REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

490
Remembrance in Time
these immigrants became a political issue of international significance, and the ensuing
dispute between Paris and Brussels put the situation of the European Roma in the focus of
public attention. According to Lívia Járóka (MEP of Roma origin, European People’s
Party, Hungary), the case with France signifies that, in addition to the countries with
prevailing Roma population, the big Member States have also admitted that they are
facing a common problem – the failure of Roma integration in the last 20 years. In search
of a way out, MEP Járóka has declared herself in favour of a new strategy for solving the
Roma issue at the European level that will substitute the „ good resolutions, empty words
and window-dressing from the politicians.” The new political stirring in the Community
can be summarized through the words of the Hungarian State Secretary for European
Affairs Enikı Gyıri, according to who the strategy for solving the Roma issues should be
“on the basis of social inclusion, not on a basis of ethnicity”. “Access to work and
education is what moves us forward” – concludes Gyıri [7].
The words of the State Secretary Gyıri should be understood in the context of the new
EU Strategy, according to which the integration of the Roma should not be dealt with as a
separate policy, but integrated “with the mainstream policies”. This means that a special
attention is paid to the particular situation of the Roma within all EU policies that aim to
improve the economic situation, health living conditions, employment opportunities,
cultural understanding and education of all Europeans.
Including education as one of the main tools for full Roma integration in Member
States, makes it an important and particularly sensitive issue in the work of state
institutions in the countries with compact Roma population like Bulgaria.
What is the status of the Roma minority in Bulgaria?
The Bulgarian Constitution of 1991 does not use the term minority. Instead, minorities
are referred to as “citizens whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian” [8]. Experts define the
Roma in Bulgaria as an “inter-group ethnic community” [9]. Generally Roma consider
themselves as an ethnic minority. The group is characterised as non-homogeneous and
consists of numerous subgroups, which identity is formed under the influence of different
factors – language (or dialect), life style, occupation (or profession), limitations of
endogamy. A telling point is the fact that some groups of this population prefer to call
themselves “Gypsies” instead of “Roma people” or entirely differentiate themselves from
the latter.
The data in the Table 1 outline the dynamics in the demography of the Roma population
in the previous century and the beginning of the 21 century.
The exact number of the Roma in Bulgaria is difficult to establish, as at censuses a great
part of them prefer to self-identify as Turks, Bulgarians or Vlachs.
According to data from the last census in 2011, the Roma community constitutes 4.9%
of the total population. As ethnicity is determined on the basis of the self-identification of
the censured person, we can assume that the reported share and absolute number of the
Roma population in 2011 of 325 343 is in fact much higher. According to different
sources, the number of the Roma varies between 600 000 and 900 000.
According to the statistics of 2011 as “mother tongue”: