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IN TRANSITION: THE ROMA WITHIN THE
BULGARIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.
ACTIONS, TRIALS AND PERSPECTIVES
Monica Rossi
National Research Council, Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, Italy
monicrossi@alice.it
Abstract. This paper is an attempt to analyse, diagnose and provide general recommendations concerning the Roma-related problems in the educational system of the Republic of Bulgaria from the standpoint of an external to the country analyst. Besides purely educational and ethnic issues, particular factors that create the context in which function and develop the educational system and interethnic relations after the 1989 changes are presented. Major challenges facing the education system and the associated with the Roma community issues (for example, reducing the share of Roma in the higher classes of secondary school), the necessary/pending reforms and current policies are discussed. A review of what has happened so far is also made.
Key words: Roma education, educational measures, educational policies
ROMA IN BULGARIA: A SHORT OVERVIEW
Among the ethnic groups that are historically present in the Bulgarian territory, Roma constitute the third largest group after ethnic Bulgarians and the Turkish minority. In the 2001 national census, there were 370 908 people (4.7%) who identified themselves as Roma (REF, 2004); while the official data from the last census from February 2011 put the Roma population at 4.9 %, although this number is considered by many researchers largely underestimated (Bogdanov and Zahariev, 2011, p.4).
Early traces of presence of Roma groups in the Bulgarian territory can be found between the eighth and the fourteenth centuries, and were documented by a number of historical sources, in particular during the rule of the Ottoman Empire and for all the course of the XIX century (Marushiakova and Popov, 2001)1.
Socialist policies toward the Roma shifted from an initial support during the decade from 1940 to 1950 to a decisive shift toward a process of minorities “Bulgarisation” which begun in the mid-fifties. After an initial support to Roma organisations which led to the creation of a Roma newspaper and of a Roma theatre, the early fifties saw a decisive shift in this policy (Tomova, 1995; Crowe, 1996).
1 Historically the Bulgarian territory has always been homeland to several different minorities. The Congress of Berlin tied the acknowledgement of the new states of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Romania to the protection of the internal minorities of these states. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) granted with its Article 5 religious freedom to all subjects.
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After the Second World War, the Roma became the target of a series of state policies which were aimed at ensuring their cultural homologation under the idea of a single national Bulgarian identity.
A systematic set of legislative actions were undertaken in order to assimilate the Roma through education and by mean of a series of specific acts directed to the removal of traditional features of the group. Such measures were touching all aspects of Roma life, and they ranged from the prohibition of practicing nomadism (as required by a State Decree in 1958) up to procedures such as that of the Muslim Roma name change. These policies did not target only the Roma but also large numbers of Bulgarian Turks and Bulgarian Muslims (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 1999 p. 3); it was a practice repeated several times in the history of Bulgaria starting from the 1950s up to the early 1980s.
When the Socialist government fell in 1989, Roma began their journey in the newly reformed Bulgarian state, but the road to full citizenship rights was going to be challenged by a series of major obstacles, first of all, economic and occupational ones.
The transition to the market economy from that of the centrally planned system brought many jobs losses in many economic sectors such as those of agriculture, manufacturing and mining. These were the occupational areas in which traditionally a large number of Roma were employed. Consequently, many groups abandoned the mining and agricultural areas to start a process of migration toward national urban centres and, later on, also abroad2.
After 1989, employment rates decreased by 37-66 per cent, and underemployment rose enormously. If we observe and compare the average national distributions, “not only the employment of Romani people is very low, but also the incomes of a large portion of those of them who work lag behind those of the other Bulgarian citizens” (Tomova, 2007, pp.4-8); data which confirm the substandard situation which has become common for this minority.
These processes led to new and more severe forms of marginalisation, i.e. “inadequate access to decent education and jobs in the formal sector, substandard housing, poor health and low life expectancy” (UNECE, 2011, p.2). Spatial segregation, unemployment, underemployment and low literacy skills became determinant factors for the growing ghettoisation of Roma. The process of urbanisation that took place during Socialism based on destruction of the former Roma slums and their resettlement in blockhouses soon turned into abandon, and rapidly gave way to the transformation of the former Mahalla model into that of the global contemporary urban slums and hyperghettoes3.
Today the Roma situation in Bulgaria remains affected by a complex series of problems in the fields of housing, employment and worsened by the lack of an adequate and systematic access to economic and educational opportunities.
2 “In 2007, 18% of Roma families declared they have members of the family working (seasonally) abroad” (Tomova, 2007, p.7).
3 For the transformations from ghetto to hypergetto see Rossi M., 2011, “Fiori nella discarica: forme di resistenza nell’iperghetto”. In: Inchiesta, N. 174 October - December.
5 Nasselenie review, 5–6/2013
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A 2005 World Bank Report shows in figures how the processes of liberalisation that followed the Cold War period, have resulted in a substantial increase in the levels of poverty and unemployment especially among the Roma communities.
Further research, conducted in 2010 by the Open Society Institute and the World Bank for their crisis monitoring survey registered the data shown in Table 1 below, where is presented the Bulgarian poverty profile for the year 2010 - 2011:
Table 1
Poverty Profile during 2010-2011 (%)
Poverty Headcount Rate February, 2011 4
Distribution of the Poor February 2011
Distribution of Population February 2011
Total
23.0
100.0
100.0
Bulgarians
16.4
59.1
83.1
Turks
50.9
22.0
9.9
Roma
68.4
15.4
5.2
Source: Crisis Monitoring Survey OSI-WB, 2010–2011, p. 15
As clearly shown in this Table, Roma have the highest poverty headcount rate, followed by the Turkish minority.
Other indicators of exclusion are those related with the access to the healthcare system, especially regarding the aspects of health prevention.
Basic rights such as that to health, have an extremely limited impact on Roma population, thus aggravating a situation already set at a critical level.
A field survey from 2008 found that more than 37 per cent of the population who was living in segregated Roma communities were without any form of health insurance at all (Tomova, Metodieva et al, 2008, p.15).
A report from the Centre Amalipe - Veliko Turnovo, one of the most active NGOs advocating for Roma rights in Bulgaria stated that:
“It is crucial to solve the problem with the high percentage of people without health insurance from Roma origin. In this connection, it is necessary to extend the range of the health secured persons in unequal position by means of legislative and structural reforms in the sphere of health insurance of the socially weak persons, including the long-term unemployed. The health security status is an important precondition for the selection of a general practitioner and for the access to free medical and hospital assistance, the access to which is impeded at present for the Roma and other people living in poverty and isolation” (Centre Amalipe, 2008, p.90).
To further aggravate this background situation, it must also be remembered that just as it is happening in many other EU countries, also in Bulgaria we are witnessing to the rise of a form of new violent nationalism, spread and supported by extreme far-right wings of racist organisations.
4 Editor’s note: The poverty headcount rate - using 60% of the equalised median income as poverty line.
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For the whole 1990s and up until today, political actions on behalf of these groups have been characterised by a widespread rise of anti-Roma activities. These actions have been extensively documented by a series of international reports such as those produced by the U.S. State Department‘s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Human Rights Report Bulgaria, 2010, p.23) and by international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International45.
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND THE ROMA:
MAIN FEATURES
According to Article 53 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, education is free of charge. The principles of access to all levels of education, of equality in education, for the free-of-charge education in the state and municipal schools are specified by the Public Education Act (Art. 6).
The Bulgarian higher education system includes non-university institutions (kolezhi), universities and specialised higher schools (academies and institutes). The general criteria for admissions vary according to the type of institution as all higher education institutions are autonomous and can thus choose their preferred kind of examination. The common criteria for acceptance typically require a secondary school leaving certificate with academic records.
The universities award the students with several levels of degrees. The Bakalavar degree is awarded at the end of university studies with duration of at least four years. University courses which last for 5-6 years or more lead to the Magistar degree, which can also be obtained at the end of a one-year studies after the Bakalavar degree. The Magistar enables students to further continue their education and take a three-year university courses to receive a Doctorate (the Doktor).
Vocational secondary education is available at vocational-technical or technical schools. The vocational-technical schools offer three and four years of training. The students can continue for three years of training after they have completed of seventh grade or for four years of training after they complete eighth grade, both of which result in specialised secondary education. The vocational schools may also offer other forms of studying such as evening courses or external training that allow students at the age of 16 and above to acquire qualifications.
The Table below provides a description of the school stages, of their duration in years and the ages of pupils attending that cycle of studies.
Schools are for the large majority public, and the number of private institutes in Bulgaria is still very limited. In 2004, there were 56 private general schools in Bulgaria (5 elementary, 24 primary and lower secondary, 23 upper secondary and 4 combined schools), only 0.8 per cent of children attend private schools (Kostova, 2008, p.168). For Romani children in particular, a World Bank survey reported that “almost all Romani children reported to be in preschools were accessing services through the public sector (97%)” (World Bank, 2012, pp. 28-29).
5 See report available at: http://amnesty.org/en/region/bulgaria/report-2011
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Table 2
Educational System in the Republic of Bulgaria
Compulsory Education
School stage
Primary / Secondary studies
Years of the stage
Years of the children attending that school stage
Elementary
-
from 6-7 to 9-10 years of age
Primary
-
from 10-11 to 14-15 years of age
Technical/vocational classes
-
from 13-14 years of age
Technical/vocational Schools, Technical schools (different types of
upper secondary schools)
-
from 14-15 to 17-18 years of age
Non Compulsory Education
School stages
General secondary schools (including schools with specialised sections)
4 – 5
from 14-15 to 17-18 years of age
Technical/vocational secondary schools
3 – 4
from 12-13 to 15-16 or 17-18 years of age for a 3 year course of study;
from 14-15 to 18-19 years of age for 4 year course of study.
Technical schools/gymnasiums
4 – 5
from 13-14 to 17-18-19 years of age
Source: Bulgarian Educational System, Eurydice
However, to ensure full access to education to the Roma there are still a series of major problems which remain to be addressed. Enrolment obstacles, segregated education, high early school leaving rates and the extremely limited progression toward higher levels of education are indicators that demonstrate the need for a systematic intervention.
