Raising your Voice. Interaction Processes between Roma and Local Authorities in rural Romania. Marjoke Oosterom

Transcription

1 Raising your Voice Interaction Processes between Roma and Local Authorities in rural Romania Marjoke Oosterom Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) Supervisor: Dr. Paul Hoebink

2 Raising your Voice Interaction Processes between Roma and Local Authorities in rural Romania Marjoke Oosterom Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) Supervisor: Dr. Paul Hoebink Nijmegen, June 2006

3 Contents Contents i Acknowledgements iv List of Tables, Figures and Boxes v List of abbreviations and Romanian acronyms vii Map I Romania viii Map II Locations of the Case Study Villages ix 1. Introduction Background of this study Research Design Formulation of the research objectives Formulation of the research questions Methodology Orientation Selection of the Case Studies Comparative Case Studies 8 2. Linking the Social to the Political 10 Introduction The Debate on Social Capital Robert Putnam s Making Democracies Work Perspectives on Social Capital Three categories of criticism The Debate on Civil Society Origins of the concept Civic associations and governance Trust networks and governance Institutions and organising practices Formal and Informal Institutions The Interface Perspective Social Exclusion and power differences 28 Conclusions: towards an operationalisation of concepts Roma as ethnic minority in Romania 32 Introduction On the margins throughout history Social exclusion of the Roma State Institutions for Minorities European Integration Creation and Transformation 44 of State Institutions for minorities page i

4 3.4 Laws and Policies Political Representation Legal Framework of anti-discrimination Minority Education Social Policies 48 Conclusion Roma in Nem a. A village with Saxon inheritance 51 Introduction Background and history of the village Under the auspices of the centru de comuna Saxon inheritance Living conditions of the Roma in Nem a Housing and Infrastructure Income and assets School Participation Health Care Reflections of Roma on their conditions and needs 64 Conclusion Unity and forms of organisation in Nem a 68 Introduction Social networks in the village Roma identity Networks among Roma Networks that cross the ethnic boundary Informal self-organisation: Vecinitate Formal cooperation in Fraternitate Respect instead of leadership Relation with the local authorities Interaction around critical issues The 2004 local elections Critical Issues Linking people s expectations and government actions 88 Conclusion Roma in Ogra. A growing community, increasing needs 90 Introduction A description of the village and it s history Village population The Communist legacy Living conditions of the Roma in Ogra Housing and Infrastructure Income and assets School participation Health Care Reflections of the Roma on their conditions and needs 102 Conclusion 105 ii

5 7. A poor and fragmented community 106 Introduction Social networks and forms of organisation Roma identity Social cohesion and social networks Lack of collective action Bridging social networks Formal cooperation in Interetnica Leadership Relation with the local authorities Interaction around critical issues Critical Events Critical Issues Linking people s expectations and government actions 124 Conclusion Conclusion 127 Introduction The position of Roma in the villages: historical and socio-economic context Social processes in the Roma communities Living conditions of Roma related to social cohesion Social networks, institutions and organising practices Relation and interaction with the local authorities Local authorities as entity Interaction process around critical issues: meetings at the interface Comparing discourses Reflections on theory Reconsidering social capital Institutions and organising practices Civil society and governance 139 Bibliography 141 Appendices: Appendix A Who are they? Discussion of Roma diversity 144 Appendix B Opinions of the Roma on the performance 146 and attitudes of the local authorities (Nem a). Appendix C Opinions of the Roma on the performance 149 and attitudes of the local authorities (Ogra) iii

6 Acknowledgements This research could not have been carried out if I had not received support from many people in the Netherlands and in Romania. First of all I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Paul Hoebink, for all discussions and comments. These helped me at every stage of this research, from the first preparations until the moment I finished this thesis. For their comments and support during the process of writing, I would like to thank Maaike Cotterink, Lotte Schoenmakers, Arthur Willemse and Jora Wolterink. In Romania, several persons gave me valuable support. First of all, Marian Goga, former President of Romano Suno and now working for Lumini a Copiilor in Sighi oara, gave his full support when I carried out fieldwork in the Roma communities. Many thanks to Florin Moisa, Claudia Macaria, Marta Herki (CRCR), and also to Adriana Iordache. Special thanks to staff at the Research Centre for Interethnic Relations (CCRIT) at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca: István Horváth, Cristina Ra, Lazlo Peter, and Mia Pantea. Their comments and information helped me especially at the start of my research. In Bucharest, it was Dan Oprescu (NAR) who gave me dozens of reports and useful comments. Last, but certainly not least, thank you Dana, for all conversations and support in Cluj, in the villages, and home. Marjoke A. Oosterom Nijmegen, June 2006 iv

7 List with Tables, Figures and Boxes Tables and Figures Table 3.1 Unemployment rates for the majority population and Roma 39 Table 3.2 Educational attainment of the Roma and the majority population 40 Table 3.3 Stereotypes of Romanian Roma 41 Table 4.1 Ethnic composition of comuna Mo na in Table 4.2 Roma Households in Nem a; size and space 61 Table 4.3 Income Sources of Roma 62 Table 4.4 Natural resources of Roma households 63 Table 4.5 School attendance of Roma children in Nem a 63 Table 4.6 Highest Completed Education among adult Roma 64 Table 5.1 Church attendance among Roma 74 Table 5.2 Party membership of the local government since 2004 elections 77 Table 6.1 Ethnic composition of comuna Ogra in Table 6.2 Roma Households in Ogra; size and space 97 Table 6.3 Income Sources of Roma 98 Table 6.4 Natural resources of Roma households 100 Table 6.5 School attendance of Roma children in Ogra 100 Table 6.6 Highest Completed Education among adult Roma 101 Table 6.7 Considered causes of problems 105 Table 7.1 Party membership of the local government since 2004 elections 115 Figure 1.1 Course of the research 4 Figure 2.1 A model of interaction 30 Figure 4.1 Ranking of Roma needs in Nem a 65 Figure 5.1 Satisfaction about the way the authorities address the needs of the people 78 Figure 5.2 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of communal problems 79 Figure 5.3 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of personal problems 79 Figure 5.4 Satisfaction with the amount of social assistance 81 Figure 5.5 Satisfaction with maintenance of the roads 83 Figure 5.6 Satisfaction with the facilitation of electricity 83 Figure 5.7 Satisfaction with the way local authorities provide information 84 Figure 5.8 Attendance to a edin 86 Figure 5.9 Reasons for going to a edin 86 Figure 5.10 Satisfaction with the way local authorities involve the Roma 87 Figure 6.1 Ranking of Roma needs in Ogra 104 Figure 7.1 Satisfaction with the manner respondents were treated by officials 117 Figure 7.2 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of communal problems 118 Figure 7.3 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of personal problems 118 Figure 7.4 Satisfaction with maintenance of the roads 121 Figure 7.5 Satisfaction with the facilitation of electricity 122 Figure 7.6 Satisfaction with the way local authorities provide information 123 Figure 7.7 Satisfaction with the way local authorities involve the Roma 123 Figure 8.1 Model of interaction for Nem a 131 Figure 8.2 Model of interaction for Ogra 132 Figure B.1 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the mayor. 146 Figure B.2 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the vice-mayor. 146 Figure B.3 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the councillors. 147 Figure B.4 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitude of the mayor 147 Figure B.5 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitude of the vice-mayor 148 v

8 Figure B.6 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitude of the councillors 148 Figure C.1 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the mayor. 149 Figure C.2 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the vice-mayor. 149 Figure C.3 Opinion of Roma on the performance of the councillors. 150 Figure C.4 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitude of the mayor 150 Figure C.5 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitude of the vice-mayor 151 Figure C.6 Scores on how the Roma perceive the attitudes of the councillors 151 Boxes Box 1.1 Problems and Constraints 9 Box 3.1 Roma in different discourses 42 Box 4.1 Village life in Nem a 53 Box 4.2 The Saxon minority 55 Box 4.3 The meaning of harnici and gospodar 56 Box 4.4 A remarkable Ranking Exercise 66 Box 5.1 Interaction between authorities and villagers: a edin 85 Box 6.1 Insecurity about day-to-day needs. 103 Box 7.1 Chicken thieves 109 Box 7.2 A da bani împrumut 110 vi

9 List of Abbreviations BJR CAP CEE CforNM CoE CRCR DAHR DIR EC EDRC EU MIG NAR NOR ORI PIU RBEC RCRC UNDP Buro Jude an pentru Rromi (County Office for Rroma) Cooperativa Agricola de Produc ie Central and Eastern Europe Council for National Minorities Council of Europe Centru de Resurse pentru Comunitate de Romi (Resource Centre for Roma Communities, Roma NGO in Cluj-Napoca) Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania Department of Interethnic Relations European Commission Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center European Union Minimum Income Guarantee National Agency for Roma National Office for Roma Office for Roma Issues Project and Implementation Unit Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Countries Resource Centre for Roma Communities, Roma NGO in Cluj-Napoca United Nations Development Programme List of Romanian acronyms Ajutor Ajutor social Câmin cultural Comuna Cooperativa Agricola de Produc ie Equip F r Plata Gospodar Jude Harnici Leni Norme Pil le Presta i Pr jituri Razia Sat se in eleg bine Sa Scandal edin a Serios Strad igan, igani igane te iganie Vecinitate A vorba frumos help, support social assistance community building, culture house municipality Farmer cooperative of production ; the collective farms team without a bill, for free good in managing the household county, district hard-working lazy quota acquaintances labour obligation for beneficiaries of the social allowance stuffed cakes raid village (falling under auspices of a comuna) to go along well Saxon scandal, argument (lit.: meeting) in this research village meeting serious street gypsy Romani Roma neighbourhood neighbourhood to speak nicely vii

10 Map I Romania viii

11 Map II Location of the Case Study Villages Ogra Cluj-Napoca Târgu Mure Media Sibiu Bucharest Nem a ix

12 1. Introduction

13 1.1 Background of this study After the fall of communism, international awareness of the situation of national and ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe increased. This is especially true for the Roma, because their marginal situation quickly worsened in the transition period (Ringold, 2004, p.4). The Roma form the largest minority in Europe, of which most live in the former communist countries. Their number is estimated to be around 12 million (Barany, 2002, p.160), but it is rather problematic to give accurate figures on their population size. Many of them fear to declare themselves as Roma in a national census, due to the negative connotation that is attached to their name. Although poverty is widespread in many of the former communist countries, conditions of the Roma are generally much worse and in their case, poverty is strongly connected to ethnicity. The situation of a large part of the Roma is one of social exclusion. They fall behind in practically all sectors of society, their living standards are marginal and they have few opportunities and resources to improve this situation. Often their access to public services like health care or social assistance is limited. Besides all this, they face harsh discrimination from the majority population (Ringold et al., 2004; UNDP, 2003). International organisations such as the Council of Europe (CoE) have expressed their concerns about human rights violations. Moreover, the European Union (EU) has placed the improvement of the situation of the Roma under the political criteria for EU accession. For these reasons, candidate member states have started to concentrate actively on their Roma minorities. Of all countries in the Central and Eastern European region, the Roma minority in Romania is the largest in size and also the most diverse. Estimations go as far as 3 million, but their probable figure is estimated to be 1.5 million (Barany, 2002, p.160). Most dialects of the Romani language can be found here and there are many differences in levels of welfare, occupation, traditions and historical traits. Therefore, one cannot speak of the Roma as one, homogenous ethnic group. 1 Besides these differences within the Roma population, large variation exists in the environments in which they live. The lifestyle and problems of Roma living in the cities are completely different from those living in rural areas. In many cases, Roma live segregated from the majority in their own neighbourhoods. These so-called compact communities are sometimes even outside of the village, leaving an open space between them and the first village houses. Living conditions in their neighbourhoods are often poor; they live in run down houses that have no water, gas and electricity and roads in their area are not maintained. Romania s accession to the European Union is scheduled for A list of criteria is laid down in the Accession Partnership, in which priorities are stipulated that need government action (EC, 2005). Integration of the Roma is one of these priorities, which is supported by EU s funding instrument Phare. The designing of a nation-wide Strategy to improve the situation of the Roma already took off in 1998 and was adopted by the parliament in Although a range of institutional measures has been taken at the national level, a multitude of problems to implement the strategy exists at the local level. In most Roma projects, the local authorities become an important partner. To receive a grant from the Phare instrument for example, the participation of both the local authorities and the Roma is required. Authorities and Roma communities thus have to cooperate, while their relationship usually is one of mistrust, both parties being suspicious of each other s moves. 1 See Appendix A for an elaboration of this problem of identifying and characterising Roma as ethnic group. 2

14 Zoltan Barany writes on local authorities: ( ) local officials play a crucial role because for ordinary Roma they personify the state on a daily basis as council members, aid administrators, policemen and social workers. Of all state institutions, the attitudes of local authorities toward the Gypsies are the most problematic. Local officials are generally less educated and harbor more prejudices than representatives of the central state bureaucracy. They often contend that the empathy and enlightened views of presidents and ministers are naive, idealistic and rarely matched by actual experience with the Roma. (Barany, 2002, p. 296) Ethnicity and social exclusion are important factors that influence the relationship between a marginalised Roma community and the local authorities. On the side of the local authorities, prevailing prejudice as written above does not form the only problem. To address Roma poverty means to address a very complex situation, in which social, economical and historical factors play a role (Ringold et al., 2004:9). Even in the case of good will it is very difficult to make any improvements. Local authorities often lack the capacity and budget to improve the conditions of the Roma in their settlement. Especially in rural areas, the authorities hardly have revenues to finance facilities in the Roma communities. The Roma themselves do not believe that the authorities will do anything to improve their situation. They have to deal with local officials on many occasions, especially for services provided by the state. In many studies, Roma have reported to be treated badly and rudely, or they were not assisted at all (Romani Criss, 2004). Another problem on the side of the Roma communities is that they are characterised by a very low level of social cohesion. They seem to be more vertically than horizontally organised and hardly unite to strive for their common interests (Barany, 2002a:290). There is no such thing as Roma solidarity and social conflicts can exist within Roma communities. This research therefore focuses on the relationship between the Roma and the local authorities in rural villages. It will examine the social and political processes that shape the interaction between them, and how interaction around certain issues takes place. In the following sections, I will present a more detailed description of the research design. It includes the research objectives, central questions, and of the methods and techniques that I used for this research. Chapter 2 discusses the relevant theories and concepts for this study. Starting from the work of Robert Putnam, this chapter elaborates on social capital, civil society, and institutions. It will also elaborate on various views on the relation between civil society and government performance. The last section chapter 2 presents a conceptual model of this research. Chapter 3 contains background information about the Romanian Roma, starting with a historical overview of the position of the Roma in society, data on their conditions, and relevant state policies. I will then proceed to the chapters that describe the empirical phases of this research. I carried out two case studies in the villages Nem a and Ogra in order two compare two situations of interaction between the authorities and Roma. Chapter 4 discusses the history and conditions of the Roma in Nem a, followed by a description of their community structure and their relationship with the local authorities in chapter 5. Chapters 6 and 7 describe the situation in Ogra. Hence, research questions will be answered for both villages. In the last chapter, I will summarise the comparison between the two villages and present my conclusions. The course of this research can thus be depicted in the scheme below (Figure 1.1). Here we see how theories on social exclusion and social capital were squared with information on the situation of Roma in Romania (a), after which the research objectives and central questions were formulated (b). Subsequently, a short orientation in Romania (c) led to the criteria that were used to select the case studies (d). Fieldwork was carried out (f), after which all data were collected for analysis (g) and conclusions were drawn (h). 3

15 Figure 1.1 Course of the research Theories on social capital, institutions, and social exclusion Preliminary enquiry: Literature study on situation of the Roma (a) Formulation of the research problem and research objectives (b) Orientation Characteristics of social exclusion (c) Methodological selection Design of two ideal models and selection of case studies Methodological selection Identifying Critical Issues to examine social process (d) Comparative Case studies (e) Describing social processes and interaction Finding explanatory factors that lead to differences in interaction (f) Analysis (g) Conclusions on Social exclusion of the Roma (h) 1.2 Research design Formulation of the research objectives The situation as described in the previous section demonstrates how Roma have faced social exclusion for centuries and that this is an enduring situation. Social exclusion is both a condition and a process. It refers to a certain position in society that can be linked with (material) living conditions, but at the same time it refers to relationships with others. The central point is the inability to participate in all fields of society. The term implicitly refers to a certain passive state; Roma are excluded by others. Reality is much more complex though. In some cases, some Roma tend to self-marginalisation. In other cases, institutional measures exist that fail to include the Roma. The local situation is a complex one and many factors play a role. From literature and NGO reports, it has become clear that a tense relationship between the authorities and the Roma can be a barrier to overcome social exclusion. Therefore, I want to examine to what extent social exclusion can be explained by the relationship between the Roma and the local authorities. I 4

16 am aware that this will be a partial explanation of the situation, but it will unravel a part of the complexity. A first objective of this research can therefore be formulated as follows: With this study I aim to make a contribution to the knowledge about social exclusion of the Roma, by describing social processes and explaining how social land politcal processes shape the relationship between the Roma and local authorities. As we have seen, the relationship between Roma and the local authorities is often one of mistrust. Projects that are implemented by NGOs usually require involvement from both the Roma and the local authorities. Therefore, I concentrate on the social processes that shape the interaction between the two. Not only is the relationship between Roma and the authorities shaped by dynamics within a Roma community itself, the attitude of officials and existing rules also have considerable impact. In addition, events in the past can have enduring effects. As a relationship is continuously being shaped and reshaped, the emphasis will be on social processes. I hope this may be helpful to any organisation that is involved in implementing projects with Roma and state institutions. Theoretically, this research fits within a sizeable body of research that concentrates on the relationship between state institutions and civil society. Strongly related to this issue is the function of social capital and civic associations in democratisation processes. The debate on social capital and civil society took a flow in the beginning of the nineteen nineties. Especially their roles and functions in development and democratisation processes became heavily debated. First of all, theorists try to point out who are the actors within the civil society and what are the limits of this third sector. Secondly, literature concentrates on the forms and functions of civil society, and how it could be conducive to good, democratic governance. Lastly, theorists try to demonstrate how civil society actors are influenced by state institutions. Interaction between formal, state institutions and informal, civil society institutions is thus an important theme for this research. A second objective of this research can be formulated as follows: With this study I aim to make a contribution to the knowledge on the interaction between formal and informal institutions, by concentrating on social and political processes that shape this interaction Formulation of the research questions The interaction between local authorities and the Roma community is the focus of this study. This means that we have to do with two entities and all actors belonging to these entities. Local authorities represent an important state institution, which can have interests and an ideology that are different from the community where informal institutions prevail. Thus, on the one hand we have a body composed of various local officials and on the other hand we have a community composed of households and individuals. Both parties face certain conditions that shape their capacities and attitudes. Social processes in Roma communities have impact on the way they organise or take action, but also the authorities are faced with certain processes. This emphasis on process implicates that the research needs to incorporate historical developments. The research question that guides this research is: How do social and political processes shape patterns of interaction between the Roma and local authorities in Nem a and Ogra? 5

