Pact Foundation's framework memorandum

Can intercultural dialogue contribute to the improvement of interethnic relations between Roma and non-Roma in Romanian local communities?


Introduction

The Roma population is “Europe’s largest and most vulnerable minority; they are poorer than other groups, more likely to fall into poverty and more likely to remain poor”[1]. The preconditions of Roma poverty are: unfavourable starting point, low education levels, over-representation among low-skilled jobs, discrimination, de facto segregation in schools, lack of documentation (birth certificates and unclear property ownership), transition period and low representation in local and national politics. All these breed mistrust and reinforce discrimination of Roma population, which determines a very strong lack of dialogue between Roma and non-Roma.

Among the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Romania holds the highest absolute number of Roma citizens - between 1 million and 2 millions (World Bank). Although there is a lack of consistent and recent data collection on Roma-related issues, the Roma population in Romania is considered to range between 4,65% – 11,52% of total population (OSI report, 2006).

Despite the Government’s actions as well as the civil society attempts to redress the social exclusion of the Roma community, a wide range of problems are still recorded mainly by national and international non-governmental organizations. Self-marginalization, especially among Roma youth in small communities, is a pressuring problem, which stems from lack of trust and denial of their own identity, in tight relation to Roma traditions and culture, which are being rejected by the larger society. Ultimately, in most communities, Roma integration means that Roma citizens are being assimilated by the rest of the community, and this usually happens when Roma people adhere to local traditions. There is general awareness of the fact that continuous self marginalization and discrimination towards Roma population stems from the lack of knowledge of Roma culture (even by Roma themselves), which is often invoked by the non-Roma as one of the main factors of segregation.

Hence, for Romania, the necessity to focus on intercultural dialogue and integration emerges from all these many issues that Roma population is still facing, especially in rural communities: segregation, discrimination in the field of employment, housing rights, education and health, use of excessive force in Roma communities, racial administration of justice, and discrimination of Roma women and children[2]. PACT Foundation considers that a good understanding of cultures and a direct collaboration between the majority and the minority population would determine better and more stable inter-community relations and would create a basis of support for the development of the community addressed.


A little bit of history

The first mentions of Roma, under the name of “atsiganos”, on the territory of Romania date from 1385 in a document of donation from Dan Ist towards Tismana Monastery. The Roma people had been slaves for centuries, ever since their arrival on the Romanian territory (from the XIVth century until mid XIXth century). In 1856, the Roma were freed, yet they did not immediately benefit of measures of endowment with land, hence most of them were confronted with extreme poverty. It was only in the inter-war period, when due to the general modernisation of the Romanian society, some Roma persons reached a superior social status. Yet, even then due to deep prejudices against Roma, most of the Roma intellectuals, artists etc. did not declare themselves as part of this ethnicity. It was the first time when a national movement was born. Yet, during the World War II the Roma people were again to suffer, since 36 000 Roma died during the deportation to Transnistria between 1942 and 1944. After this, the communism brought policies of assimilation: the nomad Roma people were forced to become sedentary and they were confronted with a systematic program of eradicating Roma identity.

Also, a clarification we consider necessary to make is related to the names that produce a lot of confusion among Roma and non-Roma; the knowledge of the origins of these names might represent a small, yet important step towards clarifying why the term “ţigan” (gipsy) is so negatively-loaded and should be avoided.

According to a generally accepted hypothesis, the Roma were confused with the members of Christian sect from Small Asia who were renowned magicians; hence, the name attributed to Roma, atsiganos („untouchable”) is the root for the widely met names for Roma in several languages: ţigani in Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian, tsiganes in French, zingari in Italian, zigeuner in German etc. At the same time there was the myth that Roma are original from Egypt, therefore the Roma were named “Egyptians”, which was transformed in gypsies in English and gitanos in Spanish.