In particular, the access to pre-school education is still very low for Romani children, due to the enrolment fees6 and to a government policy which gives priority to children with working parents.
Economic factors are also playing a key role due to the general costs of the schooling (transport, food, clothes, textbooks and notebooks etc.), all expenses that the average Roma family is not able to sustain without help.
A 2012 World Bank Report on Roma’s early education states that in spite of the fact that more than 80% of the Romani parents interviewed wished their children to have completed at least secondary education “… multiple disadvantages stand in the way of reaching that goal for the vast majority of Roma, especially inequalities early in life. In Bulgaria, only 45%… of Roma children aged 3-6 are in pre-school” (World Bank, 2012, p. 7).
6 Editor’s note: here, it is more likely that the author here refers to the monthly fee that parents have to pay on regular basis.
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There is an intentional institutional commitment to improving Roma access to education, and in recent years the government has undertaken a series of measures to address the inequalities that Roma face. In 2005, the Centre for Educational Integration of Children and Students from Ethnic Minority (CEICSEM)7 was established. Its mission was that of supporting the implementation of government policies regarding the educational needs of these students according to four main action lines of intervention:
“... Activities in Program 1 are aimed at overcoming the difficulties in the process of educational integration of children and students from ethnic minorities, especially in pre-school and elementary school age, as well as its aimed to create conditions of detention and prevention of risks of school leaving, which ensures access to quality education... The focus of Program 2 is to preserve and develop cultural identity of children and students from ethnic minority groups through their involvement in extracurricular activities that aim to exploring ethno-cultural traditions... Program 3 covers activities aimed to training courses for teachers, learning and acquisition of practical skills for working in multicultural environment, using interactive teaching methods, for acquiring knowledge about the culture, holidays and traditions of different ethnic minorities... Activities in Program 4 were designed to exploring cultural diversity and traditions of different ethnic groups in Bulgaria to create an atmosphere of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding”. (CEICSEM, 2010, p.18).
The Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science in its Report on the “Progress in Implementation of the Education and Training 20108 Work Programme” gives us a picture a very detailed picture of the actual situation of Roma regarding education. The document presented also a series of practical proposals to keep the pupils within the education system and to encourage the enrolments into kindergartens and pre-schools, stating:
“Educational and training system in Bulgaria faces problems in integrating different ethno-cultural groups, especially Roma [around 10% of pupils in Bulgaria have Roma origin] and people with special educational needs. It the present moment 1/5 of Roma people does not have even primary education… Around 0.2 % of them have graduated higher education…and the percentage of school dropouts is the highest one, in comparison with the other ethno-cultural groups… Using data collected by the Ministry of Education and Science, around 1/5 of the pupils in obligatory school’s age annually drop out from school… In order to resolve the problem concerning better inclusion and keeping children and youth within the educational system, the Human Resources Development Operative Programme puts accent onto two basic moments:
7 See CEICSEM official website: http://coiduem.mon.bg/en/
8 Republic of Bulgaria, Ministry of Education and Science (2007), National Report – Contribution of Republic of Bulgaria to the 2008 joint interim report of the Council and of the European Commission on the progress in implementation of the education and training 2010 work programme. (p.2).
Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/nationalreport08/bg07_en.pdf
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1) inclusion of children, especially those from different ethno-cultural groups, in the educational cycle’s early stages, and
2) development of the system for out door activities. Inclusion of children in the early stages of education – kindergartens and pre-school education will facilitate their integration on one hand, and on another hand, it will provide better employability for their parents” (CEICSEM, 2010, p.2).
The document above is important for two main reasons: firstly, because the idea of “keeping children and youth within the educational system” is a wider goal, and reveals a long-term objective which surpasses the average need to have more enrolments every year in favour of a long time perspective dedicated to keep the student within the school institution. Secondly, because of the importance attributed to the Roma inclusion in early childhood education and for the attention to parents, thus implying that any process regarding children education ought to involve their parents as well in order to be successful.
Nonetheless, other urgent problems yet remain unsolved, like that of the limited access to pre-school for Romani pupils, and the existence of a segregated school system. The obstacles lies the fact that the present legislation gives priority to the pupils who have two working parents, therefore the Roma are forced to pay in order to enrol their children into these schools, a fee that Romani families due to their condition of extreme poverty are not able to pay. For this reason, and for the lack of available places in classrooms, early childhood education remains a right to be guaranteed to the large majority of Romani pupils.
Further, as it will be shown in the following paragraph, a system of segregated schools for the Roma has been maintained for years. It is a substandard system whose poor quality has seriously undermined the possibility for Romani students to progress to higher levels of education and has prevented the social and ethnic mixing required to produce a positive intercultural environment.
Another serious issue is represented by the high presence of Romani pupils in special schools and in correctional institutions such as the Educational Boarding Schools (EBS) and Social-Educational Boarding Schools (SEBS).
EBS and SEBS are forms of correctional institutions and have been the object of two reforms (in 1996 and in 2004) because of their infringement of human rights, in particular for practices such as that of arbitrary placement and lack of guarantees for fair trial. The Report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee on these institutions provided shocking evidence of these malpractices, further adding that:
“The existence of such schools is hardly compliant with the modern approach to integration and social rehabilitation of vulnerable children and the practice of their functioning so far does not show convincing evidence regarding whatever positive role they might have”. (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2005, p.33).
A monitoring visit carried on by the BHC in 2006, openly asked the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science to reconsider the effectiveness of EBS and SEBS, and it is hoped that more significant efforts would be made to reform or to completely close down these institutions.
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NATIONAL CHALLENGES AND ACTIONS FOR ROMA INCLUSION
In order to contrast the growing social exclusion of the Roma, the Bulgarian government has produced a number of key documents. Among those the most prominent is the “Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society”, adopted on 22 of April 1999 by the Bulgarian Council of Ministers. This agreement was the product of a joint effort on behalf of many Roma NGOs and carried on in close cooperation with experts, various Romani representatives and institutions. However, the effects of this effort, despite the extensive participation and the involvement of the communities themselves, have failed to produce the expected results.
As Russinov pointed out:
“At the time of writing in late spring 2001, two years have passed without any observable progress in the implementation of the Programme…in our contacts with government offices, we have become aware that many officials are not even familiar with the Framework Programme. The government has thus far failed to develop a detailed plan of activities, to allocate resources, or to appoint officials in charge of implementing of the Framework Programme. It is worth noting that many of the tasks envisaged by the Framework Programme do not require substantial funding and depend entirely on the political will of the authorities. For example, amendments to the Penal Code introducing enhanced sentences for racially motivated crime, envisioned under the Framework Programme, have not yet been made. The adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination law and the setting up of a specialised body for combating discrimination remain similarly unrealised to date” (Russinov, 2001).
Consequently, the Framework Programme was renewed in 2010. In 2006, the government issued another document regarding actions to be implemented for Roma inclusion: The National Programme for the Improvement of the Living Conditions of the Roma (2006).
Although based on an extremely detailed set of data that included a needs assessment, a budgeting and reinforced by an extensive expert analysis, the Programme has remained yet largely unimplemented. As a result, a policy paper produced in 2011 by experts on behalf of the European Commission strongly advised that “Any re-launch of existing strategies and plans in the context of the new EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies should include precise budgetary commitments of appropriate scale from the Structural Funds and the national budget.” (Bogdanov and Zahariev, 2011, p.23). Similar considerations were also raised by other NGOs (Centre Amalipe, 2008, p.134).
In December 2011, the Bulgarian Council of Ministers adopted the National Strategy for Roma Integration (NRIS) and the consequent Action Plan (Bulgaria is one of the founder countries of the Decade of Roma Inclusion). This act showed a
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precise political commitment to the topic of Roma inclusion both at the national and international level9.
With the aim of ensuring that the NRIS was the result of a wide consultation, an interdepartmental work group was formed after the Prime Minister’s indication in the summer of 2011. The workgroup was entrusted with the duty of outlining a draft document in line with the EU requirements for National Roma Integration Strategies. The group was composed by 53 members coming from institutions, NGOs, Roma communities and grassroots organisations. The interdisciplinary working group cooperated to the design of the National strategy and the related action plan. In January the group prepared a draft, and the Bulgarian NRIS was finally presented in 2012.
After the Strategy was published, several organisations and researchers have analysed their contents delivering critical remarks and evaluations. Among these critical papers, it is of particular interest a document produced by OSF in 2012 on the NRIS review regarding Bulgaria and other countries. The report analysed the NRIS noting in particular two important general aspects which all the strategies presented failed to properly address: “… to describe how EU funds will be better used for Roma inclusion; and to fulfil the criteria set by the EU framework and quoted by the draft EU regulations” (OSF, 2012 p.7), adding further on that “The national goals are not articulated in terms of concrete indicators for the four priority areas. Those indicators mentioned in the action plan in the different areas are inadequate” (OSF, 2012 p.13).
Both the previous comment from the European Commission and the second one by the OSF team are basically addressing the same issue, i.e. the fact that it is not sufficient for policy makers to produce the generic affirmation of a principle. Laws, in order to be effective and to have a real impact must be transformed into real policy acts, provided with an effective and stable economic coverage and plan of implementation, which only will allow an efficient realisation in the territories of the principle affirmed.
This article does not intend to produce a full evaluation of these efforts, but what can be said is that the occasion offered by the NRIS sparkled a debate and a collective engagement that has undoubtedly been beneficial to all the social actors involved and has created more awareness on the Roma issue.
The wide process of consultation, the materials produced and the evident active commitment of large parts of the Bulgarian civil society and institutions, are lively
9 See the pertinent documents available online: National Roma Integration Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria (2012-2020),
available at: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/roma_bulgaria_strategy_en.pdf.