17 Sub-questions can be divided into three categories, namely History, Conditions in the Roma community, and Interaction between the Roma and the authorities. The first category deals with historical changes in the situation of the Roma since 1989, including important events involving both the authorities and the Roma. The second category concentrates on the socioeconomic conditions of the Roma and their position in the village. The emphasis is on social processes among the Roma, such as networks, and possible power differences. Lastly, the third category elaborates on the patterns of interaction. Questions relate to the mutual understanding and link the social situation of the Roma community to the attitudes and actions of the authorities. I History 1. Which changes have occurred in the socio-economic situation of the Roma since 1989, the end of the communist era? 2. Which changes have occurred in the public administration concerning Roma-issues at the local level since 1989? 3. How have patterns of interaction between the Roma communities and local authorities changed since 1989? II Conditions in the Roma community 1. To what extent do the Roma face social exclusion? 1.1 What are the living conditions of the Roma? 1.2 To what extent are they excluded by formal institutions? 1.3 To what extent are the Roma segregated from the majority population? 1.4 To what extent do social relationships and networks exist between the Roma and the majority population? 2. How is the Roma community organised? 2.1 How can it be described in terms of social cohesion? 2.2 To what extent is the community structure equally organised? 2.3 Which informal institutions exist, e.g. networks of reciprocity, trust, and cooperation? 2.4 Which institutionalised forms of cooperation exist (such as NGOs)? 2.5 How do these institutions contribute to collective action? III Interaction between the Roma and the authorities 1. What are the attitudes towards the authorities and vice versa? 1.1 What are the ideas about each other s behaviour? 1.2 What do both parties expect from each other? 2. Which actors and/or institutions link the Roma to the local authorities? 3. Which processes form the attitude of the local authorities? 4. Which are critical issues? 4.1 Which are issues that provoke interaction? 4.2 Which critical events in the past shaped this interaction? 4.3 How did the interaction process evolve? 6

18 1.3 Methodology Research was carried out from the beginning of May until mid-october This period of research was divided into three stages. The first phase, Orientation, I used to gather information on the situation of the Roma in Romania in general and their relationship with local authorities in particular. In the second phase I selected two villages for the case studies. I also chose the critical issues around which I would examine social and political processes. During the third phase, which was the longest, I carried out field work in the villages. For each phase I will now briefly describe the methods and techniques used Orientation Objective of the Orientation was to gain insights in what social exclusion exactly means for the Roma in Romania, on which issues they interact with the local authorities and which issues are usually problematic. Also, I wanted to know more about the historical background of their situation and in particular the developments after the fall of communism. Literature - Based in the Transylvanian city Cluj-Napoca, I collected reports and literature from NGOs that specialise in Roma issues, as well as from social scientist at the Babes Bolyai University, who specialise in interethnic relations. Interviews - I carried out interviews with social scientists and NGO staff to collect this information. In these interviews I concentrated on social exclusion at the local, village level. Especially in interviews with scientists at the Babes Bolyai University, I discussed the historical changes in local politics and the Roma since In a series of interviews in Bucharest, I conducted similar interviews with NGO staff. In interviews with staff of the government National Agency for Roma, I concentrated on a more national level of the Roma situation and on national minority policies. Field visits and semi-structured interviews - Important for this Orientation were visits to five villages in Transylvania where Roma live in compact communities, isolated from the majority population. Together with Marian Guga, member of the Roma Student organisation Romano Suno from Cluj-Napoca, I spent a day with the Roma in each village. We talked about their situation and their contacts with the authorities. Also, we interviewed officials in the local town hall Selection of Case Studies Information gained in the Orientation phase was used to design a procedure for the selection of the case studies. I had to design two models; one for the situation in which Roma and local authorities have a good relationship and one model for a cold, tense relationship. Next, I had to find villages that fitted best in these models and select two villages that matched the indicators of the different models. Interviews - After the interviews and field visits in the Orientation phase, I made a list of problems that relate to social exclusion and in which the local authorities play a role. To design two models, I carried out five more interviews with NGO staff. Informants indicated how local authorities deal with these problems in case they are more involved in Roma issues and their relationship with the Roma is quite good. Informants answered the same question for the opposite situation; they described the behaviour of the authorities in case local authorities act indifferent and have a negative attitude towards the Roma. Thus, I was able to make a model for a situation in which the authorities are involved and another model for authorities 7

19 being indifferent. These interviews also helped me to identify critical issues that may cause disagreement. The local elections, social assistance, infrastructural maintenance, and providing information and involving Roma in local politics were issues around which social and political processes would be studied. Field visits and semi-structured interviews - I subsequently designed a score list of all villages that were recommended. NGO staff filled in the list of questions and gave scores to each issue. To select the villages for the cases I visited the best-scoring villages and the very low-scoring ones. Finally, I selected Nem a in Sibiu county to be the positive case and Ogra, in Mure county, to be the negative case (See Map II). I do realise that the selected case studies are not representative for the general situation in Romanian villages. As was mentioned, the Roma represent an ethnic minority characterised by diversity and so are the situations that they meet in every day life. However, the aim of this research is to map social and political processes at the local level. Social processes are embedded in a certain context. This research will show the complexity of social relations and social exclusion as aspects of a specific context. Although not representative for all villages in Romania, the case studies will indicate certain issues that are particularly sensitive Comparative Case Studies Participant observation - Fieldwork in Nem a and Ogra was the crucial part of the research. It was actually in this phase that I faced difficulties in the research (see Box 1.1). Marian Goga, member of Roma Student organisation Romano Suno, joined me to both villages for four days at the start of my stay there. This proved to be the best way to find an entrance in the Roma neighbourhoods; he knew to whom we should speak and how and, being a Roma himself, the Roma trusted me and let me stay. In both villages I stayed with Roma families for over a month. I was able to participate in the households and daily tasks of the family. These houses were in the Roma neighbourhoods, from where I visited other families. To participate in these neighbourhoods proved to be of enormous value, because it gave me the opportunity to understand the complexity of social relations, differences in status between families and problems in their daily lives. Survey - It was important to compare the villages systematically on the level of social exclusion of the Roma populations. Therefore, I did a survey on different aspects of social exclusion. I included questions on the accumulated household income, housing and the level of education of each member of the household. I then continued with questions about the functioning of the local authorities, the attitudes of officials, and their satisfaction with specific governmental activities. In both villages 34 respondents were selected by random sampling. In Ogra, many of the Roma could not read the questionnaires themselves. In that case I, or Marian Goga from Romano Suno, read the questions and answers and marked the answer they had selected. It needs to be said that the original plan was to have adult respondents only. However, some of the Roma in Ogra are under the age of 18, while having children and a house of their own. In one case, a fifteen year old father and a sixteen year old mother lived with their baby in a small clay house they had just finished building. For this reason, households with under age parents were not excluded from the survey. Open Interviews - To gather information about the history, social networks, and structure in the village, I carried out 7 open interviews with Roma in each village. In these interviews I also discussed their relationship with the local authorities and which issues were critical. I selected these respondents after I had visited all families of the Roma communities, taking into account who was able to explain carefully and slowly. To find out about interaction with the Romanian and ethnic Hungarian population and their opinion about the 8

20 Roma in the villages, I visited three Romanian and Hungarian families in each village. With them I discussed what kind of contacts they have with the Roma and how they look upon their poverty situation. Box 1.1 Problems and Constraints Language Of course, a language barrier makes it more difficult to have conversations, to do interviews and to follow discussions held by others. To speak Romanian on village level was not too difficult and I managed well in conversations and interviews with the Roma in Nem a and Ogra. To ask whether people could speak slowly or explain something again was enough to understand their stories. Speaking office Romanian is more difficult, which complicated interviews with local officials. Especially when it came to legal matters or the allocation of the local budget, I had difficulties in understanding their answers. I then asked to repeat the answers until I understood. In Ogra I read the council minutes and annual budgets in the town hall. It was especially difficult to interpret the annual budget. I simply did not know how much it costs to run a village. Also, the treasurer was on holiday and the bookkeeper was not willing to answer my questions. In Ogra, the Roma spoke mainly Romani among themselves and Romanian with me. In some situations, they were discussing with each other and with me and then they switched to Romani, so I could not follow the discussion any longer. I then asked if they could repeat all in Romanian, which they always did, but I may have missed important information. Changes in the research question The original plan was to do research about the effects of interaction on social exclusion of the Roma. This was still the central question when I started doing fieldwork in the villages. Gradually I found out that it would be too difficult to measure effects of interaction on social exclusion. I had assumed that the Roma would somehow organise themselves to stand up for their interests, but this was not the case. I found much more information on the nature of the existing interaction and the processes that shape this interaction. Therefore, I decided to change the research question and to focus more on the forms of organisation in the Roma communities and how these relate to patterns of interaction with the local authorities. PRA-exercises and semi-structured interviews- Although the initial plan was to do various PRA-techniques (as described in Thomas, Chataway and Wuyts, 1998), these were not suitable in all situations. People were often busy, they did not want to stay in one place, and it was quite difficult to gather them together in the first place. Useful PRAs were a mapping exercise of the village and a ranking of problems in Nem a. In Ogra, a problem three and a ranking on their problems were useful exercises. As one of the aims of PRA-techniques is to raise discussions, I tried to find other ways to gather information through discussions. In many occasions, I found groups of people gathered together, like neighbours visiting my host families in the evening or people sitting outside on Sundays. I then provoked discussions on local politics by asking a few questions. Interviews - In each village I carried 5 interviews with members of the local authorities. These were in both cases the mayor, the vice mayor, 2 councillors and staff that do the bookkeeping and keep files on social assistance. First, I focused on their opinions and expectations of the Roma in the village. Second, I concentrated on the issues that raised problems in the interaction. In Ogra I looked through the minutes of council meetings and the local budget to verify whether the claims of local officials that they often speak about Roma issues, but that did not have the funds to take action, were true. In the case of Ogra, I interviewed the Councillor to the Prefect of the County Office for Roma in Târgu Mure. 9

21 2. Linking the Social to the Political Picture: Roma girl in Ogra looking over the fence. She had heard noise in the street and was curious to see what was happening. 10

22 Introduction The relation between state and society is an issue for extensive research. It is a complex issue, within which a wide range of phenomena can be studied. Since Robert Putnam s Making Democracies Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, the concepts civil society and social capital became heavily debated. His comparative study of institutional performance in different regions in Italy provoked strong reactions on how a well-functioning civic community in the form of social capital could lead to responsive and effective government. Putnam extended the effect of a well-functioning civic community on government performance to economic growth and prosperity. While we still do not know the exact meaning and functioning of the concept, social capital is widely used in development policies. Although the function of social capital in economic development forms a substantial part of the debate, it is of less relevance for this study. Central theme of this research is the interaction between state institutions and the Roma as an ethnic minority. Therefore, the focus will be on the relation between social capital and political processes and governance, but the relation to economic development will be concisely discussed. Starting from Putnam s work, this chapter presents an overview of the debate on social capital and civil society and of its relation to governance in particular. It will then continue to a section on institutions and social exclusion. Finally, I want to present a line of arguments that pledge for a focus on social process and interface interactions. This approach may serve to overcome weaknesses in social capital theory. 2.1 The Debate on Social Capital Robert Putnam s Making Democracies Work. Robert Putnam followed the performance of regional authorities in Italy from 1970 to 1989, after institutional reforms were implemented in During this reform considerable amounts of funding and authority were transferred from the central government to the regional level. The institutional reform was formally implemented in the same manner in each region. However, the social, economic, political and cultural contexts of each of the regions varied considerably. Although the structures and mandates of the new institutions were identical, they showed differences in performance. Putnam s research explains this variation in institutional performance and aims to discover the conditions that create strong, responsive, effective representative institutions. One outcome of Putnam s research is that there has been a change in political climate and culture (Putnam, 1993, p.36). The political elite from the left and right moved to the moderate centre, a trend apparent from the move from ideological conflict towards cooperation; ideological differences were moderated, and there was more attention for management and good government. Putnam s explanation for this change is that the institutional reform itself was consequential for regional politics (ibid, p. 37-8). Research into the effectiveness and responsiveness of the regional governments showed a remarkable difference between the northern and southern regions. Describing the socio-economic and cultural contexts, he explains for these regional differences. Following De Tocqueville by connecting the dynamics of democracy in the United States in the late 19 th century with the density of associational life in the civil society, Putnam finds the civic community to be the main explanatory variable for institutional performance. Whereas the North is characterised by a high density of associations, 11

23 institutionalised networks and horizontal relations, the South has no such associational life and relations are mainly hierarchically ordered, as in the time of patronage. Putnam continues his search for the causes of this regional difference in civic community. He poses a historical explanation, tracing patterns of civic engagement back to the Middle Ages. The South was characterised by a feudal monarchy, creating vertical, hierarchical relations that cause dependence and coercion instead of support and cooperation. In contrast, the North consisted of independent city-states developing horizontal traderelations that fostered trust and cooperation. He thus concludes that the development of the civic culture is path-dependent. In his final chapter Putnam introduces the concept of social capital to explain how a lively, public-issue oriented civic community can foster responsive and effective government. A vivid associational life in a society and dense networks of civic engagement produce norms of trust, reciprocity and cooperation among its members. This will have a direct effect on how politics in this society prevail; the focus will be on cooperation, differences will be tolerated and conflicts will be resolved by compromise and debate Perspectives on Social Capital Putnam stated that a high level of social capital and a strong civic community would lead to economic development and institutional performance, thus meaning democratisation. His conclusions raised a lengthy debate on the forms and functions of social capital, making social capital a popular theme throughout the 1990s. Scientists and policy makers from various fields came to study the sources, functions, and effects of social capital. Still, theories are inadequate (Schuurman, 2003, p.992). Let us concentrate more deeply on social capital as a concept; its various definitions, forms and related effects, and its analytical value. Pierre Bourdieu is usually mentioned as the first author giving a theoretical account of social capital. Bourdieu wants to explain how power and oppression are created and reproduced, and how these capitals attach to individuals as well as to socioeconomic groups (Fine, 1999, p.6). He was especially interested in the reproduction and consolidation of advantages by elite groups. He distinguished different forms of capital; social capital, human capital, cultural capital and financial capital (Bourdieu, 1986). He made these distinctions to avoid overgeneralisation from one process to another and from one moment of time or place to another, thus emphasising contextual specificity of relations and processes (Fine, 2003, p.37). Crucial is that social capital for Bourdieu is highly contextual and irreducibly bound up with the totality of other economic and social practices (Fine, 2004, p. 137). James Coleman defines social capital as a variety of different entities [which] all consist of some aspects to social structure, and [which] facilitate certain actions of actors whether personal or corporate actors within the structure (Coleman in Grootaert & Van Bastelaer, 2002, p. 2). He wants to demonstrate how individual attainment is influenced by family or other aspects of the micro-social environment, which is interpreted as the possession of social capital (Fine, 1999, p.5). To Coleman, social capital is mostly functional; it is composed of sets of social relationships and arrangements that enable individuals to achieve their goals. He describes social capital as the component of human capital that allows members of a given society to trust one another and to cooperate in forming new groups and associations (Coleman, 1988). According to Coleman, the difference between human and social capital is that human capital consists of individual skills and characteristics, whereas social capital lies in the relations between individuals and groups and not in the individuals themselves (Edwards & Foley, 1998, p.128). This means that human capital can move together with an individual to different social situations, but social capital remains embedded 12

24 in a particular context. Hence, he emphasises that social capital is a characteristic of social relations and structure. Important is both Coleman s and Bourdieu s emphasis on social capital as resource. An individual has access to this resource and can use it to achieve personal goals. Deepa Narayan relates social capital to both the individual and the collective level. In the Word Bank study Voices of the poor social capital is broadly defined as ( ) norms and networks that enable people to coordinate collective action (Narayan, 2000, p.129). This coordinating capacity may vary, but any group, network and organisation owns social capital. When speaking about individuals, it refers to the extent and nature of social networks such as kinship networks, neighbours and associations (ibid, p. 49). According to Narayan, social capital can manifest itself in norms, values and informal networks, as well as in local organisations like informal lending associations and farmer cooperatives (2000, p. 130). This links social capital to its organisational form, civil society. Social capital is seen as an asset, which is, together with physical capital, human capital, and environmental assets, important for the way people sustain their livelihoods. It is on this point that social capital is seen as conducive to economic development. Assets function at the individual level as well as at the household level or community level. Narayan explicitly mentions that the nature of the asset, the social context and urgency of need influence the way a particular asset is incorporated in an individual s or household s livelihood strategies (ibid, p. 50). Besides this, power differences among groups and individuals affect the ways assets are controlled and used. To Narayan, the challenge is to get a better understanding of the nature of social capital and the circumstances under which it is likely to lead to the public good (1999, p.3). Edwards and Foley suggest that Coleman s formulation of social capital can be conceptualised in terms of relational and structural factors like networks and organisations (1998, p.132). Hence, they take the concept from an individual to an aggregate level of analysis. Also Putnam emphasises the collective level. According to Putnam social capital refers to: ( ) features of social organization, such as trust, norms and networks; that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions. (Putnam, 1993, p.167) Putnam relates the concept to game theory. Game theory concentrates on problems of collective action and barriers or incentives to cooperation. Theorists agree that one tends to cooperate in case others are reliable and have a good reputation. The amount of information about each other s past behaviour and whether one has proven to be reliable before are important factors that facilitate cooperation. It should also be easier to cooperate, if participants engage in repeated games (Putnam, 1993, p.166). They expect to meet each other often in the future and then it is in their advantage to have a good reputation and to be reliable. This is related to the idea that a trustworthy reputation produces trust. Trust in the potential partner will enhance cooperation. Trust is thus an essential component of social capital. Voluntary cooperation is easier in communities with a high level of social capital, where trust prevails. This can reduce transaction costs of exchange and thus enhance institutional performance by lowering the costs of information by the trustworthiness of others. Without trust, people will not conform to rules, because they do not trust others to do so. Trust is usually related to individuals, but Putnam describes how personal trust becomes social trust. Social trust can be produced by two sources that are strongly related; norms of reciprocity and networks of civic engagement. The norm of generalised reciprocity is a highly productive component of social capital. This norm can restrain opportunism and solve problems of collective action. Networks of civic engagement are essential forms of social capital. Putnam sums up: they foster strong norms of reciprocity and they discourage individuals to defect from norms of behaviour 13

