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.