Bulgaria NRIS Action Plan, available at:
http://www.romadecade.org/files/downloads/Decade%20Documents/National%20Action%20Plan-Bulgaria.pdf
And a series of NRIS reviews and evaluations like the one conducted by ERPC (European Roma Policy Coalition), available at:
http://www.ergonetwork.org/media/userfiles/media/Final%20ERPC%20Analysis%2021%2003%2012_FINAL.pdf
and by the Integro:
http://www.ergonetwork.org/media/userfiles/media/Integro_Association_Reviewof_NlRS_Bulgariaeng.pdf
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testimony of the willingness of many institutions, NGOs and citizens, to cooperate together effectively for the Roma inclusion.
THE REFORM OF BULGARIA’S
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Bulgaria’s educational system has begun a deep process of change since a decade in many key areas like that of evaluation of the quality of the system; on such grounds a reform of the whole educational system was started in 2007 – 2008.
Strongly supported by international agencies such as the World Bank, the reform was mainly targeted at “economizing and at improving the efficiency” of the Bulgarian system. This reform plan was going to intervene not only on the economic and management aspects, but had also the aim of establishing a quality system. The final objective of these measures was that of improving the quality of education and to “change the educational model from resource-oriented to results-focused, strengthening the existing model of school autonomy and revisiting the accountability framework” (World Bank, 2010, p.3). Nonetheless, a large part of the reform efforts, consisted mainly in a process of rationalisation of the school workforce and of the school institutions.
The reasons for the reform were also based and supported by demographic evidence, such as the ongoing decrease of Bulgaria’s population10 and the consequent diminishing of the demands for education. This required that a large part of the efficiency procedures had been mainly targeted at reducing costs, cutting down on the number of schools and of teachers.
The reform also changed the funding system from the former centralised to a decentralised one: since 2007 the Municipalities have received their schooling funds on a per student basis. With this system, schools might be more eager to open to Roma pupils in order to raise the number of the students enrolled, but the procedure needs to be followed closely, because as a REF report warns, “real attendance and outcomes will need to be monitored” (REF, 2007, p.26)11.
10 In 2007 – 2009 the school population aged from 7 to 17 years of age decreased by 30% (World Bank, 2010, p. 12).
11 A similar problem has been arising also in Italy. In Rome for example, schools tend to favour the enrolment of Roma and migrant children in order to balance the demographic negative trend of the Italian population and therefore avoiding the closing down of classrooms, but the effective results of the schooling are still based solely on the quantitative data regarding the enrolments. Thus the achievements are impossible to be monitored, also due to the lack of a set of valid indicators for the enactment of a real assessment and evaluation procedure. Further, a differentiated system of registering presences has been introduced for Roma pupils. The system had been implemented to help the Roma children living in encampments to gain the minimum number of attendance days required to pass to the next school grade. But this proceeding has instead introduced and legitimised a different standard for the Roma students, thus crystallising a situation of exceptionality (the difficulty of living in encampments), which should have instead been implemented only an emergency measure and for a limited period of time (Rossi, 2009; 2012, p.3).
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As a whole, the effects of this reform are still controversial according to several observers and to World Bank experts.
If on one hand that of closing down small schools and institutes had appeared as logic financially necessity, on the other hand, the same report acknowledges that “Roma students appeared to perform better in small schools” (World Bank, 2010, p. 9). Further on, the report dutifully registers that among the consequences of the reform there has been also an “exacerbation of school drop out rates”. This phenomenon had especially concerned the students whose schools had been closed down after the reform (World Bank, 2010, p. 29).
A peer reviewed study on the social inclusion of Roma in Bulgaria commissioned by the European Commission, and published one year later after that of the WB, registered that:
“In 2008, at the climax of the school optimization reform around 15 per cent of the schools were closed in a single year. This process was less orderly and rational than planned and did not take into account rising private costs and certain cultural specificities of the Roma. The result was a massive increase in school dropout” (Bogdanov G. and Zahariev B., 2011, p.11). Other weak points underlined by the report regarded the desegregation projects, which according to the authors have not involved the totality of Roma children, and the per capita system, which has in some cases damaged the poorest schools in terms of allocation of funds and resources (Bogdanov G. and Zahariev B., 2011, p. 13).
It is too early to provide an actual balance of this reform, which is a process and can therefore only be properly evaluated but in the long period. Certainly, there are a series of actions that should have been enacted to protect and support the weakest parts of society during these changes.
The sudden closing down of small schools has left a hole in the education service and has somehow made more difficult for Roma pupils to have full access education. The report’s author have pointed out different reasons for this: the pupils of these schools, which were mainly situated in small rural areas, have been transferred to other schools, thus creating the problem of the school transport and new inclusion challenges (although not all of these experiences were that negative of course). On the other hand the material conditions of the schools which were left open has not changed, and there have been little or no efforts to improve the material conditions of the school buildings and to overcome the lack of funding for the small rural schools left.
In a general perspective, there are still important structural efforts to be made to ensure that this reform will have a positive impact on Roma’s access to education. Infrastructure development and school refurbishment should constitute a priority in order to increase the quantity of enrolments and the quality of services, and more effective measures should be taken with regard to the support to families, also because “the national targets for the National Reform Programme cannot be achieved without the integration of the Roma in education” (Bogdanov G. and Zahariev B., 2011, p. 23).
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ROMA CHILDREN IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS
As it happens in other countries of Eastern Europe such as Czech Republic, Slovakia and others, in Bulgaria the segregated education of Romani pupils remains an issue which needs yet to be thoroughly addressed and contrasted.
The European Parliament Resolution released in April 200512 and the following Resolution of 201013 both addressed explicitly the necessity for member states to implement and enact strategies and actions to achieve full school desegregation in order to eliminate the phenomenon of Romani pupils overrepresentation in special schools. On the same topic, in 2006 was issued a Declaration of the European Commissioner for Human Rights14 noting that segregation in education is a matter of particular concern to EU authorities.
Estimates produced by the Roma Education Fund and by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in 2004 stated that 20% of Romani children never went to school and that about 70% of Romani students are attending ethnically segregated schools (REF, 2004, p.15).
The situation is further aggravated by the concentration of multiple correlates of poverty coupled with the fact that the schools where children from ethnic minorities are enrolled are also those with less activity on behalf of the school toward these pupils, who should instead be supported with active and engaging measures. One of the reasons why school attendance is so low is because of a perpetuating lack of literacy among the Roma parents and families. Such a situation naturally influences children’s school performance.
Graph 1 shows the correlation between the lack of participation of parents in school activities as well as school initiative and the gap in the educational levels between Romani and non-Romani Bulgarian mothers.
Government programmes for desegregation in schools were launched in the mid-2000s, but the percentage of Roma pupils in these institutions is still considerably high in spite of the efforts made insofar.
The ERRC Report “Stigmata: Segregated Schooling of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe”, presented in 2004, presented a full overview of the various forms of segregation which may affect Romani pupils. The report summarises the three main forms of segregation: segregation in schools for children with developmental disabilities; segregation in separate classes within mainstream schools; and segregation in ghetto-schools (REF, 2004, Chapters 4; 5 and 6). In order to confront this issue, various municipalities and the NGOs working in Roma education have since the year 2000 implemented a series of projects dedicated to the inclusion of Romani pupils
12 European Parliament Resolution of 28 April 2005 on the Situation of the Roma in the European Union.
13 European Parliament Resolution of 9 September 2010 on the Situation of Roma and on freedom of movement in the European Union.
14 2006, Final Report by Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights, on the Human Rights Situation of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers in Europe for the attention of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly, Chapter III. Discrimination in Education – Unequal Access and Segregation,
Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4402c56b4.pdf
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Graph 1: Gap in the Educational Level between Bulgarians Romani and non-Romani Mothers
Source: Survey of Parent Participation and School Life in Bulgaria, OSI-Sofia and Expert Analysis Group,
In: Bogdanov G. and Zahariev B., 2011, Bulgaria. Promoting Social Inclusion of Roma. A Study of National Policies. On Behalf of the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, p.14
into non-segregated schools. An ERRC Report describing these experiences affirms that:
“Test results in Bulgarian language and Mathematics for Romani children in the 4th grade in Roma-only schools and their peers who participated in school integration programs run by Romani NGOs, showed that in four years Romani children in the integrated schools have accumulated serious advantages in school achievement as compared to their peers in the Roma-only schools” (ERRC, 2007, p.10).
According to the “Stigmata” Report, the data for Bulgaria regarding special schools and the Roma show that “the system of remedial special schools for children with developmental disabilities functions as a de facto parallel substandard system of education for Roma” (Stigmata, 2004 p. 37). The 2005 Report of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee states that: “The BHC conducted a monitoring study in January–March 2005 in all SEBS and EBS15. It found out that at 12 of these institutions the number of registered children is almost half of or even less than the capacity requested by the institution. The documented number of children amounted to 1,500, but during the BHC visits about 900 children only were present. Approximately 60% of the institutionalised children are of Roma origin, reported the directors of these institutions” (BHC, 2005, p. 11).
15 SEBS Social-Educational Boarding Schools); EBS (Educational Boarding Schools).
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Moreover, the same report further adds that: “It is not rare to have children with Roma origin placed in SEBS and EBS who are above the age of 14, who have never attended school and are completely illiterate” (BHC, 2005, p. 26).
Although the number of segregated schools decreased by 40% between 2005 and 2007, the number of pupils enrolled in such schools is still considerable (UNECE, 2011, p.10).
Extensive quantitative data on the percentage of Romani children enrolled in special schools have been provided in the “Stigmata” Report to which we refer for detailed data disaggregated for each District and Municipality. (See Table 3 below).