25 (ibid, p.172-4). They facilitate communication and improve the flow of information. As explained; trust and cooperation depend on information about the reliability of potential partners. Also networks are components of social capital, but they can at the same time produce it. In Putnam s words: Any society ( ) is characterised by networks of interpersonal communication and exchange, both formal and informal (ibid, p. 173). This shows the central characteristic of social networks, namely the interpersonal relationships that enable individuals to communicate and share information. Putnam subsequently describes that networks can primarily be horizontal or vertical in nature, which means that networks bring individuals together that are respectively equal or unequal. Whereas horizontal relations produce trust, reciprocity and cooperation, the vertical relations create dependence and abuse of power. Thus the mechanism that produces successful institutional performance in the broader community is found in horizontal networks of civic engagement, which promotes solidarity, trust, tolerance, cooperation and tools to solve problems. These networks help participants to cooperate and to solve dilemmas of collective action. It is in the horizontally organised networks that Putnam finds the essential forms of social capital that produce reciprocity, cooperation, sharing of information, and good government. Narayan also emphasised the importance of horizontal relations. Following from case studies in Tanzania, Narayan and Pritchett together state that horizontal connections monitor government action and demand more efficient government; cooperation is useful for the solving of problems; knowledge of innovations is dispersed; information is of better quality, it can be shared and transaction costs are lower; and there exist informal insurances (Narayan & Pritchett,1997). Apart from the different definitions of social capital, authors distinguish different forms of social capital. Authors like Narayan, Portes and Landolt, Schuurman, and Varshney all draw attention to the analytical distinction between bonding and bridging social capital. Bonding social capital refers to the norm and networks of relationships within a group, while on the other hand bridging social capital refers to the external links, to networks and relationships that cross the borders of certain groups. This distinction is important when we study different groups in society, especially in relation to the distribution of power and resources. Schuurman indicates that if social capital is going to be used in the analysis of multicultural societies, one ought to distinguish between bonding and bridging social capital (Schuurman, 2003, p.1002). Following Portes and Landolt, he writes that people can be excluded by others through social capital. Even if social capital is horizontally organised, it may have negative consequences, because people can keep resources within their own social group and exclude others from access. As in the case of Northern Ireland, bridging social capital between Catholics and Protestants is lacking (Portes & Landolt, 1996, in Schuurman, 2003, p.1002). This shows lacunae in Putnam s study. He assumed that different groups (associations) would cooperate and would require adequate governance. However, when different groups lack bridging social institutions, they will not be able to cooperate. Also, if different groups pursue different goals, they may not even be willing to cooperate, regardless of the presence of bridging social institutions. If one group has more power and is more in control of resources, it is vertically positioned to other groups, no matter if each of these groups has horizontally structured bonding social capital (Narayan, 1999, p.1). The absence of bridging social capital can work twofold; in the first place it may indeed cause the exclusion of groups of people from resources by other groups; in the second place it may hamper the cooperation of groups that have similar goals. Narayan formulates that: the challenge is to understand better the nature of social capital, and the circumstances under which it is likely to lead to the public good (ibid, p.3). If bridging social institutions do not prevail, the informal, bonding institutions do not lead to social movements that question power 14

26 inequalities, or challenge inequitable social norms or laws, nor do they exclaim for good governance. Ashutosh Varshney demonstrates the importance of the analytical distinction between bonding and bridging social capital in multi-ethnic societies. He argues that there is an integral link between the structure of civic life in a multi-ethnic society and the occurrence of ethnic violence (Varshney, 2001). Comparing six cities in India, Varshney explains the different outcomes of social conflict between Muslims and Hindus. After the demolition of the Baburi mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, nation-wide conflicts between Muslims and Hindus occurred. In three of the selected cities serious, violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims occurred, whereas in the other three hardly anything happened. Varshney finds the explanation in the structure of civic life in what he calls intraethnic and interethnic networks of civic engagement. In those three cities where riots prevailed, the Hindu and Muslim communities live segregated and do not interact with each other in the various, existing associations. Here, the authorities were able to polarise public attitudes as a strategy that favoured their own position. On the contrary, in the peaceful cities Hindus and Muslims were united in trade associations, sport clubs and all kinds of professional, social and cultural associations. These associations counterbalanced the risks of polarisation. Politicians of all parties helped to establish interreligious peace committees. They functioned as a forum where everyone could express their grievances. The committees provided links from the authorities to the neighbourhood level, where smaller committees were formed. Associations also existed in the cities characterised by violent ethnic conflict, but separate for Muslims and Hindus. Committees that were formed in the rioting cities were often intrareligious and functioned as a protective body to possible attacks by the other communities (Varshney, 2001, p.371). As such, they did not facilitate communication between the Hindus and Muslims. According to Varshney: ( ) peace committees during times of tension are simply an extension of the pre-existing local networks of engagement. A considerable reservoir of social trust is formed out of the associational and every day interaction between Muslims and Hindus. Routine familiarity facilitates communications between the two communities; rumors are squelched through better communication; and all of this helps the local administration keep peace. ( ) Decisive, rather, was the presence of intercommunal networks of engagement. Intracommunal networks, by contrast, did not contain, or stop, violence. (2001, p.374, italics original.) Varshney himself states two differences between Putnam s study and his own (2001, p.376). Varshney uses networks of engagement instead of social capital and focuses on interethnic and intraethnic civic ties, not on civic ties as such. What matters is whether civic and social ties cut across groups; interethnic networks are crucial. Second, civic engagement in Putnam s work includes formal and informal interactions between individuals and families, but it is necessary to note the difference. Day-to-day engagement is qualitatively different from more formal, organised engagement, especially in the cities where day-to-day contact between groups is less obvious. Because of its size, a city reduces the possibilities between day-to-day contact and the effectiveness of informal interactions. Although Varshney concludes that the presence of interethnic networks was decisive, there was an active role for government institutions as well. They enabled peace committees to work, they coordinated activities, spread information and linked different committees. Being responsive the way they did, they fostered peaceful cooperation. 15

27 2.1.3 Three categories of Criticism We have seen a number of definitions, descriptions, and components of social capital. In addition, social capital is attributed various functions and qualities. Criticism is directed at each of these issues. This section elaborates on three categories of criticisms; the analytical value of the concept, its status as independent variable, and its function in democratic economic processes. As for the first set of critics, from what is written we may derive that the exact meaning of the concept social capital remains ambiguous. Social capital generally refers to all formal and informal social associations between people. As such, it encompasses very many types of relations and behaviour. If the content is extended to norms and values of behaviour even more forms are possible. This ambiguity limits the analytical value of the concept. Scientists may refer to completely different phenomena, while using the same term. In various articles, Ben Fine criticises the literature on social capital, saying that nobody actually knows what it is and what it can do (1999, 2001, 2003). His attack is especially directed towards the World Bank, whose researchers claim that social capital can be applied in numerous fields (2001, p. 137). Several authors acknowledge that social capital is a metaphor for different types of phenomena, but nonetheless the metaphor facilitates discussion and the concept has substantial impact. It is exactly such a stance that Fine rejects (2001, p. 146). The metaphor social capital consists of various other metaphors, which raises the question how this concept can be of any analytical value. From a different perspective, authors try to depict social capital by describing what it is not (Fine, 2003, p. 34). They come up with resources as natural capital, fixed capital, human capital, and financial capital. What is left is the whole array of other factors that influence individual and collective behaviour. As Ben Fine writes: It encompasses an extraordinarily wide range of social phenomena and, even at this early stage of exposition, it might be doubted whether they are sufficiently common in some sense that a single term is warranted under which they can all be satisfactorily housed. (Fine, 2003, p.33) According to Edwards and Foley the concept of social capital has a strong heuristic value for economics, because dominant economic models fail to incorporate non-market factors (1998, p.128, 132). The concept draws attention to aspects of social relations that shape the behaviour of individuals and groups in their economic and political contexts. Coleman s original emphasis was on socially embedded resources and he pays attention to social networks and organisations. Edwards and Foley state that Putnam s view on social capital is limited. Putnam focuses on associational membership and norms of reciprocity and trust. He then limits his focus to the good that social capital can produce; civic engagement. In addition, they claim that Putnam confuses social capital with human capital. It then becomes something an individual acquires through associations of civil society, while it should be seen as something more structural. They further argue that the socio-economic and political context substantially influence the kind and degree of a specific form of capital (1998, p.129). It cannot be reduced to individual possession. Edwards and Foley propose a more structural view on social capital and civil society, and awareness of the different contexts. Furthermore, Edwards and Foley criticise Putnam for giving social capital a normative dimension, which harms the analytical value of the concept. This point is expressed by Ben Fine as well; social capital literature is much focused on the effects it can produce and the good effects in particular. As a result, social capital is automatically associated with something positive. Social capital produces goods when it produces values and attitudes that foster and support democratic institutions. In this case only specific forms of social capital are focused upon, leaving aside possibly negative effects. However, when social capital refers to relations and networks among people, an association as the Ku Klux Klan owns social capital 16

28 too, producing negative effects for others (Fine, 2003, p.34). A major criticism is therefore that literature on social capital tends to overlook power differences and conflict. Social capital is thus a catch-all and analytically selective concept (Fine, 1999, p. 9). An extensive set of criticisms is directed at the functions of social capital; both its function in promoting good governance and in assuring economic growth. To Margaret Levi the mechanism through which good government is produced is not clear at all. According to Putnam citizens who have dense networks of civic engagement not only trust each other, but also produce good, democratic government (Levi,1996, p.48). All civic associations engender sufficient interpersonal trust so that citizens can solve the problem of collective action, organise and then effectively sanction governments that are not performing well. Horizontal relationships, cross-cutting social cleavages ensure that the demands will be democratic in overall effect. In general, Putnam does not give a definition of trust, he only describes relations and expectations under one title of trust, without distinguishing between interpersonal, organisational and governmental trust. Levi criticises his transference of trust among individuals to trust in the government. Trust within the community may be a prerequisite for effective, responsive government, but this will not be enough. Individuals must trust government actors as well (Levi, 1993, p.378). Also, a frequently heard criticism on Putnam s work is his opinion about the value of certain civic associations as source of social capital. As Margaret Levi writes: Mass-based political parties most obviously engender such norms and networks, but why ( ) does Putnam consider choral societies, soccer clubs and the like an equally important source? (Levi, 1993, p.377-8). In later publications, Putnam acknowledges that social capital can produce positive as well as negative externalities. He also mentioned the example of the Ku Klux Klan, saying: With its century-old tradition of bigotry and racially motivated violence, the Klan represented a form of social capital that subverted the rules and traditions of liberal democracy. With its internal norms of trust and reciprocity, reinforced by a shared self-defensive purpose, the Klan ( ) reminds us that social capital is not automatically conducive to democratic governance (Putnam & Goss, 2002, p. 9). Whether social capital produces economic development is equally much debated. We already discussed a possible negative effect of social capital, namely when social capital is used to prevent others from access to resources. This brings us to the criticism that power inequalities and social conflict rarely come to the forefront in the social capital debate (Fine, 1999, p.9). The World Bank is heavily criticised by authors from the left, like Ben Fine, for integration of the concept in its development policies. Fine states that, as the concept is not clearly defined and we are unsure of all its effects, it should not be given so many credits. Social capital is used to direct attention to the social spheres in reaction of the mounting critics on the Washington Consensus. However, Fine suggests that the Bank uses both concepts so that it can ignore its faults and the misconceptions of liberalism and the role of the state (Fine, 1999, p.10-12). The World Bank uses civil society and social capital to argue for non-intervention by the states, as intervention may destroy initiatives and the well-functioning of social capital. The concept conveniently suits World Bank policies in several ways (Fine, 2003, p.39). It promotes self-help and participation, two fashionable terms in World Bank policy lines. It also allows the World Bank to interfere in these participation processes. Thus, it leaves the post-washington consensus undisturbed. A similar view is presented by Frans Schuurman. First of all, Schuurman questions the belief in social capital as an independent variable. If economic growth produces a wealthier population of which members own more human capital, then it is very likely that this leads to the creation of more associations and participation in networks. Thus, Schuurman suggests that social capital can be the dependent variable, as for instance a low degree of social capital 17

29 can be caused by poverty and economic development can create an active civil society. He warns for a tendency towards blaming the victim (2003, p.999). Social capital is seen as something that people create themselves and if they perform well they create development. In other words; ( ) if you are marginalised, poor and underdeveloped it is basically your own fault (ibid, p.1000). Schuurman then shifts to a global analysis of social capital and indicates that there is a growing distance between the social and the political (2003, p.1005). One instance is the observed trend towards decentralisation without knowing how to connect the local government with local people. Research on social capital could contribute to knowledge on how to reconnect the social with the political (ibid, p.1008). Democracy theorists also state that structural influences are ignored. They propose to use social capital as a dependent variable and put the emphasis on the influences of political institutions. This set of criticism fits within the theoretical debate on the relation between actors and structure. Sidney Tarrow concludes in a book review of Making Democracies Work that indicators of malaise may be civic, but the causes can be structural (Tarrow, 1996, p.396). In the review, Tarrow presents historical evidence for differences in state building between the north and the south of Italy, and the differential structuring of a public culture by the northern regions. Since the Second World War, the Italian state intervened in the South more thoroughly and differently than in the North. Here the state is put forward as an independent variable and Putnam s book is criticised for a lack of state agency (ibid, p ). Margaret Levi argues that Putnam overlooks how the government institutions and politics can shape, influence and delimit people s choices and behaviour. The government both reflects and shapes, a possibility Putnam recognises several times, but he does not analyse how the government institutions may have influenced or determined the organisation of the local community (Levi, 1993, p.378). She argues for a more complete and complex model that incorporates the creation and maintenance of social trust, among individuals as well as in government functioning. 2.2 The Debate on the Civil Society concept Origins of the concept The concept of civil society is as ambiguous as is the concept of social capital. Edwards and Foley present a historical perspective on the adoption of the concept in the scientific and political discourses (1998a). They find that the modern concept of civil society is rooted in the rise of the liberal state, referring to a space between the state and its citizens. It was first attributed to emerging liberalism in the late 18 th century. It then emerged in the 1970s in Eastern Europe among opponents of the totalitarian state, while in Western Europe the term was used by critics of the welfare state. The various concepts of civil society show the struggles of the citizenry against the dominant powers of the state in 1970 and 80s (Young, 2000, p. 158). In Latin America, it were struggles against the dictatorships, in Poland against communist powers, and in Western Europe against the status quo of the neocorporatist state (Edwards & Foley, 1998b, p. 125). While the actors that were considered central to the civil society bear resemblance, the notions of the concept were normative and attributed to these different contexts. More recently, the concept was taken up by the political right to emphasise the importance of the withdrawing of the state. Frans Schuurman describes how after the Second World War the common faith in the welfare state was gradually replaced by faith in the market and from the 1990s- the role of civil society (Schuurman, 2003). Civil society was thought capable of making economies work. Especially since Putnam s work, one came 18

30 to believe that a vivid civil society would not only have good effects on the market; it would also produce democratic governance. From the beginning, it proved difficult to give an exact definition of civil society, to mark its borders, and to point out the actors that belong to it. This is obviously a result of the various contexts in which the concept of civil society arose. The modern notion of the concept describes a space between society and the state, occupied by forms of civil organisation that pursue their own goals free from or against state powers (Edwards & Foley, 1998a, p. 7). According to Deepa Narayan, civil society refers to groups, networks and relationships that are not managed by the state (2000, p.129). Elsewhere Narayan defines civil society as the sphere between the family and the state, which makes interconnections between individuals and families possible and which is independent of the state (1999, p.10). Hence, we can observe two tendencies. One is the use of the concept of civil society with reference to organisations, institutions, and activities. The second is to understand civil society as a kind of sphere; an arena or even a battleground where actors meet and fight for their interests. Such a view on civil society would partly overcome the theoretical problem of demarcating its boundaries, for actors from any background can be players in the arena. We see that Putnam and Narayan mainly refer to actors and organisations. Advocates of the civil society as an arena are for instance Marx and Gramsci. To Gramsci, civil society is the arena wherein the ruling class extends and reinforces its power by non-violent means (Buttigieg, 1995, p. 26). The ruling classes were historically united in the state, and the lower-placed labour classes should learn to unite, to speak for themselves, and to organise (e.g. in labour unions) to assert their interests, aiming to become State as well. Gramsci did not see revolution as rebellion, but in his view the masses had to educate and thoroughly organise themselves within the space of civil society in order to establish their own concept of the state (ibid, p. 14). A socialist state would not take over the oppressive powers and state interventions as existed in the bourgeois state, but it would increase the autonomy of labour and trade unions. Although some authors consider economical activities to be part of civil society, many theorists now distinguish the civil society from both the state and the economy (Young, 2000, p. 158). A threefold model of state, market and civil society, showing three partly overlapping circles, is a common illustration of this sectorial view. Iris Marion Young argues in favour of the analytical distinction between the state, the market, and the third sector (2000). In the first place, it is a distinct sector, because associational actions are coordinated and regulated differently from those within the state and market sector. The State is a body of institutions and legal regulation that has the legitimate authority to enforce regulation by coercion, and legally coordinates public services. Private enterprises in the economic sector, in capitalist states, provide the society with goods and services following the rules of the market. This sector is profit- and market-oriented, in contrast with the state, which provides public goods. Finally, civil society refers to a third sector of private associations that are relatively autonomous from both state and economy (Young, 2000, p. 158). As these associations are not established and run by state institutions, but rooted in community initiatives for common interests, they can be considered voluntary associations. Moreover, they are not profitoriented, even when activities are directed at providing goods for a fee. The second reason why civil society should be seen as distinct from state and economy is related to its functions. More specific; the state, the market, and civil society have different functions and abilities to limit power, to enable self-organisation, and to promote democracy (Young, 2000, p. 159). Market actors such as private firms dominate the economic sector. Their power, followed by market imperatives, can limit the freedom of individuals and sometimes even of states. Individuals usually have few opportunities to object to this power. On the other hand, civil society can function as a space where individuals are free to unite and to pursue their goals. 19

