Study on minority group families and children
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 12:49:52 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Study on minority group families and children
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Richard Carter
<[email protected]>
Study on minority group families and children
Dear Friends,
I am currently undertaking a piece of policy research on minority
groups in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and this is a
call for help from you with Part 2 of the report that I will
eventually produce. See below for details but, in brief, what I am
looking to find is a number of successful examples of
people/organisations working with children and families on problems
related to minority issues.
If anyone is able to point me in the direction of people who are
carrying out this kind of work, I would be really grateful.
Richard Carter
-----------------------------------------
Dr Richard Carter
Research Manager,
The European Children's Trust
64 Queen Street
LONDON EC4R 1HA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7248 5419
Fax: +44 (0)20 7248 5417
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.everychild.org.uk
-----------------------------------------
Outline of the study:
My aim in undertaking this work is to produce a policy paper on the
position of minority group families and children, the problems that
they face and some solutions to these problems. Its aim will be to
define the difficulties that come from being part of a minority group
and to set out some ways in which those difficulties can be countered.
Like The Silent Crisis (the European Children's Trust report on the
impact of poverty on children and families in Eastern Europe and the
Former Soviet Union, published last year), it will fall naturally into
two distinct parts:
Part 1: The nature of discrimination against minority groups
Purpose: to set the scene and identify the nature and extent of the
problem
1. What is a minority?
What do we mean by a minority: should it be based on ethnicity,
language, religion, culture, geography - or some combination of any of
these? Does a minority have to be seen as such by others in order to
qualify as one, or is it self-defining? Do people with disabilities,
for example, qualify for minority status?
Why do some minorities have a higher profile than others: is it
because they have an active and effective diaspora, or are there other
explanations?
2. The historical background
Nationalism as a historical phenomenon: the rise of nationalism in the
19th Century and the break-up of the great empires following the First
World War, the problems following from the Versailles settlement, the
turmoil following the Second World War and, more recently, the
break-up of the Soviet bloc.
3. The position now: country by country
Firstly, minority groups which occur across a number of countries:
Roma
Russians
Jews
others?
Secondly, minorities in one (or only a few) countries:
Every country in central/eastern Europe
Every country in the former Soviet Union
4. Is there a problem for these minorities?
Identify the nature of the problem and its extent (housing, health and
social affairs, education, employment are the obvious examples);
concentrate on issues as they affect children and families
specifically.
It is important to relate these problems to similar ones in the world
outside the region, to emphasise that the problem of discrimination
against minorities is not unique to the region. So, to take only one
example, parallels will be drawn between the treatment of indigenous
peoples of the Russian far north and that of the indigenous peoples of
the USA, central/south America and Australasia.
Part 2: Some different approaches to the problems identified in Part 1
Purpose: to provide some concrete, specific examples of the ways in
which this issue can be dealt with - not to produce specific
recommendations but, in discussion with people and organisations
involved, to try to identify productive ideas for useful and
appropriate directions.
This part will be essentially anecdotal, demonstrating the
effectiveness of as wide a range as possible of different approaches
to working with minority children and families.
Some ECT programmes may be referred to but, unlike The Silent Crisis
which drew almost exclusively on Trust programmes, this report will
draw on the work of as wide a range of organisations and approaches as
possible.
The list is not intended to be comprehensive, but will aim to give a
flavour of the different kinds of approaches that appear to be working
successfully.
As before, extensive use will be made of quotations, particularly from
minority group people themselves.
--
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