Table 3
Roma in the special schools for children with developmental*
Special school (SS)
Total number of children
Number of children with developmental disability
Number of children who had finished 8 grade/academic
Year
Percentage of Romani children
2 SS Sofia
138
92
11 (2000/01)
40%
3 SS Sofia
160
127
15 (2000/01)
30%
SS Pernik
138
116
8 (2000/01)
missing data
SS Ahmatovo
87
77
8 (2000/01)
35%
SS Byala Slatina
271
75 %
missing data
80%
SS Chokmanovo
96
missing data
missing data
60%
SS Dimitrovgrad
103
89
13 (2000/01)
80%
SS Nova Zagora
160
missing data
16 (2000/01)
70%
SS Rakitovo
100
89
8 (2000/01)
50%
SS Shumen
268
more than 50%
missing data
43%
SS Stan
45
45
11 (4th grade) (2000/01)
93%
SS Assenovgrad
63
60
11 (2000/01)
19%
SS Karnobat
88
79
6 (2001/02)
84%
SS Kazanlak
132
132
16 (2001/02)
30%
SS Stara Zagora
198
198
15 (2001/02)
60%
SS Godech
85
70
9 (2001/02)
50-60%
4 SS Sofia
161
more than 50 %
11 (2000/01)
more than 50%
5 SS Sofia
125
125
8 (2001/02)
60%
SS Sredets
130
127
6 (2001/02)
40%
SS Brestovica
120
32 %
9 (2001/02)
70%
SS Burgas
153
122
12 (2001/02)
15%
SS Svishtov
52
80 %
8 (2001/02)
6-7 in each class
SS Novi Pazar
158
91
8 (2001/02)
51%
SS Ruse
97
45
15 (2000/01)
11%
SS Ruse
208
168
17 (2001/02)
5%
SS Velingrad
107
77
missing data
16%
SS Pazardzhik
200
most children
16 (2001/02)
50%
SS Haskovo
130
missing data
8 (10 grade)
50%
SS Petrich
109
90
11 (2001/02)
77%
SS Kranevo
158
more than 50%
10 (2001/02)
missing data
SS Kavarna
140
70 %
17 (2001/02)
49%
SS Dolno Draglishte
115
more than 50%
15 (2001/02)
55%
78
SS Blagoevgrad
168
160
9 (2001/02)
80%
SS Goce Delchev
194
less than50%
16 (2001/02)
80%
SS Yambol
90
more than 50%
missing data
8%
SS Elhovo
146
more than 50%
19 (2001/02)
70%
SS Stob
115
more than 50%
18 (2001/02)
74%
SS Lozno
120
106
14 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Kurdzhali
108
77
8 (2001/02)
34%
SS Vratsa
246
221
23 (2001/02)
85%
SS Veliko Turnovo
106
86
8 (2001/02)
25%
SS Novo selo
108
104
5 (2001/02)
0
SS Mindia
84
80
7 (2001/02)
missing data
SS Lom
230
220
missing data
80%
SS Davidovo
102
70
9 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Targovishte
84
69
8 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Popovo
89
87
5 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Gabrovo
84
74
7 (2001/02)
50 %
SS Careva Livada
71
66
10 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Roman
119
109
15 (2001/02)
82%
SS Parvomaici
64
59
6 (2001/02)
less than 50%
SS Samokov
102
88
12 (2001/02)
46%
SS Dolni Dubnik
166
144
14 (2001/02)
64%
SS Pleven
143
112
11 (2001/02)
33%
SS Lovech
61
30
no children
10%
SS Berkovica
103
missing data
12 (2001/02)
more than 50%
SS Ajtos
98
88
7 (2001/02)
82%
SS Vetren
123
almost all children
8(2001/02)
90%
SS Sliven
192
missing data
missing data
40%
SS Harmanli
313
299
23 (2001/02)
41%
SS Svilengrad
162
137
9 (2001/02)
60%
SS Topolovgrad
124
119
8 (2001/02)
86%
SS Vidin
80
72
8 (2001/02)
70%
SS Muglizh
48
48
4 (2001/02)
80%
SS Chirpan
68
almost all children
3 (2001/02)
80%
SS Silistra
121
114
16 (2001/02)
50%
SS Radotina
99
91
8 (2001/02)
63%
6 SS Sofia
109
81
9 (2001/02)
1%
SS Slavyanovo
88
79
9 (2001/02)
70%
SS Osenec
105
98
8 (2001/02)
42%
SS Krivnya
75
69
8 (2001/02)
79%
SS Varna
102
77
19 (2001/02)
12%
SS Pernik, Carkva
107
74
7 (2001/02)
77%
SS Kubrat
187
150
13 (2001/02)
48%
TOTAL:
9 399
-
-
-
Source: Stigmata, 2004, pp. 99-102
* ERRC in cooperation with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) visited 46 special schools for children with developmental disabilities. The rest of the schools were visited by the BHC.
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As visible from the table above, the presence of Roma children in special schools is still very high. All of the 74 schools visited during the field visit made by the ERRC BHC team hosted Roma children, and in 54 cases of the 74 analysed their percentage ranged from 40 to 80% of the total presences, showing how evident is the Roma overrepresentation in these institutions.
In 2010, the National Strategy „Vision for Deinstitutionalisation of the Children in the Republic of Bulgaria“ was adopted, together with the annexed Action Plan for its practical implementation. Among the points of this strategy, there is that of closing down this sort of specialized institutions. It is hoped that this step will help to speed up the deinstitutionalisation process which for the time being, appears to be still too limited.
ACCESS TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CONTRAST TO SCHOOL DROPPING-OUT
The EU 2020 Strategy has underlined the centrality of Education as one of the main elements which can ensure a “smart, inclusive and sustainable growth”. In particular, the document dedicated a specific attention to early childhood education and care (ECEC), and to the phenomenon of early school leaving (ESL).
The Council of Europe document of 2009 on a “Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training“ (ET 2020) set up the following objectives:
“By 2020, the share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 10%. With a view to increasing participation in early childhood education as a foundation for later educational success, especially in the case of those from disadvantaged backgrounds: by 2020, at least 95% of children between 4 years old and the age for starting compulsory primary education should participate in early childhood education” 16.
The key importance of early childhood education is a given fact for the modern pedagogy, and all scientific evidences confirm that children who have had access17 to ECEC tend all to perform better in school than their peers who had not. Widening the access to ECEC services constitute a strategic priority for both EU institutions and for the member states.
Yet for the Roma, access to ECEC services is still extremely limited in many EU countries, although a series of international organisations such as the ISSA [International Step by Step Association], REF, UNICEF and OSI to name only a few, have invested enormous efforts to fill this gap. These efforts ranged from collaborating
16 Council Conclusion of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020). (2009/C 119/02). Available at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52009XG0528%2801%29:EN:NOT
17 See the 2012 research report by UNICEF written in collaboration with Roma Education Fund and the Open Society Foundations.
80
with EU and local institutions, to providing research evidence up to the implementation of practical interventions18, but there is still much to be done.
In Bulgaria, one year of compulsory education is offered free of charge, but often, due to the lack of classroom spaces, Roma pupils cannot succeed in having access to this service (REF, 2007, p.39).
Another unsolved issue remains the high number of early school leavers, and a lack of progression towards the higher grades of education, a trend especially registered among Roma students. Such trends have been confirmed by the 2012 FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency) survey on Roma condition. The research, conducted in 11 EU member states, reported that:
“… At least 10% of Roma children aged 7 to 15 in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, France and Italy are identified in the FRA survey as not attending school, meaning that they are either still in preschool, not yet in education, skipped the year, stopped school completely or are already working” (FRA, 2012, p. 16). An even more detailed data overview is offered by the OSI 2007 report (p.34) and by the IMIR Final Report (2003) where it is stated that “The gender gap is the largest among Muslim Roma. The share of the girls from this ethnic subgroup who say that they have “stopped going to school” is 21.2%, as against 14.9% of the boys. The sociological data, arranged by age group shows that 42.8% of the Roma drop out after passing junior high school age” (IMIR - International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations, 2003).
These data shows also the need to increase the attention toward the gender dimension of ESL. If for the majoritarian society trends shows that girls tend to perform better in school and to be less subject to phenomena of ESL, in Roma and other traditional communities it’s the girls those on whom the weight of poverty weighs certainly more19. To this we must add the predominant domestic economy model, which requires to young females to be of help at home with housework or looking after their younger brothers and sisters, and such system weights obviously very heavily especially on female pupils20.
Then there are also factors related with the processes of social change taking place within the Roma community, like those imposed by economic reasons. The crisis has forced many Roma to migrate abroad in search of job opportunities, and this migration
18 Roma Education Fund and partners have for example enacted the project “A good start”, dedicated to widen Roma access to ECEC and which runs in 4 European countries (Hungary, Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia). See more at: UNICEF, Open Society Foundation, Roma Education Fund, 2012, RECI, Roma Early Childhood Inclusion. The RECI overview Report.
Available at: http://www.romachildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/RECI-Overview-final-WEB.pdf
19 As clearly indicated in the 2011 UNECE Report: “… Whereas in the majority population the share of young women with at least upper secondary education ranges from 74 per cent in Romania to 88 per cent in Hungary and 92 per cent in Bulgaria, the comparable shares of young Roma women amount to 11 per cent in Romania, 19 per cent in Hungary and 9 per cent in Bulgaria” (UNECE, 2011, p.5).
20 Such a phenomenon is quite common also in Mediterranean countries and in many others all around the world, it is not a peculiarity of Roma society.
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has often required to leave the children at home in the care of their grandmothers and grandfathers. It is an unprecedented situation which delegates to the elders the responsibility of children education, further weakening the already weak relationship among Roma parents and school institutions and teachers. For those who instead bring their children with them in their migratory trail, the access to education for their children is very much connected with the welcoming conditions of the hosting country21.
Another relevant social phenomenon is the increasing number of single mothers (a trend which needs yet to be investigated properly), for these households led by a single individual, the economic conditions and access to citizenship rights are even more limited than that of the average Roma family, thus adding to the ethnic dimension of poverty also the gender one.
The dramatic housing conditions are also heavily affecting the children performances in school, as they lack at home a place where to concentrate and study in tranquillity.
Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment of parents, inadequacy of the school system in welcoming and creating a healthy intercultural environment, discrimination and other factors all contribute to produce an ideal configuration for the insurgency of such widespread dropping-out phenomena.
The Bulgarian government does not collect data on dropout rates by ethnicity, but a 2004 REF survey indicates the number of enrolments disaggregated for school grade, showing a substantial decrease in the enrolment of Romani students as they proceed further in the school cycle. Such a tendency is observed for Roma also in other EU countries (see below Table 4).
Table 4
Proportion of Romani Students in Grades 1–10 (2004)22
Grade
Romani students as a proportion of total students (%)
1st
20.6
2nd
19.1
3rd
17.4
4th
14.5
5th
12.8
6th
10.1
7th
8.8
8th
7.2
9th
2.6
10th
1.7
Source: REF, 2004, p.11.
21 Romanian Roma living in Roma encampments have very different trends in school attendance, also due to the continuous evictions to which they are subjected. Those who travel back and forth from Italy to Romania following their families, often end up in not having a regular education neither in Italy nor in Romania.
22 Report and data available at:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTROMA/Resources/NAReportBulgariaAnnex1FINAL.pdf
6 Nasselenie review, 5–6/2013
82
The data in the table above show the proportion of Roma students per grade and clearly register the decreasing percentage of students enrolled as we proceed further up in the study cycle. What the table shows in general is that Roma children, like those of disadvantaged classes, suffer from multiple disadvantages which stand in the way of their full access to citizenship rights, first of all the right to education. However, between the lines, what the table also reveals is an inability to retain the children at ESL risk within the educational system for the whole duration of compulsory education and further on.
CONCLUSIONS
In accordance with what has been written insofar, Roma inclusion in Bulgaria can only become effective by mean of an integrated approach, able to tackle the multiple correlates of poverty who are affecting a large part of this community. Realistically this objective can only be achieved by mean of a strong political will and supported by regular financial investments. Unemployment and underemployment are key issues which need to be addressed urgently, providing forms of steady income23 for Roma households and individuals, and this is the first and most important intervention to be implemented. Without decisive and systemic actions to fight poverty, all other interventions, including that of education, risk to be largely ineffective or to remain mere affirmation of principles.
Regarding education, which is the main subject of this article, it is of paramount importance not only to enrol more and more pupils, but also to attract and retain the largest number possible of pupils within the school system, trying in the process also to attract parents.
Many reports and researches have stressed the importance of involving Roma parents in the educational process of their children. There are many possible ways to do this: events, public meetings, parties, school activities with students and their families, days before holidays etc. The event, organised in the school, could involve actively teachers, parents, pupils and school staff, thus becoming the occasion for an intercultural happening.
Such process of “opening” will gradually contrast forms of mutual mistrust and prejudice which may arise between the Roma parents and the schools (schools assuming that Roma are not interested in education, Roma assuming that they have not much to do in schools).
Changes of the methods used by school staff should be supported with specific training courses in order to enable them to adopt of a full intercultural approach.
Schools are today the privileged place for the intercultural meeting, and therefore the first action to undertake should be that of investing in schools and to support them in order to become welcoming, comfortable and open places for all children and for their parents.
23 “Households with a higher risk of poverty are those with unemployed or inactive heads (and adults); with no primary education; female-headed; with many children and/or large size; and of Roma and Turkish minority” (World Bank – OSI, 2011, p.12).
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Investments in schools could ensure the necessary resources for developing infrastructure and to delivery proper training to the staff, providing awareness on intercultural issues and intercultural education. This action will help to improve the teachers’ performances and reflect positively on the quality of their work.
All these activities, combined together, could bring a change in the perception of the school by some parents as an alien environment where they do not feel familiar24 and will help in diminishing the distance between the community and the school institution.
Moreover, this condition of “nearingness” could represent the ideal foundations upon which build and nurture an intercultural dialogue based on respect and reciprocity. The familiarity of parents with school institutions might be able to produce notable side effects, like for example that of attracting back some adults toward basic literacy courses or to the possibilities offered by vocational training or through the continuation of school after the 8th grade25.
It is important to create occasion of meeting of parents, children and teachers in a protected and welcoming environment like that of the schools, and to engage them within the school life. These moments of encounter of people who share a common space for a common interest, represent a key tool to favour the social mixing, especially in a society like the contemporary one, in which monoculture clusters are gradually being replaced by forms of lively human métissage26.
Today in Bulgaria, many municipalities, NGOs and grassroots organisations are actively working with these methodologies, and there are numerous projects and interventions which have had very encouraging results. What is needed now is to valorise effectively these good practices and experiences, turning them into systemic interventions able to be transferred from the initial local, small scale dimension to the national one, becoming national policies.
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Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/BULGARIAEXTN/Resources/305438-1224088560466/5477317-1329829389066/CMSENGWEB.pdf
World Bank (2012). Toward an equal start: Closing the early learning gap for Roma children in Eastern Europe.
Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTROMA/Resources/RomaECD_FinalReport.pdf
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В ПРЕХОД: РОМИТЕ В БЪЛГАРСКАТА ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛНА СИСТЕМА. ДЕЙСТВИЯ, ОПИТИ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ
Моника Роси
Резюме. Настоящата разработка е опит за анализ, диагностика и общи препоръки по отношение на проблемите в образователната система на Република България, свързани с ромите от позицията на външен за страната анализатор. Освен чисто образователните и етнически въпроси са представени и отделни фактори, които създават контекста, в който функционират и се развиват образованието и междуетническите отношения след промените от 1989 година. Коментирани са и основни предизвикателства пред образователната система, свързани с ромската общност (като например, намаляващия относителен дял на ромите във високите класове на средното училище) необходимите реформи и действащите политики. Направена е оценка на случващото се досега.
Ключови думи: образование на ромите, образователни мерки, образователни политики
2015. április 28., kedd
Valery Novoselsky : Roma Diplomacy Programme, DiploFoundation. INTERNET AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE FORMATION OF NON-TERRITORIAL ROMA NATION
Roma Diplomacy Programme, DiploFoundation.
INTERNET AND
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
IN THE FORMATION OF NON-TERRITORIAL ROMA NATION
IN THE FORMATION OF NON-TERRITORIAL ROMA NATION
By Valery Novoselsky
Tutor: Valentin Katrandjiev
26
May 2006
Brussels, Belgium
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Introduction.
II. Chapter One: The history and today`s realities of Roma in Europe.
1. Terminology and language.
2. History of Romani migrations and today’s Roma
population
3. Roma Status vs. European Socio-Economic and
Cultural Stereotypes.
4. Challenges of the transition period and Romani
ethnic mobilization.
5. Constructing a Romani transnational identity.
6. The developments of Romani movement.
1. Arranging and delivering the content of
web sites.
2. Constructing the social alliances and ensuring the
interaction.
3. The significance of Roma web sites in raising the awareness,
initiating campaigns, outlining positions.
4. The use of the web in overcoming the
“ethnic capsulation”, prejudices and fears.
5. The role of virtual Roma networks in
maximizing the educational functions of Internet and creating Roma intellectual
and cultural elite.
6. Conclusion.
IV. Chapter Three: The role of Roma
public diplomacy in the establishment of non-territorial Roma nationhood.
1. Roma Public Diplomacy at Work.
2. The strategy of public diplomacy
for Roma elites.
3. The Role of the Internet in the
Performance of Roma Public Diplomacy.
V. Conclusion.
1. The Emergence of Romani Nationhood and Elite.
2. The impact of Internet on the establishment of
Romani virtual nationhood.
3. The role of public diplomacy and Internet in the
establishment of non-territorial Roma nationhood.
VI. Bibliography.
Acknowledgment
I express my deep appreciation for the guidance and support during the preparation of this graduation paper to my tutor Valentin Katrandjiev. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of my colleague Valery Antsypolovsky with helpful linguistic suggestions in the process of completing of this paper.I. INTRODUCTION
This paper examines the impact of the Internet and public diplomacy on the formation of non-territorial Roma nation. Both, the role of the Internet and public diplomacy are analyzed in the context of the development of international Roma movement and of Romani elite. The examples featured in this research illustrate the way the Internet communication and web resources contributed to the emergence of Roma nationhood on international scale. The use of Internet is also looked at as a platform for conducting diplomatic, political, cultural and media relations of Roma communities.
The first chapter starts with the definition of the term “Roma” from linguistic, ethnological and political point of views. It helps us to understand today’s political discourse of Roma activists with other state and non-state actors. The author analyzes the notion of ethnic Romani consolidation starting from the history of Roma ancestors and their forced migrations from India in medieval age. The important point is the emergence of Roma ethnicity within the Byzantine cultural environment in XI-XIII centuries. This has had a tremendous impact on the development of ethnic culture, language and identity. The migrations of Roma starting from XIV century also affected the ethnicity in terms of the formation of ethnic sub-groups and their worldwide dispersal.
The second chapter looks at the advantages of the Internet in building of Roma virtual communities and the formation of new Romani transnational identity. The important role of the Internet in transforming the ways Roma interact, socialize, acquire and share information has been examined. Roma activists and supporters actively utilize the web tools to communicate with the civil society. They also use the Internet to develop themselves as reliable international communicators and experts on Roma issues. The interaction through numerous web sites and listservers has intensified the process of constructing social alliances within Roma political movement. The networks help Roma organizations to promote Roma causes at national, regional and international levels.
The goals for development of Roma communities require active utilization by Roma activists, experts and practitioners of public diplomacy tools, which are analyzed in the third chapter. The Roma public practitioners make general publics aware of the Roma community concerns. The guidelines suggested for the strategy of Roma public diplomacy focus on the importance of construction of relationships with other communities and defining the areas of shared interests. The means for practical implementation of such strategy are identified and connected with the skills required for Roma pubic diplomats to handle information, carry out research and make effective presentations. The integration of Internet in the conducting of Roma public diplomacy has been explained.
The paper briefly traces the Roma historical roots, language, migrations and political movement. Then, the attention is shifted to the supportive role of Internet in structuring the international Romani movement, especially in Europe, in consolidation of Roma communities into “non-territorial nation”. The examples and ideas analyzed in this writing help the reader understand the accomplishments of Romani movement in the context of contemporary world of telecommunication technologies and public diplomacy.
II. CHAPTER ONE: THE HISTORY AND TODAY`S REALITIES OF ROMA IN EUROPE.
1. Terminology and language.
The term "Roma", the ethno-cultural self-title of the ones who are perceived by others as "Gypsies," has started to direct the official political discussion since the beginning of 1970-s. The term “Gypsies” has source in the word “Egypt”, from an incorrect belief that they were originally from Egypt. However, this term was never used by the Roma to describe themselves. The terms Gypsy and Tsigan are considered by many as derogatory. Despite the fact that not all people perceived as Gypsies recognize themselves as Roma, the word “Roma” has attained the authority of political correctness these days (D. Petrova, 2003).
The Roma do not compose a homogeneous ethnic group, but embody a variety of correlated ethnic subgroups with their own identities. And since the beginning of 70-s, we are witnessing a development of the historic and political consolidation of these groups into the unifying Romani identity (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997). So, the name "Roma" has now become favored by most organizations on international, regional, national and local levels, dealing with diverse aspects of the "Roma issue."
Most Roma speak different forms of Romani (Romanes), a language belonging to Indo-Iranian group of the contemporary Indo-European family of languages, widespread in Pakistan and north-western India. Usually, the majority of Roma also speak the main language of the region they live in. Modern linguists relate Romani to the Pothohari dialect of Punjabi language, spoken in Pakistan and north-west India (Wikipedia, 2006a). But speaking the Romani language is not a compulsory identity characteristic, since some communities that regard themselves as Roma have lost it (for example, the significant number of today's Roma in Hungary).
2. History of Romani migrations and today’s Roma population.
When exactly the ancestors of Roma migrated out of India is still the topic for discussions among the scholars. Some authors start the count from the XI-th century, while the others underline that it is an issue related to a complex historic route of numerous migrations of different ethnic and social groups leaving India for different reasons at different times between the early 5th (according the report of the Persian poet Firdawsi) and 12th centuries (The Patrin Web Journal, 1998). The results of anthropological and linguistic theories that the ancestors of Roma people migrated from India to Eastern Europe in about A.D. 1000 are strengthened by the genetic research of Luba Kalaydjieva of the University of Western Australia in Perth and her colleagues who have measured the prevalence of five different neurological-disease mutations in more than 1,800 Roma spread across Europe (Wikipedia, 2006a).
The ancestors of Roma after the exodus have passed through the territories of today’s Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia, and Turkey. People recognized as Roma by other Roma still live as far east as Tajikistan, including some who made the migration to Europe and returned to Iran in XVIII century (Zargaries). And among the contemporary descendents of these people are the Banjara in north-west India. The Banjara themselves recognize a connection with the Roma in Europe and have developed social links with Romani activists in recent years (Wikipedia, 2006a).
Estimates suggest that there are up to 10 million Roma worldwide. It's estimated that around 7 million of them live in Europe. The majority (two-thirds) of today’s European Romani population lives in Central and South-East Europe (CE and SEE). In Western Europe, except of Spain and Portugal, the Roma have never constituted a significant proportion of the population, in comparison with the countries of SEE. The smaller concentrations of Roma are found in the United States, Latin America and republics of the former USSR. Lesser numbers of Domary Gypsies are dispersed all over the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (Wikipedia, 2006a).
3. Roma Status vs.
European Socio-Economic and Cultural Stereotypes.
Despite its
visible ethnicity, the Roma population until recently did not have political
entity and still do not have the territory of their own. Because of the nomadic
lifestyle and durable reluctance to be integrated, there has always been a lot
of distrust between the Roma and their neighbors. Being perceived as an
inferior part of society, they are still subjected to discrimination. From the perspective of the state, the Roma are usually perceived as a counter-cultural group that challenges the basic values of society. This concept of counter-culturalism explains the frequent attempts throughout the history of Europe to exterminate Roma people and their lifestyle. These persecutions reached a climax during the World War II, when the Nazis killed large numbers of Roma, in the same way (and even more brutal one) as it has happened to the Jews. Roma were slated for extermination. It is believed that, approximately, 1 500 000 Roma were killed during Porajmos (the Great Devouring). But to determine the exact number of Roma who died in the Holocaust is not easy. Much of the Nazi documentation is still to be analyzed, and many murders were not recorded, because they took place in the fields and forests where Roma were seized (Wikipedia, 2006a).
After World War II, the Roma living in Western Europe commanded humble attention until 1970s, when the issue of the Roma and Sinti started to be spelled out in terms of "integration" and "accommodation", rather than "assimilation". The Traveller groups enjoyed the rights of freedom of movement and conduct, and certain cultural rights. This process was viewed as an expression of “cultural pluralism”, a model of education and society, established first by the Council of Europe and then by the European Union. Thus, while enjoying particular rights, the Romani communities were also capable to preserve a relative autonomy from the state, being self-employed in a form of historical "service nomadism" (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997).
Many Roma had much better
social status in the countries of Eastern Block during the socialist times,
because they were integrated into the society, benefiting better stages of
professional realisation. And in terms of integration of unskilled Romani labor into the socialist
economy, the states achieved certain results via coercive measures. As the
majority of Roma were employed, families were also to some degree socially and
economically secure.
4. Challenges of the
transition period and Romani ethnic mobilization.The fall down of communism affected the Romani people in many ways. First, they lost their relatively secure economic position, as most of them faced increasing economic problems. As an underdeveloped community with low educational and professional skills, the Roma were incapable to compete for jobs in the conditions of market economy.
The matter of fact is that traditional Roma mentality is based on the assertion that the state needs to take care of its citizens. However, at times of socio-economic transformation and market economy tendencies, the societies are more determined by the individualistic liberal practices, which are foreign to Romani mentality. In consequence, traditional Roma patterns of living conflict with the dynamics of the contemporary world.
The fall down of communism initiated the process of complexed transition to democracy and a market economy in the Central and Eastern Europe. Thus, in a process of liberalization and democratization, ethnic minorities, among them the Roma, were granted the right to participate in public and political life, as a collective entity. Responding to economic insufficiency and aware of the danger of being scapegoated by the majority population, new political Romani elites and non-governmental organizations emerged. They raised the Romani issue and put forward cultural, social, and political demands; they also attempted to mobilize Romani communities, especially during the democratic and free elections, which were held in the countries of CE and SEE. As a result, Romani parties and organizations succeeded in placing Romani representatives in parliaments, in advisory and consultative governmental bodies (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997).
The Roma are becoming an ethnically mobilized group, having a common stance and interests. The Romani leaders discovered common interests and the authority of collective political action in promoting and defending their human and minority rights.
During the 1990s the legal position of the Roma has improved evidently changing from disregard and non-recognition of Romani ethnicity to full acknowledgment of their status as a legitimate ethnic group. Nowadays large and diverse Romani communities are experiencing a process of ethnogenesis while discovering their cultural and political potential, while moving from a status of a marginal community of "Gypsies" to the one of "Roma" minority demanding respect and rights (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997).
In traditional Roma communities the strata of intellectuals was non-existent, because without the practice of having their own written language, the traditional education wasn’t an essential value. Furthermore, many Romani families were reluctant to send their children to schools due to the fear of assimilation. The small part of “first generation” Romani intellectuals presently active in Europe is of recent origin, the result of coercive educational measures taken since the 1950s, mostly in the former communist states (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997). And the emerging “second generation” of young Roma intellectuals is the result of enormous efforts undertaken by the activity of Soros Foundations Network in the countries of CE and SEE.
Taking into account that the integration of any ethnic minority is a two-way process, Roma leaders should assume that the majority population in countries, where Roma reside, should acknowledge and respect the distinctiveness of the Romani ethnic traditions and lifestyle while Roma minority should adhere the norms and standards of living of main population within the state of residence.
5. Constructing a Romani transnational identity.
A new political movement among the Roma has started in the 1970s and led to the establishment of the International Romani Congress. The first conference of this organization has been held in London in April 1971. Later, an executive body, the International Romani Union (IRU), has been established. IRU has lined the way for lobbying and negotiating with and within the international community on Romani issues. The concept of a Romani nation emerged in the framework of the IRU, and shortly its basic symbols, such as an anthem and a flag, were established. Significant efforts were also made to develop a standardized literary Romani language, which the Council of Europe strongly supported via the European Charter on Regional and Minority languages (1992).
The IRU in the Declaration of a Nation claims that the Romani people constitute a single and distinct political community which requires its own, separate political representation, and that, due to their unique history, they deserve special treatment within a European framework on equality issues. The IRU advocates the recognition of Roma as a non-territorial nation and is dedicated to build the unity around a standardized Romani language. The IRU demands the establishment of a special status for the Roma as a non-territorial minority in Europe, in order to protect a nation, who experienced a Holocaust during World War II, as well as violence, pogroms, and genocide afterwards (Mirga and Gheorghe, 1997).
6. The developments of Romani movement.
Romani ethnic mobilization is a new phenomenon and needs time to be developed with the support of state structures and international institutions. Democratic procedures present a potential solution: the Romani community has an opportunity to elect representatives at all levels by means of democratic elections. And legitimate representation at the international level is already drawn among the ones elected to national and European parliaments.
Thus, the proposal of having a forum representing Roma communities in Europe
has been in the air since the early 90-s. There were Roma themselves, who
started thinking of some type of a consultative assembly for the Roma that
would assist them to convey their concerns at European level. As a result, an
unofficial tentative group composed of Roma leaders and personalities started
examining the possibility of setting up such a Forum, as those involved began
to call it. From 2001 until July 2004 several meetings took place in
Strasbourg, where Roma and Traveller representatives negotiated the creation of
the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) with the Council of
Europe (CoE). And, finally, the ERTF was registered in July 2004 as an
association under French law. In November 2004, the CoE Committee of
Ministers agreed to establish close and privileged relations with the ERTF
through a Partnership Agreement which was signed on 15 December 2004
(Council of Europe, 2006). Thus, the Forum is giving to Roma and Travellers the
possibility to participate in and influence, openly and officially,
decision-making processes in issues relating to them through a special
relationship with the CoE. This is the first time, when national and European
Roma organizations from all over Europe are able to discuss and formulate
jointly their hopes and concerns.