31 In trying to formulate definitions, we need to be careful not to get lost in boundary maintenance efforts. Edwards and Foley warn for this inclination to find the borders of each sector, which creates a static view on reality and limits the perception of how social phenomena actually work (1998b, p. 126). Also Young argues that we should not consider the three sectors to be completely separate. She argues in favour of thinking of the state, the economy and the civil society in terms of kinds of activities, which is a more process-oriented view (2000, p. 160). The activities correspond with the distinction of the sectors; the state carries out activities of legal regulation and has the legitimate powers to enforce them. The economy produces and distributes goods and services following the rules of the market. Civil society undertakes activities to pursue particular goals and to enhance social values. This argument to distinguish civil society from the state and the economy brings us to the possible functions of the civil society Civic associations and governance The different contexts in which a notion of civil society emerged led to various views on the content and functions of the concept. Edwards and Foley mention two approaches that developed views on civil society in relation to the democratic state. New pluralism came up in the late 1970s in Western Europe. This approach does not attribute the same value to all forms of associationism. Instead: This approach emphasises the importance of autonomous powers within society both as a counterbalance to the state and corporate power and as spheres in which important forms of social action can be carried out. (Edwards & Foley, 1998a, p. 9) Neo-Tocquevilleans, like Putnam, hold a similar view. They think social conflict is best resolved through associations at the community level. Similarly, public purposes are best achieved by associations at the community or a higher level, than by state activities (1998a, p10). Theorists of the new pluralism, in contrast to the neo-tocquevilleans, study what kind of political structure and activities are conducive to transfer powers and autonomy to the civil society. Neo-Tocquevilleans rather concentrate on civil society activities only and the good effects they produce for a democratic society. Robert Putnam is usually seen as the author who integrated the concept of social capital in the civic culture model (Edwards and Foley, 1998b, p.124) fir which Putnam uses the concept civic community. In order to find out whether the success of a democratic government in a country depends on the degree of civic community existing in a particular country under democratic rule, he elaborates a range of issues that are related to the concept (Putnam, 1993, p.87). These are civic engagement; political equality; solidarity, trust and tolerance, and civic associations. He presents some kind of ideal type, where a civic community is characterised by active participation in public affairs (civic engagement). This means, following De Tocqueville, that citizens define their interests in the context of the public good (ibid, p.88). The community is further characterised by horizontal relationships of reciprocity and cooperation (equality), citizens are helpful, respectful, trustful and differences are tolerated (solidarity, trust and tolerance). Social structures and practices in the form of civic associations resemble the norms and values of a civic community. Putnam states that civic associations can contribute to an effective and stable democracy, because members of associations become accustomed to habits of cooperation, solidarity and the public spirit. Quoting De Tocqueville, Putnam stipulates that associations are able to unite divergent minds and direct them to a specified goal (ibid, p.89-90). 20

32 This function of civil society, promoting democratic governance, became heavily criticised. Literature that links associational life to a well-functioning democracy sees civil society merely as a body that represents the interests of society and is ready to promote changes in policies or even in the regime itself. Edwards and Foley find that the concept of civil society is used in a normative sense in general, but in particular in Putnam s work. It is used as a concept describing only associations and activities that produce democratic values, institutions and processes. Any form of organisation or activity is linked to the democratic performance of the state. This leaves aside the possibility that, on the one hand, organisations substitute state activities. Foley and Edwards write on civil society as used in Putnam: Civil society may nurture a democratic culture, but the real question from this point of view ( ) is how to reshape political institutions to let democracy flourish (Edwards &Foley, 1998, p.131). On the other hand, they criticise the assumption that any civil society organisation is working for the common good. Edwards and Foley argue that one needs to look at different forms of civil society activity: For there is no doubt that associational life does generate mutual trust, habits of cooperation and participation, progress in achieving related norms and values, and important social networks. The question is which kind of associations do so, under which circumstances, and with what effects to the polity. (Edwards & Foley, 1998, p. 10) Narayan states that to explain state performance an examination of both the nature of civil society within countries is required, as well as of the state as shaping and being shaped by the actions of civil society (1999, p.10). Iris M. Young defends the idea that civil society is conducive to democratic governance. She acknowledges that Putnam did not differentiate between types of associations and did not explain the mechanism of how certain associations produce democratic governance. She tries to resolve this issue by differentiating levels of associational activity. She distinguishes private associations, civic associations and political associations. Private associations can design their activities for any issue, but they are members only. They tend to be inward-looking and exclusive. It is thus unlikely that they will produce trust among strangers. Civil associations are outward-looking, meaning that they focus on the wider community and that they are open to anyone. According to Young, it is important to see the differences between private and civic associations. Young sees private associations as more or less indifferent to public life. There is nothing wrong with their existence as long members of private associations respect others, but there is a risk of hostility toward one another. Political associations should be considered independently from both private and civic associations, as they focus on what the social collective ought to do. She describes their activities as: ( ) any activity whose aim is to politicize social or economic life, to raise questions about how society should be organised, and what actions should be taken to address problems or do justice (Young, 2000, p 163). In this respect, in the civil society people can articulate their interests and make them political issues. Young speaks of levels of associational activity to demonstrate that activities can move from one level to another. For example, civic associations may politicise their issues in case they feel obstructed by policies or political actors. Young then elaborates how civil society activity may influence the state, and thus the democratic process, economy, and civil society itself. Activities in the three levels of association are linked to two functions of civil society; self-organisation and the public sphere (2000, p. 163). The first function refers to the way in which associations develop patterns of interaction and create networks that support the identity of the association and its members. 21

33 Especially first level Private associations are linked to this function, but also many activities of civic associations belong to this function. The second function, public sphere, refers to associational activity aimed at reforming state policies or institutions, or activities in the corporate sector. Associations that have this function are largely Political associations and to some extent also Civic associations. Now in the eyes of Young, public spheres can be produced by civic activity. Following Habermas, Young argues that the public sphere is essential to democratic governance (2000, p170). The idea of publicity means that it is open to anyone and also refers to a kind of relationship between people. As anyone can access a public space, it becomes a gathering of diverse ideas and opinions. People can reflect upon their own ideas through deliberation with others. Last, publicity refers to the form of expression or action that is public. Theorists of deliberative democracy especially, argue that persons that discuss public issues should present their views in a manner accessible and accountable to anyone. Well then, public spheres facilitate debate on public issues and on which sector is responsible for what. Citizens who engage in the public sphere can organise to influence state and market actors. Civic associations provide forums for public discussion and they can hold state institutions accountable. They are important complementary institutions to the electoral process (2000, p. 177). Apart from raising issues, they can also put forward ideas on how to solve existing problems. State institutions should be sensitive to these incentives. Hence, civic associations can deepen democracy (2000, p. 180). Young thus presents a different argument than Putnam. Putnam concentrates on trust produced by civil society associations, which enhances people s feeling for the common good, Young focuses on how civil society associations contribute to the public sphere. Besides, she differentiates different types of associations and their functions Trust networks and governance In his recently published book, Charles Tilly offers a new perspective on the relation between trust and democracy. As many other authors, he objects to the causal relation between trust and democratic governance; Putnam s mechanism. Tilly indicates two misconceptions in Putnam s theoretical argument. In the first place, Putnam considers the more effective institutions to be the more democratic. Secondly, he treats organisational networks, social capital, norms of reciprocity, and sources of trust as inextricable concepts (2005, p. 132). In later work about the United States, Putnam argues that high levels of engagement limit the inclination to cheat, thus strengthening our better selves and improving the performance of institutions (Putnam in Tilly, 2005, p. 133). Tilly states that, based on Putnam s evidence, we cannot say more than: Within already relatively democratic regimes, people who engage in civic organizations (or perhaps only in organisations oriented to the public good) are more likely to meet their collective obligations, to press for better government performance, and to trust their fellow citizens. (Bermeo in Tilly, 2005, p. 133) Although this argument may well be true, it does not offer the causal nexus between trust and democracy. However, Tilly does acknowledge that trust plays an important role in democracies. He relates the concept of trust to the concept of risk. A person trusts another person if he puts a possible outcome at risk by relying on the abilities, and possible failures, of the other person. It is thus a relationship in which at least one actor places valued concerns at risk to another actor. Such relations usually concentrate, or cluster, in networks. In his words, trust networks consist of: 22

34 ramified interpersonal connections, consisting mainly of strong ties, within which people set valued, consequential, long-term resources and enterprises at risk to the malfeasance, mistakes, or failures of others. (Tilly, 2005, p.12) He argues that the relation between trust networks and public politics is of significant importance for democracies. The connection between trust networks and public politics varies, but we can roughly describe two extremes (Tilly, 2005, p. 23). On one side of the spectrum, trust networks operate isolated from any government interference and control. On the other side, the trust networks form part of the government. In between the extremes, Tilly differentiates a minimum of two degrees of separation or integration of trust networks in public politics. More on the separation side are trust networks that fall under a certain protection or the auspices of a regional authority. More on the integration side we find trust networks that closely connect with public political actors. Tilly lists a range of phenomena that indicate the integration of trust networks in public politics (2005, p. 10). These indicators all show a degree of readiness to a) make use of public services, b) transfer certain responsibilities to the state, and c) take a servile attitude towards the state. Examples are reliance on government funding, subventions, involvement in labour unions or other organisations that are to some extent independent from the government (2005, p. 35). Tilly uses Margaret Levi s way of thinking to explain the argument of integrated trust networks. Levi s model of contingent consent describes that citizens are more likely to comply with government demands, to the degree that: 1. citizens perceive the government to be trustworthy 2. the proportion of citizens complying (that is, the degree of ethical reciprocity ) increases, and 3. citizens receive information confirming governmental trustworthiness and the prevalence of ethical reciprocity (Levi, 1997, p. 21, in: Tilly, 2005, p. 19). The way individuals calculate the costs and benefits of their compliance is a cognitive process. For a citizen to decide to comply, he needs to trust the government and he wants to see that fellow citizens are, or should be, obliged to comply as well. Institutions, organisations, and social relations do not directly affect the readiness to comply, but they shape the information flow and thus the citizen s perception of the situation. The government can have influence though, but in the first point that is mentioned. A government that performs poorly is less trusted by its citizens. In that case, the citizens will not be inclined to comply. Tilly incorporates this consideration in his own work; this shows that the integration of trust networks in public politics counts. When trust networks become integrated, it means transference of responsibilities to state actors or the readiness to serve the state (as in military service). This indicates that citizens trust their government. Not associations per se hold the key to democratisation, but the relation between trust networks and public politics matters. However, a total integration of trust networks would lead to de-democratisation, because citizens would lack the means of contingent consent (2005, p. 35). Contrarily, when integrated trust networks break down and the situation tends to segregation, democracy weakens. Tilly distinguishes three processes, which integrate trust networks into public politics; dissolution of segregated trust networks, integration of previously segregated networks, and new creation of politically connected trust networks (2000, p. 136). These processes are conditions for democratisation, because then citizens become motivated to deal with possible downsides of democratic politics, instead of turning their backs in times of trouble. Although the integration of trust networks matters, as a sole condition it is not sufficient for democratisation. Tilly points out two other processes. In his opinion, democracy is 23

35 characterised by broad, equal, binding, and protective relations between the state and the citizenry. These relations are produced by integration of trust networks, but also by insulation of categorical inequalities and transformation of public politics. The transformation of public politics is understood as a change from an authoritarian, all compassing state to: a) broadening of political participation, b) equalisation of political participation, c) enhancement of collective control over government, and d) inhibition of arbitrary power by political actors, including agents of governments (Tilly, 2005, p. 136). Following Levi, Tilly explains that democracies require more trust than other forms of government. In democracies, citizens voluntarily transfer powers to representatives and public officials. This can only happen if citizens have considerable trust in these persons (2005, p. 133). Also, in democracies citizens collaborate with the government on the basis of commitment, while in other regime types citizens may cooperate by means of state coercion. This collaboration based on commitment also depends on the citizen s expectations that other citizens will perform the same duties such as paying taxes. Thus, a level of trust is necessary for democracy and fading of trust will weaken the democratic system. Relations between trust networks and public politics matter, and the connection will only work with contingent consent on the part of the members of trust networks (2005, p. 135). The concept of trust is used in this research to study the cohesiveness of the Roma community in the village and its relation with the local authorities. Following Levi and Tilly, political trust is distinguished from social trust, and the concept is related to risk. Social trust is defined as trust among individuals and groups, and it is indicated by the expectation that others will help you if you help them. Political trust is defined as the trust that individuals or groups put in state institutions and officials, which is indicated by the extent to which respondents think that the authorities will support them in case of personal problems, and the extent to which they think that the authorities will address problems in the village. 2.3 Institutions and organising practices Formal and Informal Institutions This section discusses the different meanings and functions of institutions to clarify their role in the set of theories on social capital, civil society, and governance. Institutions are generally defined as the rules of the game. However, theorists do not agree on the definition of institution. Appendini and Nuijten demonstrate how scientists from different disciplines or even from the same discipline have different notions of institutions in development theory (2002). First of all, they indicate the confusion about the concepts institution and organisation. Authors who want to distinguish organisations from institutions usually define organisations in structural terms, meaning that an organisation is recognised for its role in regulating functions. Institutions are defined in a normative way as the beliefs, norms and rules that make these roles and structures possible (Appendini & Nuijten, 2002, p. 72). This distinction is clarified by Jack Knight, who acknowledges that several entities can be understood seen as both institutions and organisations such as the church, a government bureaucracy or a firm, but these entities are subjected to rules: 24

36 First of all it is a set of rules that structure social interactions in particular ways. Second, for a set of rules to be an institution, knowledge of these rules must be shared by the relevant community or society (Knight, 1992, p.2, italics original). Whereas institutions are sets of rules that structure interaction among actors, organizations are collective actors who might be subject to institutional constraint. Organizations generally have an internal structure, an institutional framework governing the interactions of those persons who constitute the organization (Knight, 1992, p.3). Appendini and Nuijten subsequently point out a range of dichotomies that are used to categorise institutions. Of these dichotomies, the distinction between formal and informal institutions is important for this study. According to Appendini and Nuijten, authors use this distinction with reference to institutions originating from and enacted by respectively the state and the private sector. They claim that this dichotomy is not useful for understanding the meaning of institutions in the ordinary life of households, as many institutions are a mix of private-like and public-like institutions (2002, p. 72). Besides, although formal institutions may be enforced by the state, this does not imply that informal institutions are less important. Knight holds a similar view, pointing at an existing dichotomy between, in his words, law and society, which is often employed by theorists (1992, p.3). His broad definition of institutions is meant to reject this dichotomy, for it implies that the only institutions having structural effects are the formal, legal ones, which require enforcement by the state. However, social norms and conventions are self-enforcing institutions and do not need external authority. Sanctions for those who do not comply are informal and decentralised. These institutions have structural effects and therefore the dichotomy between law and society is a false one. Between externally enforced and self-enforcing institutions a wide range of institutions exists with mixed characteristics. Where Knight speaks of institutions and organisations that tend to merge, Deepa Narayan speaks of organisational forms of institutions. These can be distinguished from the more diffuse patterns of norms and behaviour about which there is consensus (Narayan, 2000, p.8). It means that people gather in more or less formal associations that produce their own set of rules. Next, the institutions that have an organisational form can be divided into state and civil society institutions. Like Knight, Narayan acknowledges that there is no dichotomy between the social and the political, but that boundaries are fluid and dynamic (ibid, p. 9). Institutions can have formal and informal aspects, with the effect that behaviour can be shaped by both explicit rules and procedures and by informal social conventions. State institutions include the police, the bureaucracy and different levels of government, while civil society institutions include kinship networks and associations like Putnam s bird watchinggroups. The term formal institution is usually related to state institutions, but it can also have the meaning of official or written down. On the other hand informal institution can mean institution belonging to the civil society or simply an unwritten code of behaviour. Putnam often speaks of state institutions when referring to the regional authorities (1993). This study will use the concept local authorities instead of local institutions and the term state institutions is used as generic term for all kinds of government bodies, ranging from the national to the local level. In sum: Informal institutions are operationalised as norms, attitudes and rules of behaviour, that originate outside the state. Formal institutions are operationalised as official rules and sanctions, thus originating from and enforced by government bodies. State institutions is a generic term for all government bodies, ranging from the national to the local level. 25

37 Drawing the debate to the local level, Nuijten and Appendini point out another dichotomy, namely between the local and extralocal institutions. They argue that it is sometimes impossible to make this distinction, as boundaries are never that strict. Therefore, they argue that the idea of local should refer to the embedding of larger-scale realities in specific contexts. The bottom-up approach in development policies gave a central role to local institutions, which we considered to connect the macro level to social actors at the communal level. However, they criticise the use of the concept of organisations and local institutions in development literature when they are used with reference to collective actions and goals. Some authors consider institutions as social units aiming to achieve collective goals or institutional needs. This use of the concept institution is problematic for the following reason: The concept of the institution as a normative and regulatory structure, however, automatically implies the existence of power differences and divergent interests among people involved in it. (2002, p. 72) Elsewhere, Nuijten describes how forms of organisation are fragmented and actors may not have collective goals (1998, p. 13). Appendini and Nuijten propose a conceptual framework that has flexible boundaries, instead of being persistent to rigid dichotomies that offer no space to the dynamics of social processes. In their perspective, institutions are negotiated orders that are built, sustained and changed by social interaction (ibid, p. 72). This means that institutions are subjected to existing power relations and domination and they can also reproduce these power inequalities. Appendini and Nuijten argue that it is necessary to use a flexible framework that grasps the complexity and diversity of institutional processes. Within this approach, the focus remains on social actions. They capture this focus on actors and social interaction in the concept of organising practices. Organising practices are defined as: the different action patterns and strategies that people follow to sustain and develop their daily subsistence and other life projects. ( ) These organising practices are often fragmentary rather than collective in nature. Over time, however, they may develop into ways of ordering and regularities. When in the course of time these organising practices become more structured and follow implicit rules, we can say that they become more institutionalized. (Appendini & Nuijten, 2002, p. 73) 2 The understanding that people do organise, but often in a fragmented manner and not resulting in collective projects, is crucial in this line of thinking. In many cases there is no common goal. Whether they are individual or collective, organising practices are part of the organising process (Nuijten, 1998, p.14). Thus, institutions are considered as further developed forms of organisation, but many people perform their activities outside such collective forms of organisation. Therefore, research on institutions and organisations should be complemented with studies on organising practices to reach full understanding of the relation between household activities and local institutions. Consequently, the conceptual framework they propose incorporates both institutions and organisations, organising practices, and the local institutional context. Such a flexible framework helps us understand that institutions do not exist in dichotomies, but they can range from established rules and norms to people s organising practices (2002, p. 84). This study will make use of such a flexible framework. Apart from collective forms of organisation, this study will pay attention to organising practices. Furthermore, the distinction formal vs. informal is used to indicate the origins of the institution. Formal institutions are designed by the state, whereas informal 2 The concept of organising practices is based on Nuijten s earlier work (1998). Using an actor-oriented interface approach, she focuses on processes around critical events. 26

