español |
english |
Private area
Private area
European Network on Social Inclusion and Roma under the Structural Funds
Structural Funds: Investing in Roma
Private area
European Network on Social Inclusion and Roma under the Structural Funds
Structural Funds: Investing in Roma
The Roma population constitutes one such minority. According to the 2002 National Population and Housing Census, 12,731 Polish citizens declared to belong to the Roma ethnic minority. However, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 citizens are Roma.
Four ethnic groups belong to the Polish Roma community, i.e. the Polish Roma, Carpathian Roma (Bergitka Roma), Kelderari and Lovari.
As in other European countries, the Roma in Poland face numerous hardships, including high levels of poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing conditions and inadequate access to education and healthcare. They are also subject to discriminative practices and racism. The situation of Polish Roma has been caused by, inter alia, the policies enforced by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL), which like other communist states imposed compulsory Roma assimilation. The main tool of this policy in Poland was the so called productiveness-settlement campaign, which resulted in 1964 in the forced settlement of the majority of Roma people, who at that time led a nomadic life.
The Carpathian or Bergitka Roma, who have been leading a settled life for several centuries, now live in the mountainous areas of the Małopolskie Voivodeship. A relatively large proportion of the Bergitka Roma live in the urban areas of Upper and Lower Silesia and in the Nowa Huta, a city of the Krakow industrial district, where in the 1950s Roma community members found jobs within the framework of the so called “policy of productivity”.
Most of the Roma belonging to the three remaining groups used to lead nomadic life. Nowadays, members of these groups live mainly in the cities of Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Łódź, Cracow, Mielec and Puławy, and in a number of smaller towns, following the forced settlement policy of the PRL authorities.
The political and economic changes that took place in the beginning of the 1990s were not favourable to the improvement of the already difficult situation of the Roma community in Poland. The majority of Roma began to suffer from unemployment, decrease in their sense of personal security, social and health problems. In recent years reports of violence and discrimination against the Roma have increased. There is lack of education and qualification skills among Roma people that fuels their discrimination on the labour market. In addition, the strong cultural distinction and lack of trust toward non-Roma people and state institutions, makes even socially and economically wealthy Roma remain at the social margins of Poland.
Support for the integration of the Romany minority is implemented primarily within the framework of Governmental Programme for the Roma Community in Poland, established by the Council of Ministers on 19 August 2003, planned for the years 2004-2013. Under the Programme, the government administration, local self-government units and NGOs perform a wide range of activities related to the improvement of the social and living conditions of the Roma community, including the prevention of unemployment, healthcare, safety, culture, maintaining Roma identity, disseminating knowledge on the Roma community and popularising civic knowledge among the Roma minority. Educational policies have been given priority.
