COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesRomany (Gypsy) community, stigmas and preconceptionsby Monika Krajcovicova 1IntroductionThe image conjured with the word Roma (and its equivalents in other languages) now represents a man wholeads a particular way of life, often alternating between places of residence, or living outside the law. The fictionalpicture has its origins, from the idealized Roma population in Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution,when they were, in literature, a symbol of an ancient, idyllic lifestyle, intrinsically linked with the land. Theestablished middle age European image, of a "noble savage", pagan and living in amongst civilization, but ingreat need of having their souls saved through Christianity (Hancock, 2005, p. 111).Still today, many people continue to take information of Roma from books, rather than first hand experience.Much of the population perceives the Roma as a stereotypical group of people with an increased propensitytowards crime, a noncommittal attitude for work, an inability to learn current styles of living and unable to coexist,unable to learn and continually abusing the states welfare system. The results causing discrimination against theRoma, which in turn makes a large proportion of them, lose interest in participating with society. To date, not allRoma are willing to publicly acknowledge their Romany ethnicity.Roma in SlovakiaThe Romany minority in Slovakia have their own internal structure (except for sub-ethnic differences) consistingof the family – gender relationships, thereby discerning the nationality and identity of the Roma (ethnic, social),with levels of status within their own family, and then in the local community, being led by their “vajda” (leader ofthe community). The cultural identity of the Roma creates even more layers of social and cultural levels. Withinthe internal identity, their can be sub-ethnic differentiation (Lehozska, 2006). It follows that the Romany culturalidentity is heterogeneous, which increases the difficulty of presenting the topic.Despite the fact that the Roma have obtained and declared their Slovak citizenship and claim to be Slovaks, themajority of the population have still maintained a social distance from the Roma for a very long time, being moretolerant of other minorities, than they are of Roma.Prerequisites, reasons for official confirmation of Slovak nationality (the census act), by the Roma living inSlovakia may have objective and subjective reasons (Lehoczka, 2006, p. 42 to 49): a/ Consequences of long1University of Presov ; Faculty of Education ; Department of Pre-school and Elementary Education and Psychology. 17. novembra 1 - 08001 Presov SLOVAKIAEmail: mkrajc@unipo.sk127