38 institutions spring from society actors. It needs to be emphasised that this does not mean that informal institutions are less binding than formal institutions The Interface Perspective Although formal institutions are laid down in rules, laws, or formalised bodies, in reality, social processes may exist that alter the official function of these institutions. Stated differently, formal and informal institutions may interact in such a way, that the results are different from the anticipated outcomes. Narayan mentions the possible discrepancies between the formal and informal institutions. Examples are bribery or the Indian caste system; they can be officially prohibited but informally still be in use (2000, p.84). The problem is also pointed out by Douglas North, saying: We need to know much more about culturally derived norms of behavior and how they interact with formal rules to get better answers of such issues. (North, 1990, p.100, in Putnam, 1993, p.181). An analytical approach that can be very useful to study this problem is the interface perspective. The interface approach concentrates on the critical junctures where actors from different backgrounds meet and interact. It focuses on linkages and networks that develop between individuals and parties. It is thus an actor-oriented approach. Over time, continued interaction creates certain expectations and standardised patterns of interaction. Interaction is a social process, in which information or ideas about certain issues are communicated. In some cases this implies a sharing of information, in other cases the communication can be characterised as negotiation. Due to continued interaction, the interface may become an organised entity in itself, in which standardised patterns are developed. An advantage of this approach is that it leaves room for the complexity of social processes and power. Focusing on points where different opinions are confronted and social differences come to the surface, it must place these situations in a wider institutional setting that influences the interaction (Long, 1999, p.1). Central elements of the interface perspective are power, knowledge, and discursive process. In the words of Long: A major task of interface analysis is to spell out the knowledge and power implications of this interplay and the blending and segregation of opposing discourses. Discursive practices and competencies develop primarily within the circumstances of everyday social life and become especially salient at critical points of discontinuity between actors lifeworlds. It is through the lens of interface that these processes can best be captured conceptually. (Long, 2002, p.7) Originally, the interface perspective is used to analyse processes around development interventions, based on the assumption that the complexity of interface phenomena usually come to the forefront around critical events. Especially the implementation of large-scale projects by external actors brings together actors from various contexts, each bringing along their views and discourses. This situation can provoke social processes in which power, ideas and social rules are produced and reproduced. A broad horizon is created where knowledge is shared. The focus on interface helps to identify differences in world views, but also the conditions under which actors hold on to certain ideas. Knowledge is therefore a key element of the interface perspective; knowledge emerges as product of interaction, dialogue, reflexivity, and contest of meaning, and involves aspects of control, authority, and power (Long, 1999, p.3). Individuals or groups can employ certain discourses to promote their 27

39 interests, whether these are social, economical, or political. Regarding minority issues, we may assume that the state employs a certain discourse that aims to legitimise its actions concerning this minority, or to create a space for them in society. Ordinary citizens and members of the minority use different discourses, which all contribute to the position of the minority in society. Although the approach is actor-oriented, it does take structural influences into account. As was elaborated in section 2.1.3; Putnam was criticised for his limited attention for structural influences. Adopting an interface approach may serve to incorporate structural factors into this study. For this research I want to combine this interface approach with Appendini and Nuijten s institutional framework approach that does not limit institutions to fixed dichotomies. Studying Roma, their networks, and their interaction with the local authorities from an interface perspective serves to introduce the factor power into the analysis, a factor that was missing in social capital studies. Discourses are an important element of interface analysis, which help to understand issues on which the authorities and Roma disagree. This can provide insights on where informal and formal institutions do not connect. Methodologically, the interface perspective examines critical events such as interventions and the processes and discourses involved. The interaction between Roma and local authorities is studied according to this method, though critical events have been modified to critical issues. These are issues involving both Roma and the local authorities, which are sensitive for disagreement and tension Social Exclusion and power differences Social exclusion refers to the norms and processes that prevent certain groups from equal and effective participation in the social, economic, cultural and political life of societies (Narayan, 1999). A similar description is given by Lynn Bennett, also emphasising the restricted ability to participate in society (Bennett, 2003, p.12). In her words, social exclusion blocks mobility, it limits the exercise of effective agency for excluded individuals and groups. Ethnicity is one of many causes for social exclusion, which is often intertwined with poverty, stigmatisation or even intimidation and physical violence (Narayan, 2000, p ). Social exclusion that is based on ethnicity can be crucial to understand how access to resources is organised in a society (ibid, p.245). For this study I want to hold on to the emphasis on participation in different fields of society, whereas I would like to make some modifications to what factors prevent certain groups from participation. Using an institutional approach, norms could be captured under informal institutions. Social norms and institutions can dominate the interaction between dominant groups and ethnic minorities. Negative stereotypes and prejudices can form barriers for marginalised ethnic groups to come out of their excluded position in society. Also formal institutions can have an exclusionary design, for example when governments refuse to grant minority rights. However, Bennett comes to the same conclusion as Narayan when she writes about informal institutions. These tacit rules of society or deep structure institutions, as she calls them, are often more dominant than formal institutions. They are rooted in their contexts, meaning that they are far more influenced by history, culture and place than the public politics and formal institutions (Bennett, 2003, p.23). Apart from certain norms, processes, and formal institutions, poor socio-economic conditions may also prevent people from full participation in society. Hence, social exclusion is operationalised as the processes, institutions, and socioeconomic conditions that prevent certain groups from equal and effective participation in the social, economic, cultural and political life of societies. 28

40 Social exclusion thus describes the conditions of an individual or group, in this case the Roma minority, and how this individual or group is positioned in relation to others. It is therefore a relational concept. Power is a crucial factor in this relation. Most societies are stratified by different social groups, organised along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines. Power can be concentrated with one or a few groups, and institutions can reflect or even reinforce existing asymmetries (Narayan,1999, p.219 & 2000, p.84). Power asymmetries can become polarised when state institutions are not capable or not willing to provide a secure environment and social groups can react by providing security to their own members. Narayan frequently describes the lack of voice of poor people as an important cause of their poverty situation: Poor peoples experiences reflect fundamental inequities in power among different social groups, and the lack of bridges or horizontal linkages between those more powerful and those less powerful. It is no surprise that in this institutional environment the experiences of poor people are characterised by the lack of power and by voicelessness. (2000, p.266) Jack Knight parallels the asymmetries in power to asymmetries in the possession of resources. Power is defined in a working definition: To exercise power over someone or some group is to affect by some means the alternatives available to that person or group (Knight, 1992, p.41). Based on Steven Lukes work, this means that person A can affect the choices of B in B s interests, or to favour A s own interests that contrast B s interests. It can even mean that A is manipulating B s preferences so that B chooses to act in A s interests. Social exclusion as relational concept, which is affected by the factor power, must be placed in the context of a particular place and time. The interface perspective, as outlined in the previous section, pays attention to both power and context. It is therefore seen as a suitable approach to study social exclusion. Conclusions: towards an operationalisation of concepts Central to this research are the social processes that shape interaction between the Roma and local authorities. To explain different patterns of interaction, the research strategy builds upon the comparison of two villages. The villages, Nem a and Ogra, were selected on the basis of this distinction as explained in section The central research question can be depicted in a simple model, which gives a central position to the interaction between the most important actors. Figure 2.1 shows the central parties ; the Roma community and the local authorities. They are depicted as entities. The arrows (a) in the centre of the model reflect the existing interaction between the two entities. A crucial aspect of interaction is thus that it works in at least two ways; between two or more parties. In literature and NGO-reports the term Roma community is often used, but it is strongly debated whether this term is appropriate. The term community presupposes a sense of common identity and solidarity. However, the Roma minority is internally divided. The term community may refer to a certain area or location, as when a village or a particular neighbourhood is inhabited by Roma only; compact communities. However, not all Roma live together in segregated neighbourhoods or villages; they can live widely dispersed over towns without shared feelings of identity. In this study the term Roma community is used to indicate the geographic location in a village that is occupied by Roma, without the assumption that these Roma form a cohesive group. 29

41 Figure 2.1 A model of interaction (e) Local Authorities Politics Village situation (c) General economic conditions Social relations and power (d) Attitudes, capacities, power (a) Prevailing social/ political identities, ideas, and ideologies (b) Attitudes, capacities, power (e) Social processes Roma community 1) social networks 4) budget 2) leadership 5) laws and regulations 3) CBOs 6) manpower Local authorities is defined as the local level state institution, which is responsible for the local administration of a village and the implementation of policies at the local level. In this study, the term local authority also refers to the different officials. The term local authorities is used for the collective of the mayor, vice-mayor, members of the local council, and other officials responsible for the administration of the village. Patterns of interaction are shaped by various processes. At the level of the Roma communities we refer to these as social processes. Here we study phenomena that were elaborated in this chapter; bonding social capital, forms of cooperation and trust. To incorporate the factor power, much attention is directed at the community structure. Numbers 1 3 are examples of such processes. At the level of the local authorities we may call these processes politics. These are marked by numbers 4-6 and represent the way authorities deal with budgetary constraints, laws and regulations, and the available manpower. Social and political processes within the entities shape their attitudes towards one another, their capacity to interact, and a balance of power. On the part of the Roma, influence of social processes is captured in arrow (b), and arrow (c) visualises the influence of politics on the part of the local authorities. 30

42 Furthermore, this relation is greatly influenced by the socio-economic situation in the village, in which it is embedded. The village has particular economic conditions, such as employment opportunities and resources. Also, certain social relations exist in the village. In other words, Roma occupy a certain social space in the village, which is marked by their relation with the majority population. Power, and power differences, is again an important factor that influences social relations. In addition, villagers and members of the authorities hold particular ideas and ideologies about Roma. In this respect we have to study different discourses that are used or Roma. Each of these conditions influences the interaction between Roma and local authorities. This is reflected in arrow (d). Secondly, the conditions in the village have direct influence on the local authorities and the Roma community as actors, which is represented by two arrows (e). Poor economic conditions may lead to exclusion from participation in cultural events, and nationalistic ideologies that preach what is Romanian may lead to exclusion based on ethnic reasons. Such a position of social exclusion has consequences for the way they organise or for their capacity to represent their interests. The same ideologies can influence the perspectives of local officials on participation of ethnic minorities. The following chapter outlines the wider context of the situation of the Roma in Romania, after which we turn to the chapters that contain the empirical data that was collected during fieldwork in the villages Ogra and Nem a. 31

43 3. Roma as ethnic minority in Romania Picture: Roma children staning on the doorstep of a house in Ogra s Roma quarter. 32

44 Introduction The Romanian Roma population is characterised by differences and diversity. All social and political changes in Romania s history have had profound impact on their lifestyles and living conditions. Studying their history, one can see that they have categorically been discriminated and subordinated. While the imperial regimes actively sought to break Roma traditions and culture, the communist regime tried to assimilate them through ignoring ethnic differences. Although the democratic government invented many institutions and policies to integrate the Roma after 1989, most of them still live in severe poverty and their ethnic identity is attached to negative stereotypes. This chapter will describe the position of the Roma in Romania, starting from a historical perspective in the first section, followed by a section describing their socio-economic situation. The final section discusses Romanian state institutions, laws and policies that are important for this research. 3.1 On the margins throughout history Based on linguistic research it is thought that the Roma originally come from the Punjabi region in northern India. They probably left this region in the sixth century, because of repeated invasions by Muslims, but the exact reason why they left the Indian subcontinent is debated (Barany, 2002, p.9). Moving over Persia, Armenia and the Byzantine Empire, they arrived in Europe by the 13 th century. They moved from the southern Balkans to what is now the former republic of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania, reaching Poland around the 16 th century. While many settled along the way, large groups kept on moving or settled for a short period of time, but were forced to migrate again due to political and economic circumstances. When exactly they arrived in Romania is debated as well. The Romanian Bogdan Petriceicu Ha deu translated and analysed several documents belonging to the Tismana monastery archives between 1867 and One of these, dating from 1387, indicated that the Roma had been in the region Wallachia for almost a hundred years (Cedime-se, 2001, p. 5). In the regions Moldavia and Wallachia, the Roma have been enslaved for centuries (Barany, 2002, p.85) and by the 15 th century slavery was institutionalised and last for hundreds of years (Ringold, Orenstein & Wilkens, 2004, p. 89). They were owned by the Orthodox Church, the monasteries, the Crown or private landowners and named after who owned them. Although the term igan was originally a neutral name, it became the synonym for slave (Gheorghe, 1991, p. 834). From 1503, Moldavia and Wallachia fell under the Ottoman Empire. The situation of the Roma was better under Turkish rule. The Turks established a socio-political system in which religious and ethnic groups were tolerated and allowed self-administration. Systematic repressive policies and legislation were widespread elsewhere in Europe, but not in the Ottoman Empire (Barany, 2002, p. 92). Roma were still seen as subordinate though. Turks despised them not because of their ethnicity, but because they saw them as less reliable and trustworthy than other groups. At the end of the 17 th century the attitude of the Turks toward the Roma hardened (2002:85). The population in cities was divided in guilds and Roma enslavement now began to be integrated with turning peasant into serfs (Cedime-se, 2001, p.5). They were named both after who owned them and after the crafts they made. There were those that worked in houses ( igani de casa) and those that worked the land ( igani de ogor), Roma owned by the Crown (sclavi curte) or the Romanian Orthodox church (sclavi manastire ti). Slaves owned by the Crown were also named after their craft or trade; Lingurari made wooden spoons and Ursari were bear trainers. These names even persist today and in Romania exist 40 names that originally derive from a certain craftsmanship. 33

45 The Austro-Hungarian Empire subjected the Roma living in the region Transylvania to severe assimilation policies. They were not allowed to speak the Romani language and wear traditional dresses, it was forbidden to call one self Roma, and they were called Uj Magyar; new Hungarian. They did not have the same freedoms as other ethnic groups, in contrast with the Ottoman Empire. Grave discrimination and violence against Roma prevailed (Cedime-se, 2001, p.6). Assimilationist policies were strengthened under the Hapsburg Empire; Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II were keen on educating Roma to be civilised and settled, and to be subordinated to the absolute monarch. Maria Theresa ordered that five-year-old children were taken from their homes to be raised in foster families and marriage between Roma was forbidden. Several decrees were issued that limited the Roma to move and to own horses and wagons. Joseph II later extended these policies to Transylvania. In the beginning of the 19 th century, new ideas on freedom spread through Europe and slavery was considered barbaric. Eventually, the Moldavian Assembly voted to abolish slavery in 1855, followed by the same vote by the Wallachian Assembly the next year. The two principalities were now united and ruled by Prince Ioan Couza, who reinstated the Roma legally as free people in 1864 (Cedime-se, 2001, p. 6). Many Roma now migrated to Western Europe and those that stayed found that their situation had not improved very much in practice. They were left with no land and sources of income, which forced them to take up low-paid jobs and this continued their low status in society. As a consequence, many of them sold themselves again to their previous masters. From 1856 to 1933, the Roma were merely ignored; no special Gypsy laws were enacted and the situation remained by and large the same. However, Europe was changing dramatically. The end of the First World War led to a redrawing of boundaries on the European map, which demarcated the end of the imperial era. Transylvania now became part of the Romanian territory and for this the Romanian state was obliged to respect international human rights agreements (Cedime-se, 2004, p. 7). However, the state had a strong nationalistic view and according to this view minorities should at least be integrated. Ethnic Hungarians were considered most troublesome to the Romanian state, whereas Roma, lacking a written history or culture, were not officially recognised as a minority. They were therefore not entitled to the same rights as other minorities. The Romanian Constitution of 1923 recognised minority rights in accordance with international agreements, but policies did do no more than providing guidelines for a process to Romanise minorities (Barany, 2002: 100). The 1929 depression was followed by a more nationalist and oppressive regime in the thirties (Ringold et al., 2004, p. 90). After several decades in which the state did not enact Roma-oriented policies, a series of anti-roma legislation was produced and prejudice against Roma increased. The upcoming fascists fuelled these anti-roma feelings. Barany describes how also the socio-economic position of the Roma deteriorated in several countries in the interbellum period (2002, p.93). They were no longer competitive on the labour markets, because their traditional skills could not be used in the up-coming industrialisation. Their situation worsened by increasing social marginalisation. The situation of many peasants was not much better though. The collapse of the word grain market and the following depression had very negative consequences for the agrarian sector and many peasants were as poor as the Roma (2002, p. 98). Marshall Ion Antonescu was leading the pro-nazi government in Romania during the Second World War. The government was extremely hostile against minorities and particularly anti-roma. Like Jews, they were targeted with discriminating policies (Ringold et al., 2004, p. 7). It is estimated that between 25,000 and 36,000 Roma were deported to the Transnistria region between 1941 and Most of them were (assumed) criminals and Roma who lived a nomadic life style. Only few survived the Nazi measures of ethnic cleansing in the camps. After World War II had come to an end, the Soviet Union gained more and more influence in Romania. Stalin wanted to use the national minorities as a means for 34

46 undermining anti-communism in Romania (Crow in Ringold et al., 2004, p. 91). As a consequence, minorities were promised improved rights and many members of minority groups joined the Romanian Communist Party in order to gain a good position in the communist administration. According to Ringold (2000:89) the socialist era brought some opportunities in the form of employment, education and social housing, but these policies were rather assimilationist and were accompanied by political repression. This created mistrust between Roma and state institutions that is still felt today. Barany describes how minority policies were first directed from Moscow, but when Soviet supervision weakened in the 1960s they started to differ from country to country (2002: 113). At least until the mid- 1950s the Soviet leaders were superior over the political leaders in the East European countries. Roma culture and way of life strongly deviated from the homogeneous, socialist worker society these leaders had in mind. They were a potential obstacle to the socialist ideology; a threat to the system. Thus, it became a priority to solve the Gypsy problem and to transform the Roma in productive, socialist citizens. At first this goal would be achieved by simply putting the Roma to work. Party politics then pursued policies to facilitate this process: dispersal of compact communities and forced re-settlement, compulsory education and wagelabour (Barany, 2002, p.114). Romania was the first state that intended to settle Roma by force; horses and wagons were confiscated in 1946 and compact communities dispersed in 1951 (2002, p. 120). In all states it was a problem which administrative status to give to the Roma, since they had no common language, territory or motherland, they were generally unaware of their history and did not have one culture. Therefore, many states did not grant them social and cultural institutions such as the ethnic Hungarians in several countries (2002, p. 115). Especially from the 1960s, the communist regime took action to break their traditional inferior culture and then actively ignored their existence. They were settled by force, they did not have the right to represent themselves as ethnic minority and unlike the Hungarians and Saxons- were prohibited to promote their own cultural traditions. Large groups of people, not only Roma, were moved from one side of the country to the other in order to destroy cultural roots and attachment to a certain location and people. Nationalism became the number one ideological tool to oppose the Soviet Union and to prove Romania s independence. From the 1960s nobody could be a patriot or a nationalist besides within the party (Pons in Cedime-se, 2004:7) and the idea of a homogeneous Romanian society was introduced. It was called a process of the unique socialist worker by the communist regime, but actually it was their strategy to enforce assimilation and eliminate ethnic minorities. Policies did not have only negative impacts. As to all people, the state provided the Roma with work in factories, the mines and on the collective farms. Traditional crafts and trading became forbidden, for all private occupations were not in concordance with the communist ideology. This might have been force, but many Roma benefited from the small incomes and social security, something they did not have before. Education was compulsory and the schools were obliged to maintain relations with the parents to keep their children in school. This was good on the on hand, because now Roma had access to education. It had also negative consequences though; due to discrimination many children started to deny their ethnic identity and because the schools were obliged to let pupils graduate in seven classes, they were given certificates even when they could not read or write. Thus, the quality of education remained low and school merely produced unqualified workers that remained unemployed (Cedime-se, 2001, p. 8). In the mid-1970s the Romanian state renewed the assimilationist campaign, putting again the emphasis on education and labour. The new campaign included the confiscation of golden coins that were often the Roma s only valuable possessions, the prohibition of traditional meetings and the assignment of more Roma to factory work. The regime took up 35