On the other hand, „Rom” is a very old word in the Romani language, used to indicate the belonging to the Roma ethnicity. According to a well documented hypothesis, the term derives from the prakrit word “dom” which means “human/ man”. The natural phonetic evolution conveyed the word “dom” into “rom”.

The history of Roma in Romania shows that this minority had to endure mainly disadvantaging situations: they were slaves for half a century, they were deported during World War II and they were forcedly assimilated during Communism. Hence, history shows how the Roma population has been constantly forced to seek ways of coping with an on-going destitute condition.

It is, therefore, conceivable that the process of addressing the issues that the Roma are facing would unfold over a large period of time. Nonetheless, it is also a prerequisite that all programs developed in this respect should have a complementary and comprehensive approach; this comes with an understanding the promotion of intercultural dialogue is also a requirement, along with projects related to education, housing, health care, employment etc.

In Europe, the major action taken in this respect has been the Decade of the Roma Inclusion (2005 – 2015), launched in response to all these factors affecting the Roma community in Europe (and not only). The Decade is supported by the Open Society Institute, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, UNDP and by eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe (including Romania). During this decade, all involved pledged to address main Roma issues such as education, housing, employment, health care and to fight discrimination.

In Romania, the Government has undertaken several programs, although the most active period has begun only after year 2000 – hence, much is left to be done on various areas concerning the Roma population. Only in 2004, the Government issued a decision (No. 1703/2004) for the establishment and organization of the National Agency for Roma specifically dedicated to Roma issues. The main projects that include policies for Roma are: the Government Strategy for the Improvement of Roma Situation 2001 - 2010 (HG230/mai 2001, adopted in 2001 and updated in 2006); the National Plan for Fighting Poverty and Promoting Social Inclusion 2002-2012; PHARE RO 9803.01: “The Improvement of Roma Situation” – 2 mil. Euro.

Before tackling intercultural dialogue between the Roma and the Romanians, it is highly necessary to underline some key cultural and social aspects in order to have a clearer picture of the various realities in Romania.

· Roma is a population that is highly heterogeneous socially, economically, culturally and historically. Authors talk more about the existence of more histories of Roma within the European area rather than a single history.

· Roma as nomads – a highly recognisable cultural trait of the Roma along history, although in time even this has changed and Roma have become increasingly sedentary. Yet, having been nomads has influenced the housing conditions; more specifically, this might explain the small and poor houses situated at the margin of localities. Hence, from a traditional point of view, the houses are small and improvised due to the focus on movement and readiness to go.

· The nucleus of the community and the major form of organisation is the family, understood as the extended family. For some Roma peoples, marriage is regarded by families usually as a form of social arrangement.

· Although considered as a significant cultural trait, only 40% of the Roma people in Romania speak the Romani language. This is due to the past policies of forced assimilation, as well as the natural process of assimilation. Hence, there are cases of entire communities that have lost the Romani language, but can still be identified as Roma.

· Romani language (original from the Northern India and influenced by various languages such as Persian, Armenian, Greek) is not unique to all Roma people; instead there are various dialects. This has been due to a lack of written culture and the existence of a prominently oral language.

· Religion is another cultural trait that cannot be deemed as a unifying trait for the Roma living in Romania. Generally, the Roma people have adopted the religion of the region they lived in; hence most of them are Orthodox. It has been noticed, though, that there are increasingly more Roma communities who adopt neo-protestant religion, especially Pentecostal and Baptist.

