Search all library resources

A Task for Sisyphus : Why Europe's Roma Policies Fail

Online Torrossa

A task for Sisyphus : why Europe's Roma policies fail

"The book provides answers to the big question that few scholars dare to ask: why policies towards Roma in Europe are failing. After three rounds of policy-making specifically targeting Roma in Europe, it is the time for the academic community to explore the causes of the failure to effectively address the Roma predicament, requiring an interdisciplinary approach. The book analyses the issue from multiple perspectives and disciplines using policy analysis, discourse analysis, and legal analysis. In providing answers to the big question - why policies towards Roma are failing - the author focuses on the policy making process, the construction and categorization of Roma by different actors within this process. Rostas also analyses the policy concepts employed by policy makers over the last twenty-five years, the policy instruments used, and the institutional arrangements that govern the Roma-related issues"--Despite an increase in the number of EU and government initiatives in their favor, the situation of Roma in Europe has only worsened. This book explores the many miscalculations, misconceptions, and blunders that have led to this failure. For Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania, Rostas shows how policy makers in each country mishandled already confused EU policy, from failing to define "Roma" to not having a way to evaluate their own progress. Rostas further argues that the alleged successes of these policies were the product of poor information and sometimes outright deception. Examining perennial topics among Roma like school segregation and political representation, the author shows how often the so-called "success" of Roma policies can be fallacious and simply pave the way for further problems. Rostas maintains that when the EU's Framework for Roma program comes to an end in 2020, there must be a fundamental shift in policy for there to be any real improvement for Roma. Policy makers will have to address Roma issues not only in terms of poverty and social exclusion but also in terms of the particular nature of Romani ethnic identity. This shift requires reconceiving Roma as a "politically insular minority" and rearranging the power dynamics of local government to ensure that when the new era of Roma policy begins Roma themselves will have a voice in its formulation.

Ten years after : a history of Roma school desegregation in Central and Eastern Europe

Roma rights have emerged on the political agenda of Eastern Europe. School segregation is one of the hottest issues. Each country has developed its own approach, with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania being more visible in the desegregation process. The volume presents the results collated in the frames of the fact finding project led by the editor. The analysis includes the examination of a large number of legal documents and policy statements issued by national authorities and the international community on the matter. A critical overview is also made about the various Roma-specific political campaigns on national and European scale. The second half of the book contains interviews with activists that assumed a leading role in school desegregation. These testimony pieces have been critically reviewed by educational and policy analysts from the concerned countries.

Online Project MUSE