47 an aggressive nationalistic course from the late 1970s, in order to overcome its legitimacy crisis (Horváth, 2002, p.20). Under Ceau escu, Romania was one of the most repressive dictatorships in the region. The state ideology became increasingly nationalistic, but Hungarians who formed a larger threat to the state. Ethnic Hungarians were much larger in number and much more cohesive than the Roma. The Roma minority received therefore less attention than in countries like Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, both conservative communist states until 1989 like Romania (Barany, 2002:124). Forced assimilation and settlement did continue. The quickly deteriorating economic conditions during the last years of communism led to widespread poverty. Many Roma then sought their survival in illegal activities, which intensified prejudice against them (Ringold et al., p.91). The fall of Ceau escu s regime and transition to democracy brought Roma new opportunities. Now they were allowed to organise, to move, to take up old trades and to express their identity. International actors as the Council of Europe and the European Union expressed their concern and influenced national policies for minorities. For these reasons, some say that the Roma are the great winners of transition. 3 However, for many Roma the fall of the communist regime meant the loss of secured jobs, health services and sometimes housing. The collective farms were abolished and the land was given back to the previous owners. Before the state had confiscated all land, none of the Roma had owned any property. Law 18/1991 on Land and Estate stipulates that each family should receive a piece of land. People who had worked a number of years on the collectives would receive 0,50 hectares, but not everyone did. When factories stopped part of their production or closed completely, Roma were the first to be fired and were left with nothing. Roma have been affected more severely than the majority population by trends of rising unemployment and growing poverty. Moreover, their access to education, housing, health care and social assistance is limited (Ringold et al., 2004, p.91). As child allocation was only implemented in 1993 and social welfare in , most Roma families had nothing to live from for a few years. After the economic downfalls of 1993, but especially the one of 1996, the Roma were affected most and this worsened their marginal situation. 5 Regarding interethnic relations, old Roma stereotypes strengthened. In the opinion of István Horváth, the Roma were increasingly stigmatised due to the changes in the economic system. Practically everybody was stealing from the field that belonged to nobody during the times of the collectives. Roma continued this practice after the land was given back and had become private property and now they were real thieves in the eyes of the majority. 6 Besides this, the Roma became attached to the black economy and to low-paid jobs that the majority of the population would not like to do. During these years the mass media was giving much negative attention to the Roma. Also, Roma moving to Western Europe were blamed to give Romania a bad image. Altogether, this contributed to the strengthening of stereotypes and prejudice against Roma in the first years of transition. The years directly after the Revolution were marked by ethnic violence, especially between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians, but also involving Roma. There have been cases of mob violence against Roma and murder. In many occasions the violent conflicts between Roma and the majority was not provoked by Roma, but the media did give this representation of events. Romania received much criticism for adopting a passive attitude to violence against Roma. After another case of violence in Racsa in 1994, the government s response improved. 3 Interview with Dan Oprescu, Bucharest, Dan Oprescu is the former Director of the National Office for Roma and is now working as senior advisor for the National Agency for Roma 4 Law 416/2001 on the Minimum Income Guarantee, Art. 35. Published by the Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family (2001), retreived from the world wide web on from 5 Interview with Lazlo Peter, Faculty of Sociology at the Babes-Bolyai Univerity, Cluj-Napoca, Interview István Horváth, lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology at the Babes-Bolyai Univerity, Cluj-Napoca

48 Aggressors were not only persecuted and arrested, but the government openly condemned such incidents (Barany, 2002, p.316). After 1989, the presidency became a very strong, powerful institution in Romania and nationalism was the pillar of the new regime. According to Horvath: Nationalism in the first years of transition can be seen as an instrument to legitimise and symbolically exercise authority, rather than as a mindful, nationalising scenario (2002, p.28). This nationalism was mainly aimed against the large Hungarian minority, which was strongly united in the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR). The first President, Ion Ilienescu, stayed in position until He was supported by the nationalistic parties and his government sometimes used anti-minority sentiments in political parties and society for its own good. He did not condemn the violence against Roma in the early 1990s and here fore he is strongly criticised. In the first years of transition, support for Roma thus did not come from the President (Barany, 2002, p. 283). Iliescu s government was rather concerned about the presence of ethnic Hungarians and activity of the DAHR. In Oprescu s opinion, minority policies in the early nineties were designed to keep control over this group and to annex other minority organisations to the governmental policy (2000, p.73). The elections in 1996 brought the democratic opposition to power, but the following governments under President Emil Constantinescu were unable to improve the economic situation in the country. The discontent with Constantinescu was reflected in the 2000 elections, when Ion Iliescu and his social democrats won again. Iliescu s attitude toward the Roma issue had changed, however, and in 1999 his party signed an electoral agreement with the largest Roma Party, Partida Rromilor. In 2004, they had to make place for the liberals and Traian Basescu became President (Barany, 2002, p.288). This President needs to pay considerable attention to the Roma, now that accession to the European Union is at hand. Section 3.3 and 3.4 discuss policies and measures that are directed to ethnic minorities. Thus, following the historical developments and successive regimes, we see how Roma faced continuous subordination, forced integration and forced assimilation. All regimes suppressed the voice of the Roma, which seems to have enduring effects on their position in Romania. Second, they were deprived them of their possessions and chances to participate in the economy. Worsening economic conditions under communist rule together with continuous stigmatising resulted in their marginal situation at the time the communist regime fell. Transition to democracy brought new opportunities and freedoms, but a large share of the Roma population still lives on the margins of society. Although some Roma jumped into the economic niches that emerged after communism, most of them were left with nothing. Poor socio-economic conditions faced by many of them make them an extremely vulnerable group in Romania. The following section will discuss their socio-economic conditions and their position in politics in detail. 3.2 Social Exclusion of the Roma In Chapter 2 was discussed that ethnicity can be a reason for social exclusion. Although Roma do form part of the Romanian society, many of them do not have equal chances and assets to participate in all fields of this society. As indicated, social exclusion is seen as both poor conditions and processes that prevent people from equal participation in society. This section therefore elaborated on their socio-economic conditions and their relationship with the majority population. The lack of accurate data on the number of Roma makes it complicated to present other data on their living conditions, educational attainment, and health status. All these figures are based on estimations. 37

49 Income and Employment Several studies were undertaken to the income and related poverty level of the Roma. In 2000, the Centre for Comparative Research of the Sociology Department at the Yale University carried out a comprehensive research in Central and East European (CEE) countries, differentiating between ethnic groups and oversampling the Roma population. This created the possibility to draw comparisons between different ethnic groups. To identify the Roma, three categories of respondents were used: self-identification, identification by others and identification by the researcher (Ra, 2005, p. 6). 7 According to the Yale dataset, 66% of the self-declared Roma households lived below the income poverty line, 54% of the households that were considered Roma by the interviewer and 25% of the non-roma households (Ra, 2005, p. 12). 8 Ringold, Orenstein and Wilkens conducted a World Bank study on the Roma in four countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain) in 2004, using mainly the Yale dataset and complementing the data with qualitative fieldwork. Ringold calculated that 37.6% of the Romanian Roma is living below the $2.15 (PPP) international poverty line, compared with 7.3% of the non-roma population (2004, p.27) 9. When taking the $4.30 (PPP) poverty line, 68.8% of the Roma is living below this level, compared with 29.5% of the non-roma (2004, p. 29). In 2004, the European Commission, in cooperation with UNDP and the World Bank, conducted a large study in a number of East European countries with the aim to design country profiles for the situation of the Roma. They calculated that 69% of the Roma population is living below the $4.30 poverty line, compared to 22% of the majority population (UNDP, 2004, p. 52). Compared with Ringold s study, one can observe that the relative number of Roma living below the $4.30 poverty line has increased, while the relative number of non-roma living below this line has become smaller. It is just as difficult to give accurate data on the employment situation for Roma. Again the lack of data on the number of Roma is a problem, but there are a few other reasons that make estimations less reliable. First of all, many Roma are working in the informal sector and if the informal sector is flourishing they may be working many days a year, while officially being unemployed. Second, unemployment figures registered at the labour offices do not specify for ethnicity (Ringold et al., 2004, p.39; UNDP, 2003). According to the 2003 UNDP/ RBEC report, involvement in the informal sector in Romania is particularly high when compared to other countries. Unemployment rates for Roma in Romania are relatively low, but on the other hand there is much involvement in informal sector activities. Many Roma work as daily workers on land belonging to Romanians or ethnic Hungarians, others collect garbage and waste materials or find a temporary job in neighbouring countries. The 2003 study tells that one out of every four Roma is unemployed. Of those involved in income generation activities, less than one in three obtains employment in the formal sector. The UNDP study from 2004 is one of few that present statistical data on unemployment. In this study labour force is defined as the working-age population (age 15 and above), excluding people who are retired, in school and/or involved with housekeeping (UNDP, 2004, p.53). A short overview is presented in Table 3.1. In the age group 15-24, 46% 7 Cristina Ra is working for the Research Centre on Interethnic Relations at the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj- Napoca, Romania. Her PhD-research concentrates on social policies. 8 The median total income is 700 RON (ca. 35 or PPP$) and the income poverty threshold is set on 420 RON (ca. 21 or 61.5 PPP$) 9 The World Bank and UNDP have accepted $ 4.30 as a poverty line for comparison across countries. Adjustment to PPP accounts for the differences in price level over countries. 38

50 of the Roma is unemployed compared to 33% of the majority. This difference is bigger in the age group 25-54; 25 % of the Roma is unemployed against 8% of the majority. The biggest difference is in the age group 55 and older; of the Roma 34% is unemployed versus 12% of the majority population. Table 3.1. Unemployment rates for the majority population and Roma Age-group Majority Roma > Source: UNDP, 2004, p. 53 Education The 2003 UNDP report lists a number of impediments to the enrolment of Roma children in education; first of all poverty, followed by early marriage and births, the isolation of Roma communities, the collapse of the centralised educational opportunities, the growing role of ethnicity in the education system, and language problems (UNDP, 2003). Some families do not have the means to provide their children with proper clothes, school materials and even food, which enables the children to go to school. Also, many children have to help their parents in labour activities and especially girls are kept home to look after the young ones. Some of their houses are so small and dark that children cannot make their assignments at home and parents that did not enjoy education are unable to assist them. Language can be another problem; if children are brought up with the Romani language, they can have difficulties to adopt the Romanian language, which makes learning at school difficult right from the start. All these factors explain the differences in educational attainment shown in Table 3.2. Even when attending school, a number of problems may occur that make a Roma child leave school. School and class segregation is a problem now receiving attention from the Ministry. There are many cases in which a school has special classes or repetitive classes for children that did not perform well in class, sometimes even in a small building apart from the normal school. In these classes most of the children, if not all, are Roma. Discrimination by the staff is another problem. It occurs that Roma children are placed in these classes without having low results, but because of Romanian parents that do not like their children to be in the same class as the Roma (Ringold et al., 2004, p.46). In another situation the Roma children have to sit in the last rows of the classroom, not receiving as much attention of the teacher as Romanian children do. As many Roma live geographically separated from the majority, there is a large number of schools in poor areas that have become ghetto schools. These schools are less equipped and the buildings are ran down, sometimes lacking a heating system Interview Maria Ursu, Resource Centre for Roma Communities, Cluj-Napoca,

51 Table 3.2. Educational attainment of the Roma and the majority population Figures in percentages of the respective group Educational Attainment Non-Roma Roma Primary or below No education Incomplete primary Complete primary Secondary education Completed primary and apprenticeship Incomplete general secondary Completed general secondary Secondary and vocational Higher education 10.4 (complete and incomplete) Including post-secondary and university No answer Source: Yale dataset; Revenga et.al (2002), in: Ringold et al. (2004), p.42 Of the Roma, 13.4% has no education at all and 27% did not graduate from primary school. Together these percentages are higher than the percentage of Roma that did graduate eight grades. This lack of education decreases chances on the labour market. Health The population growth of the Roma is higher than the rest of the population, which makes the Roma population on average younger than the majority (Ringold et al., 2004, p. 49). Although the vaccination of contraceptive is free, it is not widely used by women. Comparing to western countries, it is much more common to use abortion as contraceptive method, a practice inherited from the communist times. Data on the health status of the population that is disaggregated for ethnicity is scarce, but we can assume that the state of health of the Roma is considerably lower than the health status of the majority population. The life expectancy of Roma is lower, the rate of infant mortality is higher and more Roma are suffering from epidemic/ communicable diseases as tuberculosis and hepatitis (Ringold et al., 2004, p.48). This situation is strongly related to their living conditions and poverty, as many don t have access to sanitation and hygiene, and lack of nutritious food. According to the 2003 UNDP study, 88% if the Roma has no access to improved sanitation, compared to 53% of the majority and 68% of the Roma has no access to improved water sources, whereas this share of the majority is 33%. In the case of illness, not all people can find or receive what they need. According to the same UNDP study, 42% of the majority population does not have access to essential medication, which is already a significant number. For the Roma, this percentage is even higher; 77%. For many Roma exists a range of problems that limit their access to health care. 40

52 Families receiving social allowance also receive an insurance packet on minimum health care; they do not pay a contribution and buy medicines for half price. However: Eligibility for non-contributory health insurance is conditional on access to social support, the eligibility criteria for which can be affected by various administrative practices, potential exclusion errors, possible discriminatory denials, and insufficient information. ( ) Romania's social security system also creates "hidden impediments" to supplying social services. Access to social support is conditioned on the apparently neutral requirements of permanent residence and possession of appropriate identity documents. Large parts of the Roma population however do not have identity documents and consequently cannot be registered as permanent residents. Some government employees refuse to consider the temporary structures in which Roma often live as habitable dwellings and deny Roma permanent resident status on these grounds. (UNDP, 2003). Discrimination by medical personnel is another problem. Many Roma have reported to be discriminated by doctors and other medical staff; they are denied access to the hospital or have to wait all day long in the waiting room. Others cannot afford to bring the necessary money or gifts that medical staff is used to receive in return for direct treatment. 11 Relations with the majority The relation between the Roma and the majority was rather tensed after during the first years after 1989, resulting in several instances of violence against Roma. After 1995, clashes like these occurred rarely and nowadays they do not seem to reappear. The frequency and quality of the contact between Roma and the majority varies from location to location. Contact depends on the geographic location of the Roma living area and their socio-economic conditions (Ringold et al, 2004, p. 116). According to Ringold, a strong indication of lack of trust between the groups is the lasting geographical distance between Roma neighbourhoods and the rest of the village. The majority population is often prejudiced against the Roma. This is reflected in the Ethnobarometer ; a survey on interethnic relations, which was conducted in Romania and Hungarians had to fill in characteristics of Roma and other ethnic or national minorities. Several of results of this survey are shown in Table 3.3. As we can see, Romanians and Hungarian share negative stereotypes about Roma. Negative characteristics 1 to 4 do not even score very high; the highest score is 20.9% of Romanians saying Roma are thieves. Table 3.3 Stereotypes of Romanian Roma Characteristics Romanians Hungarians 1. Roma are lazy Roma are thieves Roma are dirty Roma are backward Roma are intelligent Roma are trustful Roma are hard-working Roma are clean Source: Culic, Horváth and Ra, 2000, p Interview with Ioana Etves, Resource Centre for Roma Communities, Cluj-Napoca,

53 However, when we compare the first characteristic (Roma are lazy) with the seventh characteristic (Roma are hard-working) we see that 16.1% of the Romanians think they are lazy. One would think that the remaining 83.9% would say they are hard-working, but the result is far from positive; only 1.4% of the Romanians think Roma are hard-working people. As we have seen in this section, the negative attitude toward Roma is reflected in discriminative behaviour in various sectors. This can have a directly deteriorating effect on the living conditions of the Roma. Box 3.1 shows five different discourses, which are used in Romania when speaking of the Roma population. 12 We see that ordinary citizens and certain state institutions speak negatively about Roma, which is reflected in the media. State institutions include the police and usually lower level institutions such as regional and local authorities, which are more often confronted with actual problems at the local level, and Roma issues. Important for the next section is the Human Rights discourse, which is to some extent dictated by the European Union and Council of Europe and largely reproduced by the state. Box 3.1 Roma in different discourses Roma in different discourses 1. Ordinary discourse: The first is the discourse of the Romanian population in general, which mainly reproduces negative stereotypes and prejudices about Roma. People view the Roma as one, homogenous, ethnic group of which most members are criminals. 2. Academic discourse: Rather narrow, of which one component deals with the Roma traditions and folklore and another component with the Roma as a socialeconomic disadvantaged group. This discourse is influenced by the third: 3. Civil society discourse: this discourse can be distinguished in a) Roma NGO produced elite and b) the non-roma civil society that approaches the Roma issue not as an ethnic one, but as a social issue in which also Roma are represented. 4. Criminal discourse: produced by certain formal institutions, especially the police, and reproduced by the media, which influences the first discourse. 5. Human Rights discourse: mainly used by the state institutions. The last couple of years, the Romanian government created several institutions to promote human rights and fight discrimination. According to Peter, this is taught by the European Union and Council of Europe, and taken over by the Romanian government. 12 Interview with Lazlo Peter, Faculty of Sociology at the Babes-Bolyai Univerity, Cluj-Napoca,