· The musical talent is a trait that is highly recognisable in Roma communities, although it is equally true that the Roma (unlike any other minority living in Romania) contributed to a great extent to the development and preservation of the Romanian folklore (Barbu Lăutaru, Fanfara Ciocârlia, Taraf de Haidouks)

· Roma people in Romania: Roma woodworkers were the most numerous among the lordly slaves and paid the lord a certain quantity of gold extracted from the rivers which crossed Moldavia and the Romanian Country. They could practice this occupation only during the warm periods of time; during winter, Roma woodworkers would move down to the fields where they transformed the wood making wood vessels, especially spoons, dishes and troughs, and for this they were named Spoon people; Wandering Roma worked in iron; they were in the past the best in this field. Old documents describe them as often being requested by the lords for manufacturing tools and weapons; Roma Boiler-makers (cooper-smith) work with cooper and make buckets, dishes and stills (alembic); Roma Comb makers make combs out of bones; Roma Silversmiths manufacture rings and other jewellery made of gold and silver; Bear Leaders used to carry tamed bears through different villages and fairs and made them dance; Roma Tinsmith (tinmen) deal with tinning the cooper made by Boiler-makers; Roma Horse-dealers sell and buy horses; Roma Bell founder made church bells which they also rang.

· Ethnic self identification is a significant issue, since - due to the wide discrimination and stigmatization - most of the Roma tend to deny and hide their identity; in a survey conducted by the Open Society Foundation in 2007, 45% declared themselves Romanianised Roma – Roma who preserved a small part of the Roma culture and assimilated a wide part of the Romanian culture. The same study shows that 23% declare themselves as „just a Gypsy”, while only 18% declare themselves as belonging to one or another of the Roma peoples.

Also, the Romanian educational system has so far supported a „mono-cultural” approach, focused on the Romanian culture. This approach which ignored the presence of other ethnic minorities within history has favoured the assimilation of these groups. This would partly explain why most of the Roma do not know their own history and culture. It would be highly necessary that the Romanian educational system include optional courses in the curricula containing information regarding the Roma history and culture (along with those of other minorities as well). This should be complementary to an active promotion of an intercultural perspective aiming at the improvement of inter-cultural knowledge and communication of all ethnic groups.

As far as other minority groups are concerned (e.g. Hungarians) it is far more simple to introduce data about history and culture due to the existence of schools in their mother tongue and of the presence of identity elements offered by a mother country or a written culture. Yet, it would be much more difficult to accomplish this for Roma minority: although the Roma represent a minority in all European states as they have not developed a written culture. In most cases, the Roma live dispersed in localities that are populated by other ethnic populations and the Roma students usually learn side by side with their Romanian or Hungarian colleagues. This would, of course, not lead to negative effects, if discrimination was not chosen as a tool to deal with these situations. Within this context, it would be highly recommended that the teachers promote intercultural dialogue in all its aspects.

Why intercultural dialogue?

Given all the aspects presented above and the fact that Roma inclusion is a prerequisite not only in Romania but also all over Europe, PACT Foundation intends to address it by setting the basis for an intercultural dialogue framework.

Therefore, PACT Foundation proposes as a sub-theme identifying means of enabling intercultural dialogue for improving Roma and Romanian citizens’ perception, towards a better joint collaboration and participation to community development, therefore a genuine integration of Roma people in the local communities, within the localities where, through its programs and projects, PACT Foundation has developed civic initiative among community members.
PACT Foundation has been active in the community development field in the South of Romania - Muntenia and Oltenia regions - since 2002. The team has been working in rural and small or medium urban localities with groups of citizens representing disadvantaged people in their communities. In many of these communities, the situation of Roma people is very diverse: there are communities where Roma citizens are totally assimilated and there are no visible differences from the Romanians – and here the relations are relatively good; there are communities where Roma people have their own specific traits of culture, and the relations are based on common interests, and yet the two groups are quite distinct, and there are communities where the distance between the Roma and Romanians is very clear, the relations between them being at the limit of conflict.

In the beginning of May 2008, PACT Foundation started to work on a Phare project dedicated to the professional training of 150 Roma persons in Argeş County. Along the development of the project, the team has become increasingly aware of the issues that the Roma are facing in the region and especially the fact that there is a major lack of contact between most of the Roma communities and the Romanian ones.

