MINELRES: EU-Survey on Discrimination and Exclusion in CEE fails to include the situation of the Roma minority

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Roma Network <romale@zahav.net.il>


From:   Valeriu Nicolae <valeriu.nicolae@erionet.org>
 

EU-Survey on Discrimination and Exclusion in CEE fails to include the
situation of the Roma minority


Brussels, 8 March 2004 (ERIO): The European Foundation for the
Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, a Commission-funded body,
which carries out research projects for EU policy-making purposes, has
just released a new survey on the "Perceptions of living conditions in
an enlarged Europe". The survey tried to play down the growing fears
that Enlargement might lead to a massive influx of citizens from the new
member states into the EU 15 and attempted to counteract "myths and
prejudices". Most essentially, it showed that only a small percentage of
citizens from the current accession states declared "a firm intention to
migrate."

Among the key findings of the survey is that differences in living
standards between eastern and western Europe do not automatically
translate in higher degrees of social exclusion. As a case in point it
showed that 64 per cent of the citizens in the candidate countries
regards themselves as integrated, while 69 per cent in the current EU
members express the same feeling. 

In many cases the study run into open doors finding out for instance
that the extent to which a person considers herself as integrated or not
primarily depends on this person�s income, education, employment and
social status and that unemployment undermines social integration and is
a root of poverty. 

Given the large proportion of Roma in some of the accession states and
the well-documented fact that Roma suffer most from exclusion and
deprivation, one would assume that a survey which looks into exactly
these factors pays a particular attention to the situation of Roma.
However, nothing such was done. 

During a press briefing last Wednesday in Brussels, a researcher of one
of the institutes involved in the drafting of the survey admitted this
as one of the surveys shortcomings. He explained that surveys of this
kind always encounter the problem of finding representative samples and
necessarily fail to truly represent the richest and the poorest sectors
of a society. 

Indeed the survey has been based on the evaluation of the results of
several Eurobarometer surveys which in turn built on representative
samples. Still one may wonder if a survey which offers no indication of
the ethnic origin of the interviewed offers a proper basis to analyse
discrimination, if it is well-know that the ethnic origin of a person is
a main factor for it. 

For the full survey: http://www.eurofund.eu.int/publications/EF03113.htm
 
 
Valeriu Nicolae - Deputy Director
European Roma Information Office
Avenue Edouard Lacomble 17
Brussels 1040
BELGIUM

Tel : 0032 (0) 2733 34 62
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