Cablegate: Romania's Roma at Europe's Door
VZCZCXRO0763
PP RUEHAST
DE RUEHBM #1235/01 2161418
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041418Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4916
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BUCHAREST 001235
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - SCOTT BRANDON
E.O. 12958, AS AMENDED: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SOCI RO
SUBJECT: ROMANIA'S ROMA AT EUROPE'S DOOR
REF: 05 BUCHAREST 1761, BUCHAREST 0841
BUCHAREST 00001235 001.2 OF 004
1. (SBU) Summary. Persistent poverty among Romania's ethnic Roma
population, numbering at roughly two million by some estimates,
remains one of Romania's most prominent social problems, which will
impact other parts of Europe more directly after Romania enters the
EU in 2007. Highly transient, groups of poor Romanian Roma have
become a presence in many European capitals, a phenomenon that many
Romanians believe has contributed to negative views of their country
abroad. At home, Romania's Roma face the greatest hardship of any
minority, with poor access to government services, few employment
opportunities, high rates of school attrition, inadequate health
care, and pervasive discrimination. Average Romanians typically
blame the Roma themselves for their poor conditions, while the
Government takes an often half-hearted approach towards trying to
solve the problems confronting Roma. Human Rights NGOs characterize
the persistent cyclical poverty confronting Romania's Roma as an
issue that has "barely been addressed" since the fall of communism.
Although some initiatives have shown some positive results, an
emerging group of Roma activists view many programs implemented thus
far as replacing Roma culture with a deepening culture of
dependence. End Summary.
2. (U) Romania is home to Europe's largest population of ethnic
Roma, commonly called gypsies. Although a 2005 official estimate
put the Roma population at 730,000, reliable nongovernmental studies
place the actual number at between 1.8 to 2.5 million, or 8 to 11
percent of Romania's total population. NGO analysts point out that
government figures are inordinately low because many Roma will not
reveal their ethnicity to census-takers or other authorities. In
addition, many Roma lack official identity cards or other forms of
identification that would allow them to be tracked. According to
Roma NGOs, some local authorities also markedly underreport the
number of Roma in their cities or counties in order to project a
"cleaner image" for their communities.
3. (U) According to Roma scholars, Romania's Roma population is also
extremely diverse and can be divided into over two hundred clans
associated with specific vocations or crafts and over 1,000
family-based clans. These subunits range from highly traditional
groups that earn middle and even high incomes from traditional
vocations such as trading, metal processing, and recycling; to the
Roma at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder who live on the
margins, often from refuse found in garbage dumps or begging. Many
middle class Roma -- particularly in urban areas -- have fully
integrated into broader society, sometimes at the sacrifice of their
Roma identity. Uniting factors include informal use of dialects of
the Romany language; strong family and clan traditions; the practice
of traditional vocations; common physical traits and clothing
choices; a concept of child rearing characterized as relaxed by
outsiders; and a self-imposed separation from the rest of society
that is reinforced by widespread discrimination.
A Rich Community, But Not in Money...
-------------------------------------
4. (U) As PolOffs were drafting this cable, a number of Roma and
human rights activists with whom we spoke emphasized that we should
not focus only on the problems confronting Roma. They spoke of the
rich history of Roma in the country, dating back 800 years or more.
They noted the prominence of Roma artists and musicians. They
described the resilience of Roma communities that survived slavery
in Romania through much of the 19th century; the Holocaust, during
which some 11,000 Romanian Roma perished; and the excesses of a
communist regime that sought to wipe out ethnic differences. At the
same time, many Roma activists have expressed frustration that
conditions for many in the Roma community had not improved over the
years, a situation that a small but growing number of activists
blamed at least partially on Roma themselves for failing to seize
the limited opportunities available to them or for resisting
integration into broader society.
5. (SBU) Nonetheless, virtually all Roma activists and experts agree
that the common problem confronting Roma is pervasive poverty.
According to the Bucharest office of the Open Society Institute
(OSI), ethnic Roma in Romania are five times as likely as the
majority population to live below the poverty line. The OSI also
estimates that approximately 60 percent of the Roma population live
segregated from the majority population in communities with
substandard housing without basic governmental services such as
schools, adequate healthcare, running water, electricity, and waste
disposal. Bucharest OSI Executive Director Renate Weber told
PolChief that being Roma does not automatically mean being poor.
However, she noted that virtually all social indicators are by far
worse for Roma than for the broader Romanian population. This
includes rates for infant mortality, illiteracy, malnutrition,
alcoholism, criminality, and child abandonment. NGOs have also
observed a much higher prevalence of HIV in Roma communities.