In one particular commune - Călineşti, PACT Foundation has observed that the people belonging to the Roma and the Romanian communities are not only physically segregated, but they are also reluctant to collaborate with each other. More specifically, within two PACT projects, the team has been confronted with a dissent especially from the part of Romanians to include the Roma living in Valea Corbului village (belonging to Călineşti Commune) in the process of prioritizing the needs of the disadvantaged categories.

Within this context, PACT Foundation considered that the meetings within the Citizenship, Inter-culturality, Dialogue project could unfold in this community, aiming at bringing together Romanians and Roma to set a basis for the integration of the minority.

Călineşti Commune is located in the South-Eastern part of Argeş County; official data issued by the County Hall states that there are 11 260 inhabitants, including 668 Roma, although in Valea Corbului village it appears that there are in fact approximately 1500 Roma living in 450 households. Valea Corbului village, inhabited exclusively by Roma people, is situated at 12 km away from the Commune centre; particularly, they are Roma Rudari and they do not speak the Romani language. In their village, there is only one primary school (I-IV) with a kindergarten. There are a lot of issues that people in this village have to deal with: lack of asphalted road, water resources, medical services, pharmacy, decent houses and unemployment. Families are poor, there is a very weak collaboration with the local public administration, and there are no Roma persons in any public institutions.

The 5 local meetings to take place along the CID project in this Commune, gathering Roma and Romanians in one place, are meant to identify and enable discussions regarding efficient and effective means through which intercultural dialogue may improve the relations between the Roma and Romanians in this locality where Roma and Romanians belong to the administrative unit, yet live almost completely separately. As presented above, the situation identified by PACT Foundation requires a strategy that would not be focused only on the inter-cultural dialogue per se, but would aim to move beyond the 5 meetings and through these to bring the two communities together.

In the given context, the main question is: can intercultural dialogue contribute to the improvement of interethnic relations? And aspects of this issue would be:
- How well do we know our and the other’s culture? (with focus on the Roma culture)
- What defines the Roma and Romanian culture/identity?
- How well do we understand and how willing are we to accept the specifics of other ethnics?
- What can we do (which would be the means) so that through intercultural dialogue there may be better relations between Roma and Romanians?
- How could the two communities which are geographically segregated participate in intercultural dialogue and community development?

All these questions will be addressed through various discussion and work themes to be sustained by PACT Foundation with the support of experts in interethnic communities in Romania, regarding ways in which the relations among Roma and Romanians have influenced the process of community development/facilitation, the extent to which the good development of local projects have depended on the quality of interethnic relations, and whether Roma and Romanians working together has contributed (and in what way) to an improvement of interethnic relations in this community or vice-versa.

PACT Foundation would seek that both groups (i.e. Roma and Romanians) have a wide representation and also that the five meetings take place alternatively in the Roma and Romanian villages.

How well do we know our and the other’s culture? (with focus on the Roma culture)[3]

First meeting (December 2008)

Taken into consideration the issue of stigmatisation, as well as the very low degree of ethnic self identification on behalf of the Roma and the lack of knowledge of Roma culture among the Romanians, PACT team considers that before actually opening an intercultural dialogue, it would be highly necessary to focus on the presentation of several key historical and cultural Roma aspects. Thus, the initial meeting would very much focus on raising cultural awareness, thus endorsing self-esteem for Roma and motivate both groups to interact in the future meetings. The debate would be triggered by presenting information related to the Roma history and culture, as well as by clarification of key terms (ţigani, gypsy, Roma) and by showcasing Roma role models.

As the two communities addressed are segregated and there is already a history of lack of communication and collaboration, PACT Foundation will moderate the meeting in a more informal and flexible manner in order to ensure the participation of the two groups in the following meetings.

What defines the Roma and Romanian culture/identity? How well do we understand and how willing are we to accept the specifics of other ethnics?

Second meeting (January 2009)

The second meeting would underline the importance of knowing each other’s culture; it would reiterate some major cultural references about Roma culture and it would also focus on the Roma and Romanian culture/traditions; thus, the groups would have the opportunity to present their own traditions and their vision on what defines their culture. The debate between the two groups should define if and to what extent there is an assimilation of Romanian traditions on behalf of Roma and to what extent the two groups know, understand and wish to accept each other’s identity.

What can we do (which would be the means) so that through intercultural dialogue there may be better relations between Roma and Romanians?

Third meeting (February 2009)

This meeting would focus on facilitating a dialogue between the two groups in order to generate an activity based on an intercultural exchange; the moderators of the meeting would encourage and support the two groups to reach a decision on organising an intercultural activity in a participatory manner.

Bringing together the Roma and the Romanians in an activity that would cherish both cultures is an attempt of PACT Foundation to ensure genuine intercultural dialogue, lasting relations between the two groups, as well as a larger involvement of Roma in the activities of community development and the local public institutions.

The outcome of this meeting would be decisive for the unfolding of the next two gatherings, as the two groups would jointly decide on the intercultural activities. More specifically, this could take place in April when the Easter Holidays might offer a proper context for intercultural dialogue and/or in June when the school year is over and there are opportunities for intercultural celebrations with children from both communities.

Fourth and Fifth meetings (April and June 2009)

According to the outcome of the third meeting, the fourth and fifth meetings will provide the opportunity for taking concrete action in the sense of intercultural dialogue. Thus, the two groups would plan and put into practice the aforementioned activities. PACT Foundation’s expertise on participatory planning, as well as the moderator’s experience in inter-ethnic relations would be used extensively in the process of facilitating these meetings.


Bibliography:

“Elements of Roma history and culture” – guide for teachers; edited within the program Educational Development in the Roma community by Open Society Foundation Romania with the support of Matra Program, Netherlands

“Roma Inclusion Barometer” – Gabriel Badescu, Vlad Grigoras, Cosima Rughinis, Malina Voicu, Ovidiu Voicu – Open Society Foundation Romania 2007

“Inclusion and exclusion of Roma in the contemporary Romanian society” – Edited by Gabor Fleck and Cosima Rughinis – SPER – Stop the Prejudices against the Roma ethnicity, funded by European Union through Phare 2004 program, Bucharest 2008

“Roma Inclusion – Lessons Learned from OSI’s Roma Programming” – edited by Bernard Rorke and Andre Wilkens, Open Society Institute, New York 2006

“Roma – stories of life” – Coordinated by Malina Voicu and Claudiu Tufis, Soros Foundation Romania 2008

“Did You Know...” – leaflet presenting main historical and cultural Roma elements, edited within the project “The consolidation of the Institutional Capacity and Development of Partenerships for the Improvement of Perception and the Conditions of Roma”, a campaign of the General Secretariat of the Government and the National Agency for Rom, 2007

‘Multicultural Education, Roma in School’, 2006, Save the Children Romania – Coordinator: Gabriela Alexandrescu, Marilena Mamina

‘History and Roma Traditions’, Save the Children Romania – Authors: Delia Grigore & Gheorghe Sarau, Coordinator: Gabriela Alexandrescu, Editing: Miralena Mamina, 2006

Overview of the Roma Situation in Romania for European Commission Consideration at 2006 Country Report – Romani Criss, Roma Centre for Social Intervention and Studies

Open Society Institute, EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program, Education Support Program, Roma Participation Program - Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma, Monitoring Reports, 2007
[1] Pogany, Istvan (2006) – ‘Minority Rights and the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe’. Human Rights Law Review, 6:1, 2006, pp.1-25
[2] Overview of the Roma Situation in Romania for European Commission Consideration at 2006 Country Report – Romani Criss, Roma Centre for Social Intervention and Studies
[3] Although an intercultural dialogue also requires a focus on the Romanian culture, the team would specifically focus on the Roma culture, as the former is thoroughly taught in schools, while the later is widely unknown even to the Roma themselves