Poverty among Europe’s Roma community

By THE DATA TEAM

RESETTLEMENT is one of the thorniest problems caused by the surge of migrants in Europe. Politicians and pundits frequently debate how to integrate newcomers, and how well they will cope thereafter. If the progress of the continent’s Roma population is anything to go by, the new arrivals could be bound for a destitute existence. A new survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) paints a grim picture of living conditions for the continent’s largest ethnic minority.

Overall, 17% of residents of EU countries are at risk of poverty. According to the FRA, among Roma that share is 80%. Similarly, almost a third live in households without running water, and around half have no toilet, shower or bathroom. Only 30% of Roma adults have worked in the past month, less than half the proportion for the rest of the continent. Moreover, Roma education levels are low: in Greece, whose Roma community is particularly hard-up, 42% of 16- to 24-year-olds have not completed any formal schooling.

One phenomenon that seems to exacerbate such poor outcomes is segregation. Around 60% of Europe’s Roma population is thought to live in ghettoised districts, which in turn is strongly associated with poverty. Educational segregation is most prevalent in Bulgaria, where 27% of Roma children aged six to 15 attend a school where all pupils are of the same ethnicity. Even in schools with a mix of racial backgrounds, many Roma children are placed in separate classes. The report points out that segregation is sometimes achieved by using special schools designed for teaching disabled pupils. In Slovakia, 18% of young Roma children attend such institutions.

All this bodes ill for the throngs of refugees arriving on European shores. Though the Roma community is a particularly ostracised group, it demonstrates how deep ethnic divides can run—and how long-lasting the damage can be.