BUCHAREST 00001235 002.2 OF 004
Unemployment and the Cycle of Poverty
-------------------------------------
6. (SBU) Roma are also disproportionately unemployed or
underemployed. According to a study by the progressive
Bucharest-based Roma NGO Impreuna ("Together"), 67 percent of 1,511
Roma households surveyed have no employed member. Impreuna
Director, Gelu Duminica told Poloff nearly all of these "unemployed"
households relied on government entitlement programs often in the
form of subsidies for children and infants. Duminica lamented that
to some degree these entitlement programs have perpetuated a culture
of dependence. However, without them, he said many Roma families
could be pushed even further to the margins, with potentially dire
results. He noted that many adults in these households continue to
work on the gray economy, trading in markets or earning other
unreported income. He believed that the government had "totally
failed" thus far to develop sufficient incentives for marginalized
Roma adults to enter the formal economy and to gradually reduce
their reliance on public funding.
7. (SBU) One independent Roma activist asserted that a number of
Roma had reacted to poverty in Romania not by seeking employment on
the formal economy, but rather by illegally migrating to other parts
of Europe where social entitlements are better or where it is easier
to gain income on the gray economy or through other means such as
begging.
Roma Women: Tradition and Hardship
----------------------------------
9. (U) Traditionally, the Roma family structure is strong and
patriarchal. Roma women also typically marry and begin producing
children at an inordinately young age. According to a UNDP survey,
35 percent of Roma women marry before they reach 16 years of age.
By the time they are 22 years old, 92 percent of Roma women are
already married. Child marriage is common, and the pressure to
marry is strong. Although norms vary by group and socioeconomic
standing, post knows of one case where an unmarried 16 year-old Roma
girl has gone into hiding in order to avoid being kidnapped by
members of her clan who want to force her into an arranged marriage.
In 2003, the self-proclaimed King of the Gypsies near the
Transylvania city of Sibiu invited international guests to the
wedding of his daughter whom they subsequently learned was only 12
years old. Local authorities immediately separated the child
couple. The news of the wedding generated a new national debate
over Roma child marriages, although the government took no new steps
to try to end the phenomenon.
10. (U) The rate of domestic violence is also extremely high among
Roma households. A 2004 study by Partnership for Equality Centre, a
local non-governmental organization, determined that that
approximately one in five Romanian women suffer violence from their
husbands or partners. Although post found no reliable statistics
specific to Roma, nearly all the NGO and Roma representatives with
whom we spoke believed the rate in Roma households to be much
higher, as a result prevailing attitudes in parts of the community
that view domestic violence as "normal" and exacerbated among the
high rate of alcoholism within the community.
11. (U) Romanian Roma culture also strongly discourages women from
working outside of the home, especially in the formal economy.
According to an OSI report in 2006, only 26% of Roma women
interviewed were part of the workforce as employees, day-laborers,
or free-lancers. Roma women were three times as likely to be
unemployed as their male counterparts, who already have a high
unemployment rate. The average monthly income of Roma women
surveyed was 31 euros. Roma women often lack training, marketable
skills, or relevant work experience. NGOs asserted that the GOR
sometimes uses "a lack of data" as an excuse for the lack of
policies and programs targeted at Roma women. These groups are
calling for more data collection and analysis that provides a
statistical breakdown by gender and ethnicity in order for the GOR
to develop programs specifically for Roma women.
12. (U) The high birthrate within Roma communities poses additional
challenges for Roma women. Producing children remains important in
Roma culture, and many Roma women expect to have large families. At
the same time, many lack access to family planning services or
contraception (and to health services in general), or are unwilling
to seek such assistance due to pressure from husbands or partners
and norms within their community. Because of the high number of
young dependents to take care of, in addition to the lack of skills
and opportunities, many of these women never enter the job market.
Roma Children: Poverty Starts Early
------------------------------------
13. (U) Few drivers in central Bucharest can stop at an intersection
BUCHAREST 00001235 003.2 OF 004
without being approached by a Roma child or young adult begging for
pocket change. These children have become the most prominent face
of Roma for urban Romanians, and in many ways encapsulate the
broader social problems confronting Romania's Roma. Despite a
popularly-held notion that Roma view their children "only as
commodities," Roma NGOs report that many Roma parents lack a
cultural appreciation for the value education for their children and
erroneously view moderate child labor -- including begging -- as
acceptable if not desirable as long as the child is not placed in
extreme danger. That said, the social indicators for Roma children
remain poor, and few Roma remain in school beyond the primary
level.
14. (U) NGOs and the media report that pervasive discrimination by
teachers and other students also serves as an additional
disincentive for Roma children to complete their education. Post
has heard numerous reports of Roma children being placed in the back
of classrooms due to their ethnicity, of teachers ignoring Roma
students, and of unimpeded bullying of Roma students by other
children. In some communities, authorities have placed Roma in
separate classrooms from other students and even in separate
schools. The Romanian National Anti-Discrimination Council has
taken some steps to address these problems, although some activists
describe measures thus far as largely ad hoc and in response to only
isolated incidents.