54 3.3 State institutions for minorities This section presents an outline of the most important state institutions for Roma and minorities in general. All state institutions that deal with minority issues developed after the fall of the communist regime. The European Union became an important actor guiding this process, putting pressure on the Romanian state. Therefore, this sections starts with an account of Romania s European integration, after which we turn to the national state institutions on minorities. The last sections discuss laws and policies that were of particular relevance for this research European Integration From 1993, the Romanian foreign policy became more oriented to Western integration. The first step was to sign the Europe Agreement with the European Union in February 1993, the second to be admitted to the Council of Europe (CoE) (Horváth, 2002, p. 36). To become member of the CoE, the Romanian state had to institutionalise a dialogue between the minorities and the government. As a result, the Council for National Minorities (CforNM) was established; a consultative body composed of representatives of 16 national minorities and 12 ministries, which have to discuss minority issues and make recommendations to the government. 13 The DAHR opposed CforNM and soon withdrew from the Council, blaiming the government that it actually wanted to contain minority actions. The battle between DAHR and the government continued and DAHR submitted a Memorandum to the CoE about the misbehaviour of the Romanian state. Notwithstanding; on the 7 th of October 1993, the CoE Committee of Ministers invited Romania for membership. A list of conditions and recommendations was included in Romania s application such as the recommendations to implement legislation on national minorities and education and the signing of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Horváth, 2002, p. 38). A number of East European states, including Romania, placed the Roma issue high on the agenda after In Barany s opinion, this is due to the pressure of international organisations, especially the European Union and its related bodies (Barany, 2002, p. 2002:324). Besides this pressure, it is clear that the reason for increased attention for Roma issues is the will to join the European Union. In an interview Dan Oprescu commented: Big Brother EU is watching you. When in the beginning of the nineties they wanted orphans, we did orphans. Now they want Roma; so we do Roma. We knew that from there the money would come and it would be the only way to become member. 14 In May 1998 Romania signed a partnership with the European Union to start preparations for future EU-membership. This Accession Partnership is meant to assist the Romanian government in fulfilling the accession criteria: The objective of the Accession Partnership (adopted in March 1998 and amended in December 1999, January 2002 and May 2003) is to place within a legislative framework the working priorities set out in the road map and the Commission's 2003 Regular Report on progress towards accession, the financial resources available to help Romania implement these priorities, and the conditions which apply to this aid. This partnership underpins a range of instruments to support candidate countries in the accession process (EC, 2005). 13 Government Decision 137/1993 on the Structure and Functioning of the Council for National Minorities 14 Interview with Dan Oprescu, National Agency for Roma, Bucharest,

55 A list of priorities is set to which the European Union directs communal funds to support Romania s activities. Under the headline of Political criteria, attention is focused on improvement of the judiciary, fight against corruption, child protection, protection of individual freedoms and integration of the Roma. Concerning the Roma, the short term priority is implementing a strategy for improving the social and economic situation of the Romanies and providing adequate financial assistance to schemes benefiting minorities (EC, 2005). In April 2005, Romania signed the treaty to become member state in January If the government does not attain enough results on the set priorities, the EU can decide to postpone Romania s membership with one year. Support from three important financial instruments (Phare, ISPA and SAPARD) concentrate on the priorities laid down in the Accession Partnership. Each instrument is directed to certain sectors. Phare is the one that directs money to Roma programmes. From Romania received 2.1 billion Euro trough Phare, of which 242 million from and million in Creation and transformation of state institutions for minorities Dan Oprescu describes in his article the gradual emergence of minority institutions after 1989 (2000, p ). It has become quite a complex story due to several reorganisations, after which different institutions were renamed or replaced. In April 1993, the Council for National Minorities was created (CforNM) in order to qualify for CoE accession. After the 1996 elections, DAHR became a partner in the government coalition. DAHR influenced the set up of the Department for the Protection of National Minorities (DPNM) as a separate Ministry in November 1996, in which the National Office for the Roma (NOR) was installed. Headed by Dan Oprescu, this office started to work on the strategy to improve the conditions of the Roma from 1998, as was laid down in the Accession Criteria. Romania was supported with 2 million Euro from European Union Phare to write this strategy in CforNM was renamed Council of National Minorities (CNM) and never collaborated very well with DPNM. Finally, the Strategy of the Government of Romania for the Improvement of the Condition of the Roma (from here; the Strategy) was adopted in 2001 with a term of 10 years. 16 A condition set by Phare was the creation of the Inter-ministerial Committee for National Minorities (ICNM) in August 1998, in which an Inter-ministerial Subcommission for the Roma (ISR) is set up. ISR is chaired by the Chief of NOR. Several Roma organisations united in the Working Group of Roma Associations (GLAR) in 1999 and signed a Protocol with DPNM, thus establishing a partnership with the government. In the ISR the number of GLAR experts is equal to the number government representatives and they have the same rights (Oprescu, 2000, p. 80). Barany and Oprescu agree that the different Ministries do not share the same attitudes toward the Roma and thus differ in how they want to take actions. The Ministry of Education has quite a promising attitude for example, while the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Child Protection and Agriculture are more conservative (Barany, 2002, p. 304; Oprescu, 2000, p.79). DPNM was reorganised after the 2000 elections. It was transformed to the Department of Interethnic Relations (DIR) and, together with NOR, moved under the authority of the Ministry of Public Information. From here, both bodies were moved to the Secretary General of the Government in 2003 and NOR was renamed Office for Roma Issues (ORI). NOR and DIR originally functioned separately, but in March 2004 ORI was subordinated under DIR. 15 Government Decision 459/ Government Decision 430/ 25 April

56 In October 2004, ORI was abolished altogether and replaced by the National Agency for Roma (NAR), which is established directly under the Secretary General of Government and as such still functioning today. NAR has its own legal status and budget and, having the status of Agency, NAR is headed by a Secretary of State and thus has more potential to influence the government. At the county (district) and local level, several institutions exist, which were created under the Strategy of the Government of Romania for Improving the Condition of the Roma. The Strategy contains list of activities in 10 sectors and Masterplan of Measures to address discrimination and poverty faced by the Roma 17. The executive body is the National Agency for Roma, in which the Project Implementation unit (PIU) is dedicated to the implementation and monitoring of the Phare projects that support the Strategy (Focus Consultancy, 2005, p.12). Following the Masterplan of Measures, several institutions were set up at the national, county and local level: Joint Committee for Monitoring and Implementation; the primary body responsible for the implementation of the Strategy at national level. This Committee is made up of representatives of Roma organisations, the Roma Party and NAR experts (OSI, 2004, p. 23). Ministerial Commissions; in every relevant ministry a commission was installed that concentrates on Roma issues that relate to the ministry s domain. This commission is headed by a State Secretary and comprised of a member of the Joint Committee and three to four additional members, of which one is nominated by Roma organisations. County Offices for Roma (Birou Jude an pentru Rromi) were the first institutions installed in all 41 counties at the Prefecture. They function as a contact point at the county and local level. Roma can ask for consultancy and assistance from the Roma Councillor, an official who is also councillor to the County Prefect on Roma issues. The main responsibilities of these Offices are the organisation, planning and coordination of projects conducted at the county level for the implementation, which support the aims of the Strategy (OSI, 2004, p. 29). Local Experts on Roma Affairs are installed in the town hall and are subordinated under the County Office for Roma and the local mayor. They have to carry out actions that improve the situation of the Roma at the local level. However, two important evaluations show that these institutions do not function as they should. The Resource Center for Roma Communities and Focus Inc. evaluated the Strategy in respectively 2004 and A major impediment to the implementation of the Strategy is the lack of funding from the side of the national government. It was estimated that for 10 years, approximately 105 million euro was needed. The state would contribute 31% and the rest would come from international donors. In three years since it s start, the government has not invested more than 3 million euro, which is not even 10% of its proposed million (OSI, 2004, p.24). In cases where the government should consult the Roma organisations, this is in practice only the Roma Party. 18 Rroma Party members have considerable influence on the implementation of the Strategy at both the national and the local level. They appointed many of the Roma Experts, most of which are their own members. Roma NGOs in general do not trust the motives of the Rroma Party, blaming them for spending budget for their own good. 17 These sectors are: community development and housing, social security, health care, economic activity, justice and public order, child welfare, education, culture and denominations, communication and civic involvement. 18 The Rroma Party, Partida Rromilor, is one of the few political parties for Roma that is successful in elections, due to collaboration with the Social Democrat Party. The party is widely criticised for its lack its elite character and lack of linkages to large groups of poor Roma. 45

57 Both evaluation reports mention the worrisome influence of the Rroma Party (Focus, 2005, p. 33). At the county and local level, authorities show a lack of involvement in the implementation of the Strategy. Roma councillors and Local Experts are hardly allocated any space and budget. In many of the villages, mayors lack the budget to hire a Local expert. Another problem is the lack of experience and capacity to fulfil the function (Focus, 2005, p ; OSI, 2004, p.30-31). In many cases, an official thus receives this function on top of his original job and does not have the time to fulfil his duties. Problems with the implementation of the Strategy at the local level are embedded in the local socio-economic situation, which influence the attitudes of local authorities. As Barany wrote, local authorities are faced with the day-to-day problems of Roma and they hardly have the capacity to come with solutions (2002, p. 296). They have few resources and their will to direct attention to Roma issues often depends on the social position that Roma have in the village. At the local level, the Strategy is currently the only programme that is directed at a general improvement of the situation of Roma, which actively tries to involve the regional and local authorities. The Ministry of Education runs several programmes to increase Roma participation in education, but directs these measures and policies through the regional School Inspectorates to local schools. These and other policies are discussed in the next section. 3.4 Laws and Policies Political Representation Romania has an interesting electoral law when it comes to minorities. At the national level, the Constitution guarantees each national minority a deputy seat in the Parliament, in case their organisation or party fails to obtain the number of votes necessary for one seat. Moreover, not only political parties, but also non-governmental organisations are allowed to run for presidential, parliamentary and local elections (Bartole & Van Dijk, 2005, p. 10). Electoral Law 68/1992/ art. 4 allows national minority NGOs to participate in elections and to have a representative in the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament (Oprescu, 2000, p. 73). The only condition is that an NGO gains at least 5% of the average votes that the political parties candidates need for their election. After 1989, as many Roma parties emerged as vanished. Partida Rromilor, the Roma Party, is currently the largest political party for Roma (Barany, 2002, p.214). It has participated in national and local elections since 1992 and the number of local representatives is growing. After signing collaboration with the Social Democrat Party in 1999, the Roma Party change dits official name to Social Democratic Rroma Party of Romania and gained influence. It has offices in nearly every county and also numerous local representatives. It still did not manage to win seats directly, but occupies the reserved minority seat in parliament. However, Partida Rromilor is criticised for representing mainly the interests of its own members and not of all Roma, especially those in marginal conditions. In spite of the guaranteed Roma seat in parliament and the presence of the Partida Rromilor, Roma in Romania are not truly represented. Zoltan Barany calls the Roma identity a weak identity, due to this diversification, a cleavages between the Roma intelligentsia and the masses of less or uneducated Roma, and a cleavage between the poor and the wealthy. It is a major constraint on possibilities to mobilise and focus on common goals (2002, p. 205). 46

58 3.4.2 Legal Framework on Anti-discrimination Several articles of the 1991 Romanian Constitution guarantee the rights of minorities in Romania. All articles refer to individual rights only. In the subsequent years, the Romanian state developed several laws on anti-discrimination, for which especially the Hungarian party made large efforts. The National Council for Combating Discrimination was established in August 2002 and is the most important institution in this field (ECRI (2004). This Council focuses on preventing discrimination and the punishing of discriminative acts of discrimination. It also has a function to write drafts on internal law, which is based on European standards. The following laws on anti-discrimination now exist: The Romanian Penal Code, Government Ordinance no. 137/2000 On Preventing and Punishing All Forms of Discrimination (adopted by Law 48/2002) Emergency Government Ordinance no. 31/2002 on prohibiting the activities of some organisations and symbols having a fascist, racist or xenophobic character and prohibiting propaganda used by persons who committed crimes against peace and humanity. A new law, the Statute of National Minorities Living in Romania, is now in process. It should function as a general framework for minority rights. International organisations as the Council of Europe and the OSCE have sent their comments to the Romanian government in October 2005 (Bartole & Van Dijk, 2005) Minority Education Relating to Minority Education, the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth mainly focuses on minority languages and measures for vulnerable groups to enhance their school participation. In Romania exist three types of ethnic minority education. The first type implies that the minority language is the language of instruction. Partial teaching in the minority language is the second type and the third, to which also the Romani language belongs, is the teaching of the minority language as subject within the school curriculum (DIR, 2003, p. 11). Minority language education was one of the first measures that focused on Roma children; after 1992 it became taught at primary school level (Cedime-se, 2001, p. 43). A School Inspector for the Romani language was installed in Schools can request teachers or class assistants who teach the Romani language and tradition 4 to 5 hours a week starting from the first grade. The school mediator was an initiative from Roma rights organisation Romani Criss and taken over by the Ministry. School and local authorities can request for a school mediator who keeps a relation between the school, the children and their families to motivate families to send their children to school. The Strategy includes a Phare programme on education called Access to education of disadvantaged groups, with special focus on Roma with a total budget of 8.6 million, of which 1.6 million is funded by the national government. Within the therefore created Steering Committee at the Ministry is special attention for discrimination at schools and for class segregation in particular (Focus, 2005, p.20; OSI, 2004, p. 43). At every county School Inspectorate should work an inspector for Roma, who is monitoring their school participation. One of the local measures is to provide children in the kindergarten and the first grades with a small meal (DIR, 2004:23). The creation of special places for Roma, which frees them from tuition fees, is another measure in order to increase Roma participation in secondary and higher education. 47

59 3.4.4 Social Policies Two very important sources of income to the Roma are child allocation (Law 61/1993) and the social benefit (Law 416/2001). A measure often used at the local level is the job subsidy for employers (Law 76/2002). It came out that these three policies were especially relevant for the Roma in the villages that were studied as case studies. These policies will therefore receive more attention. Child Allocation A family receives child allocation for every child younger than 7. When a child reaches the age of 7 and should enrol in the first grade, child allocation becomes attached to school attendance. Administered by the County School Inspectorates, the monthly check is issued and signed by the teachers and given to the children if it regularly attended school and did not miss too many classes. Although it is not a big amount of money, for many families it is an import source of money and the motivation to send their children to school. Of the Roma families, 55% received child allocation in 1995 compared with 36.7% of non-roma families. This number increased to 59.8% and 38.3% in 1998 (Te liuc in Ra, 2005, p. 8). Starting from January 2007, the allocation will no longer be conditioned by school attendance for children between 7 and 18 years of age. The responsibility of administering the child allowance shifts from the School Inspectorate to the County Offices for Work, Family and Social Solidarity. Parents who want to receive child allowance need to submit written request to these offices. Minimum Income Guarantee The Romanian government, with then the Social Democrat Party at lead, decided upon a law of Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) in The level of minimum income is depending on the number of household members. For example; a household with 5 members, the minimum level is set on 2,331,000 Lei per month ( 64.75) and every household living below this income level has the right to receive social benefit up to this minimum income (Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, 2001). The law includes subsidies for heating during the winter, assistance for funerals and a onetime allowance for newborn children. Every county receives an amount of money from the state that is distributed to the local authorities to pay the MIG. Local authorities employ social workers, which visit (possible) beneficiaries from the social benefit to estimate their income and calculate the amount of allowance they should receive. The law stipulates that each local government has to pay 20 % of the allowance from the local budget. Especially in the countryside, many of the local authorities do not have sufficient resources and are therefore not able to pay the allowance 100%. As a consequence, many local authorities cannot pay the allowance every month. There are various ways to deal with this problem. Usually, the monthly social allowance is not paid 100%. Most often the amount of money is reduced during the summer, when families can do agricultural work to have an income. In other cases the social benefit is not paid regularly, sometimes not for several months. In the worst, case households that should receive social benefit are cut off the list of beneficiaries. 19 The law leaves the local authorities free to decide upon the criteria for who should receive the allowance and what is considered income. A television can be sold and is considered income; a goat can produce milk and is considered income, even when the milk is needed for the children. Due to this possible freedom in the implementation of the law, the 19 Interview with Maria Ursu, Resource Centre for the Roma Communities, Cluj-Napoca,

60 amount of money and the regularity with which it is paid varies enormously from one county to another and even from village to village. The number of Roma families receiving social assistance increased rapidly during the 1990s and only slightly diminished in In 1995, 3.9% of the Roma and 2.1% of the Romanians received social welfare, but this number increased to respectively 11.1% and 2.6% in Relatively speaking, more Roma receive social benefits than Romanians. The Yale dataset shows that 10% of the Roma households received social benefits and 69.5% received child allocation in 2000, compared to respectively 4% and 42% of non-roma households (Ra, 2005, p.9). A study undertaken by the UNDP and the RBEC 20 in 2000 shows that social assistance is not the most important source of income. Social assistance was mentioned as a source of income by only 9.6% of Roma respondents, which is much lower than the regional average of 46.8%. Child allowance is much more important, but again a less important source of income for Romanian Roma compared to the regional average; 45.7% against 56.8% (Ra, 2005, p.8). Cristina Ra analysed the Yale data-set to evaluate the contribution of the state benefit to the income position of the Roma. Of the self-declared Roma households, 39% belong to the lowest income quintile, compared to 17.8% of the non-roma population (2005, p.10). In the 5 th quintile only 4.8% of the self-declared Roma population is represented. However, Ra calculated that no less than 50% of Roma households are positioned in the lowest quintile when main income sources are taken into account. For Romanians, the percentage is only 17.1%. When state transfers are added, these numbers hardly change; 50.5% of Roma households in the lowest quintile against 16.7% of other households. Thus; state transfers did not change the relative income position of the Roma households. It were other sources of income that helped the Roma. Stimulating employment Law 76/2002 on the unemployment insurance system and stimulating employment offers local authorities and companies to hire new employees. 21 Under this law, the state provides job subsidies to pay salaries for one year and only after this year the employer has to pay the full salary himself. Marian Goga, former president of Roma Student Organisation Romano Suno, told that this law is in practice often abused to organise cheap labour. People who are hired under this law are fired before the first year passed, as after one year the employee should be offered a contract. 22 Conclusion As described in the first section, the Roma have been forced to the margins of society for centuries. Opportunities to express the own identity and to organise only appeared after 1989 when the communist regime broke down. However, most of the Roma did not profit from the opportunities that came along with the transition. The situation of the Romanian Roma has received increasingly attention, in which international bodies as the European Union play an important role. The central government has created several institutions to address Roma poverty, but so far these have not improved the conditions of the Roma significantly. Many 20 UNDP & Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Countries (2000) 21 Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family (2002) Law 76/2002, Art Retrieved from the world wide web on from 22 Interview with Marian Goga, former President of Roma Student Organisation Romano Suno, Cluj-Napoca,

61 progressive institutions are not yet implemented locally due to a lack of funding, capacity and will on the side of the local authorities. Most of the Romanian Roma still live in severe poverty and this situation is strongly related to their Roma ethnicity. The living conditions of Roma can vary from village to village; each location having it is specific economic and social conditions and access to facilities. Social relations existing in villages can have a long history. Unlike ethnic Hungarians, Romanian Roma are not united to form adequate representation in the government, neither at the national level, nor at the county and local level. The Roma intelligentsia, Roma political parties and NGOs, even compete with each other over resources and cannot agree on common goals. At the local level, local leaders sometimes follow the same competition and Roma communities have limited contact with each other. Altogether, Roma poverty and social exclusion are very complex and proposed solutions will not fit every situation. 50