The good sign
also is that in June 2004, Ms. Livia Jaroka became the second Roma Member of
the European Parliament when she was elected from the list of Hungarian
right-wing Fidesz Party, following that country's accession to the European
Union. The first Roma MEP was Juan de Dios Ramirez-Heredia, of Spain, who served in EP in 1994-1999. The third MEP is Mrs. Viktória Bernáthné Mohácsi, a Hungarian politician and Member of
the European Parliament from the Alliance of Free
Democrats, part of the European
Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. She replaced a party colleague, Gábor Demszky, on 29 October 2004
(Wikipedia, 2006a).
Beside that, The Decade of Roma Inclusion is an initiative of
eight Central and South-Eastern European
countries that has been launched in 2005 to improve the socio-economic status
and social inclusion of the Roma minority in the region. The Decade of Roma
Inclusion is running from 2005 to 2015
and represents the first multinational project in Europe to actively develop the lives of Roma in eight
countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
and Slovakia. These countries have significant Roma
minorities fairly disadvantaged there, both economically and socially. And it
is agreed that the
improvement of Roma people’s conditions is a necessary factor in the
improvement of the welfare of all citizens and the country’s social stability
in general (The Decade of the Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, 2006).
The era of
modern communication technologies transforms the modes of social interaction
and networking. The spread of Internet is generating virtual communities, where
like-minded individuals are able to interact with each other across space and
time. Internet is a global tool which promotes the creation of relationships,
building of alliances and sharing of texts and graphics. It provides the
possibility for an emergence of virtual communities, where participants are
able to involve themselves and implement their own sense of ethnic
togetherness.
Virtual communities are
characterized by Stone (1991) as "incontrovertibly social spaces in
which people still meet face-to-face, but under new definitions of both `meet
and `face... Virtual communities [are] passage points for collections of common
beliefs and practices that united people who were physically separated".
Virtual communities emerge as disembodied, but even so, they are still the
reproductions of real life societies. And the limit of this community lies
within the concrete people who live in real spaces and have an access to the
Internet. And in the case of virtual communities created around a particular
national, ethnic or religious identity they are the "imagined
communities" (Anderson, 1991).
The sense
of awareness, solidarity and identity of these imagined communities gets
stimulated and strengthened in the process of on-line communication. This is
more so, in the case of Roma communities dispersed around the world, to whom
the web allows, on the one hand, to surpass their separation and their forced
displacement (the case of Roma refugees from ex-Yugoslavia) and on the other,
to mobilize and form themselves culturally, socially and politically. This is
facilitated through the communication, telling of actualities, reconstruction
of shared historical experiences, (Wong, 2003).
1. Arranging
and delivering the content of web sites.
The digital
space of Romani diasporas contains a significant number of personal and
organizational web sites and listserves. Thus, it reproduces an elaborated
system of community’s social, cultural, and political organizations, all of which
are united around the idea of common origin and present lives, shared cultural
heritage and mutual goals. Emphasizing of Romani traditions, music, dance,
history, cuisine, films and other Roma products accompany this trend and brand
a new form of Romani ethnic image.
Usually, any Romani or supporting organization introduces itself in sub-pages
entitled as “Who we are” or “Our organization”. After this introduction (i.e.
description) the explanation of basic principles follows, usually entitled as
“Mission statement”. Description of organization’s activities includes the
issues of education, culture, housing, human rights advocacy, etc. These
sub-pages are linked with the topic of “How you can help” or “Get involved”
featured on other sub-pages. We should not also forget that almost each single
Romani web site contains certain amount of information on Roma history and
traditions. Occasionally, there is some info on the history and development of
international Romani movement there. Moreover, on the sites with “news
headlines” much more attention is given to the movement. Beside that, the pages
containing news and historical information include a lot of photos, but, at the
same time, the use of photo galleries is not always widespread.
Technically
speaking, through all the sub-pages under the title “Contact us” the following
items are contained: title of organization, postal and street addresses,
telephone, fax, e-mail, and ICQ or Skype directories. There are also forums or
guest books connected to the site. As well as the request to share the opinion
about the read article under the title: “Write us your opinion”. These tools
are helping to ensure the communication between the web hosting organizations
and virtual audience, thus serving as a bridge in construction of social
alliances and ensuring of interaction.
2. Constructing the
social alliances and ensuring the interaction.
World Wide Web
(WWW) is offering a variety of services, such as: formats for presentations,
software for processing communications, collecting and spreading of
information, forms for subscribing to membership and for contributions,
programs to facilitate discussions and apply leadership functions (Geser, 2001). Virtual Roma community is brought
into play while being indicative of the need to create cultural and social
alliances, which would promote a sense of Romani identity and unity in the wake
of many nowadays challenges. For example, the Roma Virtual Network (hosted on
Yahoo Groups, moderated via an e-mail address romale@zahav.net.il on another server) now functioning globally. Started in Israel in July
1999, today, it operates across all continents, offers up to 20 articles daily
in English, Romani and other languages (Roma_Daily_News, Romano_Liloro,
Roma_Rights, Romane_Nevipena, Mundo_Gitano, etc.) and an electronic database.
In the database, upon request or member subscription, one finds a variety of
links, files, articles and photos on the diversity of topics. Maintained by
volunteer editor and a dozen of volunteer correspondents as a non-profit
outfit, it has become a “dwelling place” for many of its members. There are
other virtual public venues as well, e.g. International Roma Women Network (via
irwn_members@advocacylists.org, started in Finland in autumn 2003) or USTIBEN
(via ustiben.2@ntlworld.com, started in UK in 2002), chat enabling forums
and blogs for the ideas to be exchanged. Beside the web sites, most of these
listserves create a naturalized space of Romanotan[1] on the Web and have the tendency to
develop an ethnic identity within a virtual unitary Roma nation.
3. The significance of Roma web
sites in raising the awareness, initiating campaigns, outlining positions.
Many of the
Roma sites and listserves unconsciously allude to an insider-outsider
dichotomy, especially in articles regarding anti-Gypsism. In their construction
of a Roma identity, they frequently tend to objectively oversea Roma
communities dispersed around the world. They assist to the removal of
differences among the Roma communities and they build an implicit Roma commonality.
They create powerful attachment to ideas of unified non-territorial nation that
seem to be stronger than the territorial one (Wong, 2003).
Many Roma
web sites, e.g. Romano Centro, Patrin, ERRC and ERIO, whose primary audiences are the
activists from Roma communities and organizations that live in their respective
localities, certainly promote and adopt a sense of community. And in providing
actual information and making analyses of local and international significance,
they try to depict simultaneously very specific notions of community that
include sharing the same space and time. These sites encourage a sense of
community as in the real world and seek to defend its interests when they are
confronted (especially relates to ERRC site). And we should not forget the unique
qualities of the Internet, when these people make on-line presentations of
their ideas, projects, views, etc., especially during conferences and
workshops.
4. The use
of the web in overcoming the “ethnic capsulation”, prejudices and fears.The composition of any Romani web site usually contains the texts, at least, on three languages: Romani, of a country of residence and in English, as international language. The web design is done by the mixed Roma-non-Roma staff. The work of the organization that hosts the site is usually held in cooperation with non-Roma NGOs or even governmental structures. Each single photo placed on the page always showing a number of non-Romani supporters or participants of the events. The description of educational projects contains a number of visible points and clues on harmonic collaboration with non-Romanies. And the lists of sponsor organizations and institutions speak for themselves.
The development of the web in engaging of an open inter-ethnic dialogue is happening when these virtual communities feature the articles, interviews done by mainstream journalists, specializing in inter-ethnic affairs. This also happens when important governmental documents in relation to ethnic minorities are discussed on the web. Usually, representatives of a dozen of other ethnic minorities contribute in discussions and this process is featured on-line. Inter-ethnic dialogue is also in progress, when there is a need to sign the petition in defense of someone or there is a joint cultural event, festival, etc. This kind of activities is prepared via web announcements, calls for application, virtual communication, etc. This way, the information on Roma community and movement can be easily conveyed to the audience which is ready to adopt such information, contribute to the exchange of ideas and participate in community life.
For some
Roma the Internet, due to its relatively easy access and low costs, has been
advertised as an emancipatory tool to open up channels of informational
exchange and an innovative political space. Representatives of an ethnic
minority, unlike previously, are able to make their views public and claim
their identity through the Internet. Web communities have enabled Roma people
to develop relationships, which are often concurrently inter- and
cross-cultural. However, due to the significant rate of poverty and illiteracy
among Roma the phenomenon of so-called “digital divide” is still very much
existing. Thus, Roma communities are having urgent need in having their own
Internet centers and additional e-Riders institutions in addition to already
existing Roma
Information Project.
5. The role
of virtual Roma networks in maximizing the educational functions of Internet
and creating Roma intellectual and cultural elite.Digital networks represent the part of political force that shapes the emergence of new Romani elite (Wikipedia, 2006b). They help intellectuals to be timely informed about new challenges, opportunities and venues. They provide the channels to locate needed contacts, events, projects, financial grants and employment possibilities, thus leading to creating of economic forces that also shape the emergence of elite. The variety of virtual platforms, representing various views on this world and universe, indeed helps to create the strata of Roma population able to think at more advanced intellectual level.
The role of
today’s Internet is sufficient for keeping a proper level of communication
among Roma elites throughout Europe. Thus, Roma activists communicate with one
another on internal community (IRU, RNC, ERTF`s happenings), EU`s (Roma-related
events held by EP, CoE, OSCE, etc.) and local (also regional) levels. In all
the cases, Internet is a tool for announcing and holding the events, recruiting
the staff for Romani or related organizations, for professional and personal
communication.
Due to
these developments, currently, a stratum of Romani elites is having an
opportunity to exercise methods of influencing the international audience via public and official
diplomacy and media. Roma elite needs intensive media and in-person communications with lay
people in Roma community and a lot of working contacts and joint actions with
non-Roma elites. In these issues the Internet serves as a media channel, chat
venue and a “dwelling place” for professional web sites.
6.
Conclusion.
