educating and integrating the roma

The Roma, otherwise known as the Gypsies, are an ethnic group derived in India and widespread in eastern and southern Europe. Historically, they have faced a great deal of discrimination from white Europeans, notably during the Holocaust, but even now, the divisions between the Roma population and the sedentary white Europeans are large and problematic. Roma are seen, and probably not without reason, as a threat to the order of society, and many Europeans perceive them as parasites of the welfare system, relying on government housing and support not out of desperate need but out of preference. (This sort of problem, as far as I can tell, is widespread in the welfare states of Europe and not unique to the Roma; in the US, where it’s far more difficult to survive off of government support, it’s less well known.) Roma also have a reputation for crime and general social maleficence (all right, I just wanted to use the word maleficence there). Furthermore, the Roma, after so many generations of persecution, aren’t exactly interested in reaching out to white Europeans and assimilating into their lifestyle.

All this is coming to a head due to a landmark court decision last year ruling that the Roma could not be segregated into “special schools”, in many of which Roma children might lag many years behind their mainstream school counterparts. Many of these special schools have simply been renamed and carried on as before, though, and the Roma unwillingness to send their children to mainstream schools with very few other Roma children and the likelihood of discrimination hasn’t helped the situation. Many people also blame Roma parents for placing little value on education, thus not providing their children with the background they need to succeed once they enter the school system.

Much of the segregation has been justified by (often bogus) diagnoses of Roma children as mentally retarded or afflicted by other learning disabilities. As the big sister of a special needs kid, I have to say that even if these children are mentally retarded, they belong in a classroom with normally functioning peers. Otherwise, they never stand a chance of catching up or even coming within shouting distance on the educational front. And the prejudices on both sides of the Roma divide will never ease so long as the two groups are kept happily separate and continue to demonize one another.