No child left behind in the European Union?: the position of Romani children

Abstract

This paper analyses how different EU documents (communications, recommendations, reports and surveys, etc.) focusing on Roma frame the position of Romani children. Many studies have shown that because of their intersectional positioning, Romani children often face multiple discrimination and triple exclusion: on the basis of their ethnicity, their age and their socio-economic status. The paper comments on selected findings on Roma in the Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey published by the Fundamental Rights Agency in late 2016. One of the main findings of this Survey was that 80% of Roma live below the country-specific risk of poverty line in all EU Member States in which the Survey has been conducted. By specifically examining the implication this finding has for the position of Romani children, I argue that their position is, in fact, produced and reproduced with systemic, but also everyday racism. When it comes to Roma, but specifically Romani children, not even the European Union (EU), based on principles of fundamental human rights, is immune to such phenomena.

Keywords:

• Romani children
• poverty
• fundamental rights
• European Union
• intersectionality

Notes

1. In EC terminology Roma is a common denominator for a number of marginalized minorities (besides Roma for example also Sinti, Kale, Travellers, etc.). It was in the prospect of EU Enlargement, when the EC started using the term Roma instead of Gypsies and referring to them as an ethnic group (Simhandl, 2006).