The Duality of the Roma Integration Issue: Cultural Discrepancies & Government Inefficiencies
The European Commission estimates that 8.32% of the Romanian Population are Roma (1,850,000 people). Despite this, the Roma are the poorest ethnicity in Romania. This can be explained by incompatibility of some Roma norms with those of Romanian society, as well as the inefficiency of government design and implementation policies, as together the two aspects form a vicious cycle that inhibits effective Roma integration.
In a study of all Romanian people living in absolute poverty, 20.6% were found to be of Roma ethnicity. Roma also make up 35.2% and 44.4% of the Romanian population living in severe and food poverty, respectively. A lack of education and low employment explain this, as only 21% of Roma children aged 15–18 still attend school (compared to 75% of children from other ethnicities) and unemployment rates of the Roma community in 2014 was approximately 30%. In terms of health status, the European Commission estimated that overall life expectancy years for the Roma community to be between 5–20 years lower than that of non-Roma Romanians, underlining lack of sufficient Roma integration in the healthcare system.
The explanation of this issue presents itself as two sides of a coin: incompatibility of traditional Roma norms with the post-industrial economy, and the proposed policies’ inability to provide effective pathways for Roma to become integrated into the economy. As the two are interconnected, it becomes difficult to resolve the issue of Roma integration without tackling both cultural disparities and government inefficiencies simultaneously.
Cultural and Social Norms inhibit Roma integration
The Roma have been nomadic and relatively self-isolationary for centuries, and social norms that clash with non-Roma norms still remain. For example, home birth practices result in many Roma parents not registering their children upon birth. It is estimated that approximately 15% of Roma lacked an identity card in 2006, with 10% lacking a birth certificate. This non-documentation inhibits children from attending school and finding adulthood-employment, which further explains the lower average income of Roma families.
In addition, the strict patriarchal code that Roma families follow disadvantages female potential in the workforce. Traditionally, ‘the education of girls beyond puberty is not considered compatible with the values and lifestyle of the community’ as girls should ‘prepare for being “good housewives”’. Oftentimes women will not complete their education due to being married at a young age. Thus, whereas 42% of men Roma ethnicity ages 15–64 have a workplace, only 19% of women do, potentially explaining the lower income of households. The pressure of family life also means that an average Roma family is twice as large as a non-Roma family in Romania, which enhances family poverty (93% of Roma families with 4+ children faced severe housing deprivation).
Preservation of culture and tradition maintains theoretical significance as it enhances one’s ability to connect with people of similar beliefs, it is a strong part of one’s identity, influencing how information is received. However, cultural and social norms should complement the structure of the post-industrial society and contribute to improving the life of those who follow them.
Some experts argue that In order to increase employment and education, the Roma community should become more integrated into Romanian society by adopting some post-industrial social norms. This approach does not advocate for eradicating Roma culture, but rather encourages cultural pluralism (balancing ethnic norms with modern Romanian norms). This helps incentivize gender equality and increased documentation, capturing the long-term advantages of higher education, income and employment rates.
Although there have been several NGOs and Roma social groups working to dismantle certain patriarchal elements in Roma communities, many households refuse to change their traditions, citing their value over the past centuries. Thus, despite the willingness of a minority within the Roma community to integrate social norms, a broader movement is necessary to appeal to all traditional households.
That being said, discrimination against Roma by Romanians is another important factor that further perpetuates the Roma community’s desire to retreat from Romanian society. Discrimination has been a major disincentive for Roma integration, as many outwardly scorn of those of Roma ethnicity and employers will often refuse to hire Roma workers. Thus, incompatibility of Roma norms with society should not be seen as a pure refusal of Roma to change their ways out of stubbornness, for they are oftentimes driven into being reclusive in their treatment by society. However, whilst the impact of discrimination on lack of integration cannot be discounted, I will focus specifically on discussing how Roma and the government dimensions of the problem complement each other to form a vicious cycle.
The Flaws of Integration Policies
The design and implementation flaws in policies are the secondary obstacle to integration. An example of an existing policy package is Romania’s National Roma Integration Strategy (NRIS), which intends to give minorities access to quality education, healthcare, etc. in efforts to reduce poverty and mortality rates. The implementation’s effectiveness remains low, with life expectancy, unemployment and poverty levels substantially worse than for the non-Roma population. This lack of progress in Roma integration can be attributed to lack of policy cohesion and poor government efficiency.
An evaluation of the NRIS by the European Commission concluded the policies themselves have design flaws as a result of ‘insufficient capacity of design, different political objectives and ‘low absorption of EU funding’. Also, because the policy is designed to require coordination between different sectors of government, the sectors each have limited power of action and are unable to communicate to each other consistently and cooperatively. This causes an inability to effectively connect the NRIS to existing state policies.
A former member of the Romanian Parliament, Oana Niculescu-Mizil, revealed that high levels of bureaucracy and inefficient communication between factions of the government contribute to sub-par coordination in implementing the strategies recommended by the EU. The government also set poor ‘targets, baselines, indicators’ and ‘insufficient monitoring mechanisms’. As a result, there are design and implementation flaws in policies that impede Roma integration, resulting in little real progress to lower poverty rates.
Implications
Because Roma citizens are not being integrated into the post-industrial economy, this materializes in lower incomes, life expectancy and health-care access compared to the general Romanian population.
Incorporating Roma into the labour market would have extensive economic benefits for the entire country. The Romanian government provides benefits for Roma citizens, yet upon their integration into the economy, newly employed Roma would make a liveable income and reduce pressure on the social welfare system These funds could be allocated towards improving Romania’s infrastructure, healthcare system, and modernizing the agricultural sector.
A World Bank study estimated that ‘by making the average income for Roma the same as the average income for other Romanian citizens, the state can unlock potential economic advantages between 887 million euros and 2.9 billion euros annually, and fiscal benefits between 202 and 675 million euros annually’. Thus, by not being able to assimilate Roma into the post-industrial economy, implications arise at a social level, with minority groups experiencing a lower standard of living compared to the national average. They also exist at the economic level, with a large potential workforce not being utilized to its optimal capacity.
In order for the Roma population to achieve their potential and grow past their current destitute situation, they must adapt social norms to better fit those of modern Romanian society, as well as be aided by improved policy initiatives.The interplay between these two dimensions is crucial, since government policies don’t work if a large part of the subjects remain self-isolated from society, and yet without effective policy initiatives the Roma cannot surpass economic and educational barriers of assimilation.
The bibliography with all the sources used in this article can be found on my page, under an articled titled “Duality of the Roma Integration Issue: Bibliography”.