15. (SBU) The high birthrate within Roma families coupled with a
lack of employment, decent housing and basic services has also
contributed to a much greater rate of child abandonment within the
Roma community. One Roma activist confided to Poloff during a May
2006 OSCE Roma conference that this is an issue that has still not
been sufficiently discussed, much less addressed, within the Roma
community or by leading Roma NGOs. The activist opined that there
remains a sense that the issue of Roma child abandonment is "yet
another" sensitive topic where Roma "embarrass" broader society and
thereby generate further hostility toward Roma.
Many Initiatives, Few Results
-----------------------------
16. (SBU) Since the mid-1990's, the Romanian government has
undertaken numerous initiatives with the professed goal of reducing
or eliminating the social and economic differences between Roma and
other Romanians. This was the period during which the government
set up a special National Agency for Roma. Romanian NGOs report,
however, that these initiatives have produced few results, as the
situation for a large majority of Roma has remained virtually
unchanged, due to corruption, inefficient use of funds, and
culturally inappropriate programs that encourage continued
dependence on state institutions or programs. Until recently, the
National Agency for Roma remained severely under-funded, with staff
who earned their positions primarily though political patronage
rather than from expertise on the many problems confronting Roma.
17. (U) The prospect for increased funding brought by the EU
accession process raised hopes in some Roma communities. However,
some Roma NGOs have lamented that the GOR spent only 9 percent of EU
PHARE funds in tackling unemployment for Roma minorities -- an
insufficient amount given the scale of unemployment in Roma
communities. Although the GOR has increased job programs designed
for Roma people since 2001, many programs came short of expectations
and were not sustainable once funding ended. Furthermore, one NGO
underlined that many of programs' strategies "look good only on
paper" but "none of the steps recommended would be completed." A
community-based income-generating brick factory initiative in Dej,
for example, is proving difficult to sustain beyond its project
period. The factory will close soon if further external financing
is not obtained to purchase the needed cement. As expected,
grass-root NGO efforts have achieved better results in enterprise
development and community-based income-generating programs.
What Works? Emerging Views for Roma Self-Sufficiency
--------------------------------------------- -------
19. (SBU) In the view of Gelu Duminica, and an emerging number of
other young Roma activists, social inclusion, not employment
programs, is the key to encouraging Roma to help themselves.
Duminica opined that social exclusion can only be combated by
"professional reinsertion programs" that focus on active measures
supporting the Roma, not passive welfare measures. Duminca lamented
that most social support programs in Romania, however, focused
mainly on keeping the unemployed in "a constant state of
dependency." Duminica also said that social support programs can be
improved by developing measures which would "compel Roma to look for
a job."
20. (SBU) Some Roma activists also view the increased participation
of Roma in local and national administration as well as in political
life as important. Nicolae Gheorghe, OSCE Senior Advisor on Romani
BUCHAREST 00001235 004.2 OF 004
Issues, remarked during the May OSCE Roma conference that 16 years
ago, he thought the impetus for change would come from international
organizations. Today, he believes that change has to be implemented
by national governments. He remarked, for example, that the overall
question of Roma land ownership needs to be resolved, as many Roma
lack titles to their property. He said that neither individuals nor
municipalities would be willing to invest in buildings or local
infrastructure without a clear understanding of land ownership in
Roma communities. Roma Parliament member Nicolae Paun also noted
that some 500,000 Romanian Roma still do not have national
identification cards that would entitle them to state support. He
applauded the efforts by the Romanian government for Roma and its
"ID-card caravans" that travel to various Roma communities and issue
identification on the spot to anyone lacking one. But he added that
more -- much more -- must be done
21. (SBU) Comment: The pervasive and complex problems confronting
Romania's Roma remain the subject of numerous conferences and
countless academic and sociological studies, many which have been
forwarded to post in thick envelopes. Nonetheless, as many Roma
experts and activists have pointed out -- and as we have observed --
the situation for a large number of Romanian Roma has not improved
since 1989, and has even worsened for some groups. The blame goes
in many directions, including toward corrupt officials and a society
that largely blames Roma themselves for their ills. No doubt
discrimination toward Roma is pervasive, with attitudes that some
Roma groups have compared to those of the American South in the
1950's and even Germany in the 1930's. As Romania prepares to enter
the EU in 2007, the problems confronting Romania's Roma will
increasingly become Europe's problem. Romanian Roma have already
crossed borders into EU countries and more will arrive, particularly
if the Romanian government and the EU fail to improve the conditions
for this sizeable population which has remained at the margins for
so long. End Comment.
Taubman