The
Internet provided Roma communities with the opportunity to develop the concepts
of ethnic identity and relations with supportive non-Roma by very convenient
system of on-line communication. This communication allows both, personal and
group usage of web tools, as well as research, collecting, distribution and
presentation of information. Roma communities fastened by the challenge of
globalization and the need to create new cultural and social alliances have
developed a sense of virtual identity. Thus, the digital space of Romani
communities and non-Roma supporting organizations contains a significant number
of personal and institutional web sites and listserves, which are united
around the ideas of common origin, history, culture and goals.
Most of the
web tools mentioned above are integrating various concepts of Roma identity
within a virtual unitary Roma nation. Their variety is helping to ensure the
three-level interaction: between the web hosting organizations and virtual
audience, within the web hosting organizations, between personal users (i.e.
virtual audience). They help to construct assumed Roma commonality and a shared
identity. These web tools enable the Roma to maintain broad relations,
facilitate the dialogue and contribution to the community affairs.
The Web
reinforces the struggle over the understanding of identity; it enables identity
issues to be instantly discussed, experienced and imagined. Thus, through the
dispersed collective practices Roma communities are enabled to construct and
evaluate the idea of unified non-territorial nation, and understand their
mutual heritage.
The Roma virtual
identity shown in web sites, chat rooms, blogs helps people to meet in person,
held the events, discuss vital issues in a real format. Their awareness and
practical experience are becoming wider due to the information and tools of
communication offered by Internet. The role of Internet is also sufficient for keeping an appropriate
communication and coordination among developing Roma elites and advocates of
Roma movement around the world and, especially, in Europe. Beside that, the
sensitive information on Romani issues is shared and discussed in-time with
partners working with them and helping them in political, social and cultural
issues. Thus, existing
digital networks and resources de-facto represent the part of social force that
shapes the emergence of new Romani elite (intellectual and political) able to
think on highly intellectual level for the sake of the progress of the whole
community.
IV. CHAPTER THREE: THE ROLE OF ROMA PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NON-TERRITORIAL ROMA NATIONHOOD.
1. Roma Public Diplomacy at Work.
Nowadays media coverage of the life of Roma communities is definitely greater than it was 15 years ago, when Roma people were portrayed as representatives of mysterious and, at the same time, asocial entity. And there is something newer now. While Roma still remain a complex and unusual ethnicity in the larger international mind, there is also a realization that Roma are not really a collage of folklore or criminal images. In fact, the situation is changing. It is increasingly the turn of the leaders and activists of Roma organizations, who generated the perceptions about Roma ethnic identity and culture in the eyes of non-Roma audiences.
And it is the time when Roma activists start looking at some public diplomacy framework that involves them more than the traditional community leadership. This means that Romani media and public organizations need to promote connections with what is influential for international opinion (Agrawal, 2005).
And the development of what is known as public diplomacy is in process. These days many of the young and educated Roma activists are the ones who are perceived as public diplomats working on behalf of their community. Roma activists and students study and work in an inter-professional and inter-cultural environment where they are exposed to active public communication and partnerships with counterparts from other ethnic and national communities (USIA Alumni Association, 2002). Thus, many young Roma from Central and South-East Europe have joined the Central European University to do their studies on Roma-related projects. Accordingly, when a student or a scholar in given country conducts team-based research on Roma topic via Internet in collaboration with the number of Roma scholars and institutions, he is utilizing one of the popular services provided by a number of Roma networks. When a newspaper correspondent that deals with Romani issue asks for an interview or clarification of a statement made by a Roma activist, he usually contacts the available Roma organization. When a student or an educator in any country wants to know more about Roma culture or history, it may be someone in the staff of Roma organization to whom such a query can be directed. When a need is perceived to publish a brochure in a particular country or group of countries on a multi-ethnic subject, Roma activists may participate in planning, publication and distribution of such a brochure. These few examples of Roma activism and public relations demonstrate the scope and variety of modern public diplomacy engagement by Roma activists (USIA Alumni Association, 2002).
2. The strategy of public diplomacy for Roma elites.
The task of communicating with foreign public with the help of various tools, known as public diplomacy, became more important than ever and not only to the states, but to ethnic minorities as well. The spread of democracy to many countries, including the ones with significant Roma population, improved access to news and information and gave rise of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and advocacy movements in these countries.
Thus, Roma elites face the need to adopt a public diplomacy strategy whose ultimate goal is building and deepening relationships, understanding of other countries' and communities` needs, cultures, identifying areas of shared values and interests. Roma public diplomacy can achieve a number of goals: increasing familiarity (making people think about Roma community and updating their perceptions about it); increasing appreciation (creating positive opinion of Roma community and getting others to see issues from your perspective); engaging people (encouraging audience to see Roma community as a destination for relationships and research and encouraging them to support it’s values); and influencing people's behavior (getting international granting institutions and companies to invest, encouraging public support for Roma community’s concerns, and convincing politicians to turn to it as an ally).
3. The Role of the Internet in the Performance of Roma Public Diplomacy.
The modern means of electronic communication constitute the most obvious structural change of the environment, in which public relations activists operate. The media diplomacy and public diplomacy need to be seen as complementary to each other. Thus, the interaction with the media should be the focal point of the daily work of a public diplomacy practitioner (Sucharipa, 2004).
Introduction of Internet communications has brought about most important changes for the service of Roma activism. Among them:
- direct contacts between all activists, and as the welcome results there is a higher motivation, no loss of time and greater sense of responsibility;
- development of an informal reporting style;
- teamwork spirit: staff of organizations can – independently from their geographic location – work together on a report to the director, a draft statement, a position paper.
It becomes standard practice of today for the modern Roma activists to consult on a regular basis the web sites of different national and international news agencies. Beside that, every activist is familiar with the homepages of all organizations and institutions, relevant for his work. Roma activists today are networking with colleagues around the world, relying on easy access to important, up-to-date web-based information. Internet access increases the amount of information to be processed, sorted out and also be put into a knowledge system.
While information gathering has become easier, information management has become more pertinent. New electronic procedures need to be established and elaborated. Roma information and knowledge managers need to be educated and adequately positioned in the management structures of Romani NGOs. Web sites need to be professionally developed and maintained and they should assume an important function in the representation of a Roma non-territorial nation.
New developments, such as the link between foreign and internal politics, the extending spectrum of issues dealt by MFAs, the communication revolution etc., has taken the public diplomacy to the front position. That’s why Roma public diplomacy practitioner should act as an international communicator and mediator of positions of his own community vis-à-vis all sections of the non-Roma audience (Sucharipa, 2004). For this he must build up a stable network of contacts in all areas of society with a view to become actively involved in shaping of public opinion in the Roma and non-Roma environments. He also must concentrate on in-depth analysis and drafting recommendations for action.
V. CONCLUSIONS.
1. The Emergence of Romani Nationhood and Elite.
Following the historical and social realities, today’s Roma do not represent a homogeneous ethnicity, but a range of interrelated ethnic communities residing in different countries, regions and continents. For a long time they did not possess a common identity due to the lack a common territory and homeland. However, as a result of the process of political consolidation of these communities, the title "Roma" has now being accepted by most state and non-state actors that address the Roma issue. Many nowadays Romani activists hold the Romani nation to be a point of indication in their public and political activities. They have introduced a new concept, such as "non-territorial" to describe the current status of Roma ethnicity. This is a concept of a non-territorial nation-state based on common Indian roots of the Roma people, common historical experiences, perspectives, culture, language, and social status.
The fall of communism commenced a difficult process of transition to democracy and free market economy in the countries of former Eastern Block. At the same time, the minorities, among them the Roma, were granted a legitimate opportunity to participate in public and political life and develop their own community structures. In response to the challenges of economic deficiency and anti-Tziganizm, new political Romani leadership and organizations have emerged. These actors are trying to address the Romani issues by ethnic mobilization and defense of their community’s rights. They brought up the Romani cultural, social, and political rights as an important point of debate in the regional and, more precisely, pan-European context, especially during the democratic elections. As a result of the ethnic mobilization, the Romani political parties and organizations succeeded in the election of a number of Romani representatives in governmental bodies. Also, during the 1990s the legal status of the Roma has improved changing from non-recognition of ethnicity to full acknowledgment of their status as members of a legitimate ethnic group.
2. The impact of Internet on the establishment of Romani virtual nationhood.
The growth of Internet provided many individuals and NGOs within Roma communities with the prospects to develop the concepts of ethnic identity and with the tools of electronic communication on a community and inter-ethnic level. Thus, in the course of last 15 years Roma communities challenged by globalization and the need to create new alliances have developed a sense of common virtual identity. This sense is supported by a significant number of personal and institutional web sites, listserves and blogs, which stress the ideas on commonality of origin, history, culture and common goals of Roma people.
Through the practice of sharing information and knowledge on-line dispersed Roma communities are becoming now aware of their common heritage and are willing to integrate over the notion of a unified non-territorial nation. This process went further due to the fact that already established Roma virtual networks became influential international actors in the field of public diplomacy and public affairs.
3. The role of public diplomacy and Internet in the establishment of non-territorial Roma nationhood.
These days many Roma activists work and/or study in an inter-cultural environment, where they actively communicate with their colleagues from other ethnic communities and nationalities. Because of that, the task of communicating with non-Roma representatives becomes more important than ever for Roma ethnic minority. Young and educated Roma activists are the ones who are perceived as public diplomacy officers representing their community. They should act as international communicators and mediators of the positions of their community to non-Roma audience.
Roma activists need to approve a strategy for a public diplomacy with a goal of building relationships, understanding other communities` needs and cultures, identifying areas of shared interests. Roma public diplomacy can achieve a set of objectives: making people think on Roma issues; creating positive opinion on Roma community; encouraging audience to see Roma community as a destination for relationships and research; encouraging public and political support for Roma community’s concerns. And the role of Internet is important in keeping the communication and coordination in developing of this trend. It helps the sensitive information on relevant issues to be shared and discussed in a quick, accessible and timely format in the process of achieving of these objectives.
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