the interaction between social, economic and environmental areas.
Design/methodology/approach
A systemic causal diagram is proposed for the empirical analysis. It has been contrasted through the study of the various actions undertaken in some shanty towns in Spain. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to complement this analysis.
Findings
As a result, the study shows that the actions should not only be limited to providing access to adequate housing, but should also require more extensive cross-cutting projects. In this, green economy policies are shown as a good choice for improving the quality of life and development of the population.
Originality/value
The study highlights the potential of green economic policies to mitigate environmental problems in slum areas and to support the social and economic development of its inhabitants. This paper provides some lines of action to improve the efficiency of public policies implemented in these cases. Thus, benefits in multiple areas such as social, environmental and urban could be generated.
Details