Roma face deteriorating prospects

By William New. It is always necessary to begin with the question ‘Who are the Roma?’. They are paradoxically the most visible and the most invisible of minority populations. There seem to be ‘gypsies’ everywhere, visible where they are least wanted, and neither the public nor the politicians understand much about where they come from; they only know they’d like their gypsies to disappear.
The situation for Roma students
The current condition for Roma youth across Europe is encapsulated in the phrase ‘social exclusion’. Understanding the provenance of this term is useful in understanding the ‘life world’ of the Roma, because the ways in which the Roma are understood by majority society and policymakers determine to a large extent the possibilities open to them in most government - and even many NGO - policy documents. Read more...