62 4. Roma in Nem a A village with Saxon inheritance Picture: Two houses in Strad Brazilor, the street in Nem a where most Roma families live. It was built during communist times. The family bought materials with a loan from the Banca Agricola; the Farmer s Banc. 51

63 Introduction The small, scenic village Nem a is situated in a rural area of Sibiu county. The village is situated in a region where the Saxons formed a large minority in the past. Saxons massively re-migrated back to Germany after 1989, but indicators of their presence were still clearly visible, especially in architecture. The closest town to Nem a is Media, twenty kilometres to the north, which used to be Transylvania s centre of industrial production during communist times. An asphalt road from Media takes you trough the fields where villagers grow their corn and potatoes, away from the desolated, scorched remains of the industrial plants that once offered jobs to thousands of people. Coming at a cross roads, one can see the tower of a Saxon fortified church a bit further down the road in Mo na, the neighbouring village, and turning left it is still another seven kilometres to Nem a. Again one passes through the fields, which now become a bit hilly. The edges of the village are marked by small vegetable gardens, just before colourful houses appear. After a final bend in the road, one can see the tower of a small Saxon church rising above the reddish brown rooftops. This is where the asphalt road ends; Nem a has no connecting roads to other villages except for some winding and bumpy sand roads, which the farmers use to take their horses and wagons to the fields. One enters the village in the Strad Principale; the Main Street. Houses in this street have the typical Saxon look. Facades are colourfully painted in light green, blue, yellow, or even pink. Some of the facades have curly decorations and one can vaguely see letters out of stone, saying in which years the house was built. The court yards are reached through the high round gates, which give way to the hay carts. On one side of the court is a house with rooms, on the other side a smaller building for the kitchen, and at the back the animals are in the barn. Everything in Nem a reminds you of rural village life (See Box 4.1). As small as Nem a is, it does have a centre marked by the tower of the Saxon church. The two shops, the cultural hall (câmin cultural), a bar and a public phone are all situated around an open space right in the middle of the village, there where the asphalt road from Media continues in the sandy Strad Principala. A small stream divides the main street, and the village as a whole, into two parts. The people told that, in the recent past, a Roma quarter called iganie was located in two side streets from the centre; Strad Brazilor and Vench. As will be elaborated in this chapter, the geographic position and former presence of the Saxons influenced many aspects of daily village life. For a better understanding of the relationship between local authorities and the Roma in Nem a, it is important to give a more detailed description of the village. Section 4.1 will therefore focus on the historical background of Nem a. The socio-economic position and living conditions of the Roma will be discussed in section 4.2. The next chapter will concentrate on social relations and networks, and relate these to the patterns of interaction with the local authorities. 52

64 Box 4.1 Village life in Nem a Ce faci? Everything in Nem a reminds you of the rural village life. People walk with their farming tools over their shoulders to their fields, children have to pay attention to passing hay carts while playing in the streets, and all day long you hear animal noises. Whenever you take a walk through the village, you see the people working. It is not surprising that the standard way to greet someone is not how are you but what are you doing; Ce faci? The answers will vary from I am washing clothes to Repairing the roof, or I am making food for the animals. Only on Sundays and Orthodox holidays, when people lay down their work and dress up in their best clothes, you will hear as reply; we are sitting. People often refer to the long and harsh winters, when they cannot do anything but gathering fire wood and preparing meals. Spring, summer and autumn are seasons in which every hour is needed for agriculture, animals, and maintaining houses. On holidays, people are occupied with social talks. They visit their relatives elsewhere in the sat and sit together on benches in the streets, talking to all neighbours passing by. Most villagers are Orthodox Christians, but nowadays only the older ones go to church. The villagers are well acquainted with one another. Practically everyone knows to which family another villager belongs. As a rule, everyone greets everyone in the streets and in the shops. In the evenings, many young villagers and some of the adult men meet in the local bar. Outside, people gather in front of the câmin cultural. Children play while their parents meet for social talks. The public phone rings once in a while. People standing near, answer the phone and send for the person called. It is the common way to contact villagers, as only nine villagers (all Romanians) and the school have private phones. Usually everything becomes quiet around midnight. The bar closes and everyone turns home. The night guard walks his rounds, accompanied by his dog. Source: observations and informal talks with villagers 4.1 Background and history of the village Under the auspices of the centru de comuna Nem a is a sat, which means that it is village falling under the authority of a larger village, which is in this case Mo na. Most rural villages in Romania are joined together in a comuna; a community of villages. A comuna is composed of the centru the comuna; the central village where the local government is seated, and one or several sat; villages that are usually smaller and are located around the centru de comuna. The local government is thus seated in Mo na and from here it administrates the approximately 3300 inhabitants of which 1500 live in Mo na itself, 770 in Nem a and 630 in a second sat; Alma Vii. When villagers from Nem a need to go to Mo na, they can either make a one hour walk over the hills, or try to catch a ride with someone going by car to the cross roads, and walk the last two kilometres. Nem a is connected to Media by only two busses, one leaving at 7AM and the other one at 5 PM. Altogether, this makes Nem a quite an isolated village. The population figure of the comuna Mo na was 3251 in 2002, according to the 2002 national census. Romanians and Roma are the largest ethnic groups; they make up for respectively 64.31% and 30.05% (see Table 4.1). Of these 3251, approximately 770 people live in Nem a. After 1990, most of the Saxons left to Germany and abandoned their houses. With their leaving, the Roma became one of the two important ethnic groups in Nem a. Although the census shows that the Romanians are the majority in the comuna, the mayor and many of Nem a s villagers (both Romanian and Roma) told me that the Roma are actually the 53

65 majority in Nem a. Many declared themselves to be Romanian in the 2002 census. According to the mayor, approximately 70% of Nem a s population is Roma. 23 Table 4.1 Ethnic composition of comuna Mo na in 2002 Ethnic group Absolute numbers Percentage of total population Romanians 2, % Roma % Hungarians % Germans % Ukrainians % Poles % Total % 24 Source: Government Census Saxon inheritance The comuna was thus situated in the former Saxon region of Romania (See Box 4.2). In the comuna Mo na, the Saxons were a majority until the fall of communism. After the Saxons had left, their houses became property of the local government, which started to rent these houses against very low costs. The present mayor, Eugen Roba, said about this period of time: 25 The Roma lived in poor conditions. Much poorer than the Romanians in that time. The mayor and council decided to help the Roma population with this measure and let them move to these houses first. Only later some richer Romanians came from Media, or elsewhere in Sibiu county, to buy these Saxon houses. I now want to stimulate the Roma families to buy the houses that they rent, and pay off in a period of ten years. It is good to have own property. Some cannot afford the rent and then we cannot restore their house. 26 The larger Roma families in Nem a were offered Saxons houses for a very low rent. Many of them took this opportunity and moved from small dwellings to the large and strong Saxon houses with several rooms. Thus, while Strad Brazilor and Vench were still called iganie, several Roma families now lived in the main street and a few other streets that used to be occupied by Saxons. Only from the mid-1990s, some wealthy Romanian families came from other localities to buy Saxon houses. These were sold by the local government for market prices. For the Roma in Nem a, especially the older ones, the history of the village had only two features; the Saxon presence and the flourishing agriculture during communist times. It was because of the Saxons that the Roma once settled in Nem a. Some people remembered what was told about the Roma coming to Nem a. 23 Interview with mayor Eugen Roba, on 6 th of August A database of the 2002 census can be found on the internet, providing statistical data on the population structure according to ethnicity, mother tongue, religion and age of every county, city and village in Romania Interview with Eugen Roba, Mayor, on 6 th of August All interviews in the village were carried out in the Romanian language. All quotes used in this thesis are translated to English. 54

66 Box 4.2 The Saxon minority The Saxons left, but their status was always remembered. The Saxons occupied several regions in Transylvania from mid-12th century. As merchants and settlers they came from Germany and therefore the Saxon language is thus very close to German. They founded the city of Sibiu in A number of fortified churches were built throughout the region, in order to protect the people first against Mongol and later the Turkish invasions, when the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire were coming close. The complete village population could hide within the church walls. They formed a wealthy and influential minority until the communists took power. The communists confiscated their land and animals. Being a national minority, they enjoyed a certain status and herewith related rights. However, they did have to fear the assimilationist and nationalistic policies of the communist regime. The communists never gave them official functions and the Saxons themselves preferred to stay out of politics. Already in the end of the 1980s, the Saxons started to re-migrate back to Germany. They wanted to escape from the oppressive regime and start a new life in their homeland. Most of them still had relatives there, which lowered the threshold to move back. Also, the German state, adhering to citizenship based on ethnic lines, had designed laws to enable individuals with German ancestors to re-migrate. In 1991, almost all Saxons had moved back. Saxon churches are now the physical remembrance of their presence, and have become a tourist attraction. The fortified church in Mo na is clear indicator of the former Saxon presence and a smaller church can be found in Nem a. At the moment, it is restored with funds from the World Bank Cultural Heritage Project. Source: Copies from the information panel on the Saxon church in Mo na The Saxons brought the igani here to work for them in their houses and on their land. Other igani moved to Nem a later to work for them too. The sat used to be on another side of the hills. It was because of the threat of the Turkish that the sat moved between these hills, for protection. The Saxons and only a few Romanian families owned all land, the igani did not have their own land. The igani first lived in the Saxon courtyards and barns they were slug ; servants. After the second World War, the igani received a piece of land. Some of the Saxon barns were broken down and with those bricks some of the igani families could build a home. Roma children from twelve to fifteen years old lived in the Saxon houses to serve. (Roma man, 56) My parents came from a different sat to live here in Nem a. They first lived in the court yard of a Saxon family. Later they received a piece of land from the Saxons and they built a house of bricks up in Strada Brazilor, where now lives the oldest sister of Lenu a with her husband. My parents built it in Many Roma families used to live in small houses of wood and mud. (Roma man, 68) th 27 The Saxons brought the Roma to work as servants from the late 19 century. For centuries the Roma had lived in the Saxon courtyards and barns. A few houses of mud and wood for the largest families were built on the edge of the village, where were now the streets Brazilor and Vench. Only some of the older Roma remembered that their families did not just receive a piece of land after World War II, but that this was due to the land reforms in Some of the Saxons allowed the Roma families to take down their barns and with these bricks they 27 This is derived from interviews with the mayor and older Roma. It is thought that the Roma came here when the Saxon houses in the Main Street were built; starting from approximately

67 could build a small house. Many of the Roma families gave their land back to the previous owners as they did not exactly know how to cultivate it and they hired themselves out as seasonal labour to the Saxon and Romanian families. The Saxons had their own customs and traditions and the villagers spoke about them with distinction. In the following section we will see that some of the Saxon customs were still in use. When asking about the Saxons, everyone would start with: Sa i erau harnici i gospodari!, meaning that the Saxons were hardworking and knew how to organise their households (See Box 4.3). The Roma are convinced that they took over this quality from the Saxons: They were an example. They learnt us how to work! The Saxons worked with their head, the igani with their hands. We learnt many things from them. (Roma woman, 53) From them we learnt to say; far munca, nu s poat [without work, you can t do anything and dac nu munce ti, nu ai [if you don t work, you don t have]. That is what they said. The igani learnt from the Saxons to have a schedule, that it is important to send your children to school, to work on the land, because they lived so long time in the Saxon families. (Roma man, 62) Box 4.3 The meaning of harnici and gospodar How to describe men s best qualities? The words most frequently heard when villagers described their village and it s people were harnici and gospodar. Harnici can be easily translated by hardworking. It is less used in the city, but very much in the country side, where it relates to all agricultural activity. However, it to translate gospodar is not as easy and it is better to describe it more elaborately. As a substantive, the word gospodaria means household. When Romanians have to explain the adjective gospodar, they usually say that someone or a certain family is very organised. The responsible adults in the household know how to organise their incomes and expenditures, they have time schedules for meals, washing and church and make sure that their children attend school. In rural areas, it also means that the people know when to seed, to prune and to harvest. It is absolutely a good quality of a person to be gospodar and a serious lack if somebody is not. Source: informal conversations with Roma and Romanians In 1953, the now communist state took all land from the people and the first collectives were formed; Cooperativa Agricola de Produc ie (CAP). For the villagers, agriculture was the heart and soul of village in the communist period. The majority worked on the CAPs, but many of the men were working in the factories in Media. The fields around Nem a were grazing lands and used for large scale production of corn and potatoes. Near the village was a large vegetable garden, where the elderly worked. On the hills were numerous wine yards. Mama Vinului, the villagers called their hills; mother of wine. The villagers told that people from all over the country came to work here and how famous their wine was. Along the road to the other sat Alma Vii used to be some communist flats that hosted seasonal workers. Villagers could have a small garden and some animals of their own, but they had to deliver some of its produce every month. Many adult men worked in the industry in Media. Proudly they told how transport for the factory workers was organised; busses were running for every 56

68 shift till late in the evening, always crowded with people. For work in the factories the people received copybooks with vouchers and some money. The work on the CAP was organised in teams (equip ) and very strictly administered. Two brigades existed, one for each half of the grounds around the villages. Each brigade was composed of three teams. Two Saxons teams, one Romanian team, two Roma teams and one mixed team worked their own marked piece of land side by side. Each team had it s own chief. For the Roma, it meant that they were working with other people, instead of for other people and this something they frequently recall: Atunci oameni erau egali; nu care are, are i care nu are, nu are. Români i igani nu sunt diferi i de loc, sunt uni i. [Then people were equal; not who has, has and who doesn t have, doesn t have. Romanians and igani are not different at all, they are united.] Everybody was working hard. The Saxons just as hard as the Romanians and the Roma. And everybody was speaking well with each other and it was good. In the end of the month, we received agriculture products from the fields. In the autumn sometimes also some money. What we received, was not enough for the families. Everyone was stealing from the CAPs! (Roma woman, 56) Except for the mixed team, all other five were composed of separate ethnic groups. I asked for an explanation. People answered that it was not organised like this because people did not want to work with people from a different ethnicity. The communist leaders first appointed chiefs of the teams, who were Saxon, Romanian and also Roma. The chiefs then chose their own people, their relatives, people they got along with and those who spoke the same language. One man told how the teams were motivated to work hard, because the communists organised competition and rewards: On the offices of the CAP in the main street, a news paper was published every month. It was called gazeta. You could read exactly; team number five worked so much lands and products. When you read this, you wanted to work more with your team! (Roma man, 62) Village meetings, edin, were frequently organised in the câmin cultural, in which the communist authorities announced work schedules and norme; certain amounts of the agricultural products directed from a higher political level. Each month, the people had to make these amounts in order to receive their goods and vouchers. The chiefs controlled the working lists and submitted lists of produce to higher officers. If someone refused to work, the police would come to his home for inspection. People could purchase products only in limited portions with the vouchers they received. The people told me that everything was based on contract, meaning that the amounts of product they could receive was fixed and depended on the size of the household. Amounts were small; family with five children sometimes received only one bread and two liters of milk. Governance was, of course, top-down. Orders from the state were directed to regional authorities in Sibiu, which were directed to the Communist Party in Mo na and from there to the communist, collective offices in Nem a. Officials were Romanian, in line with the nationalistic policies. According to older Romanians and Roma in Nem a, the Saxons refrained from politics, because they feared the Communist Party. They were a strong minority in the region and whenever you said something wrong, you could be arrested and put to jail. As a job and a basic income in the form of products, vouchers and small wages were 57

69 guaranteed, living conditions for Roma were basic, but secure. An older Roma man remembered that an income was better than when they were working for the Saxons: Before collectivisation of land, it was more difficult. We were working for the Saxons and received very little food and hardly any money, but we were working very long days. Each igani family had their own Saxon family they worked for. All the time we had good relations. I don t know how it was in other places, but here they were good people. (Roma man, 62) Health care and education were provided, transport to the factories was free. For Roma it was now possible to receive credits from the bank to build houses. Some families took a loan from the Banca Agricola, the Farmers Bank, in the mid-1950s. Others managed to save some money from their salaries earned in the factories. For this reason, almost all Roma houses in Strad Brazilor and Vench are made of real bricks. One of the remaining Saxons remembered that Strad Brazilor had only a few houses in the end of 1950s. By the time of the 1980s, the street had 30 houses. Since the regime change in 1989, only three new houses have been built. The fall of the communist regime brought important changes in the economic and political life of the villagers in Nem a. First of all, the CAPs were closed and the former communist authorities quickly sold all animals. Every villager received half a cow, but most money disappeared in communist pockets. The factories in Media gradually closed and public transport to the city was cut. Suddenly, the secured jobs and payments in all different forms disappeared. As one of the Roma said: After Revolution, we felt only the fact that we no longer did purchased goods on base of contracts. We are free to speak. We have more rights, but the problem of poverty came. For the youth it is very difficult. They want to work, but they have no place to work. They have no opportunities. (Roma man, 57) A new local government was installed in Mo na, whose first task was to redistribute all land that was confiscated by the communists. A few directives were given by the state. All families that owned land before communism had to receive back this land. This was often complicated, as the previous borders were not always registered. People that had worked a certain numbers of years for the CAPS, would receive some are of the comuna s land reserves. In Nem a, this redistribution happened quite remarkably. The local government came to the câmin cultural for a village meeting. At first, the mayor had proposed to distribute the land by drawing lots from a hat. The people objected. Many of the elderly knew which land had belonged to which family before communism. As a result, the villagers themselves chose a commission of six men in this meeting. These men were Romanians and also Roma. Many Saxons had already left to Germany and the others had plans to leave, and thus they did not join the commission. I asked on which grounds the men were chosen and the people answered: All of them were older, so that they could remember how the boundaries of land had been before communism and which land belonged to which family. And we chose the men of which we knew that they could take right decisions. They were good people. (Roma man, 62) Week after week, this commission went to the fields and grazing lands around Nem a, together with the new mayor and the local engineer. Only a few old maps were available and 58

70 together they had to redraw the boundaries of land and give it back to the previous owners. Most of the Saxon land was added to the reserves. All families that had worked on the collectives received 80 are by law, but still much land was left. The commission and authorities then decided that also others could apply for 50 are; young people who were just married and families that had more than 5 children should receive 50 are for each child. These were given from the reserves. As a result, all Roma families had land in Nem a, except for the one family that moved into the village in As we will see in the Chapter 6, in Ogra land was redistributed by high-placed officers, who delegated this task to themselves and whose own relatives profited most. Redistribution of land was the main occupation of the new local government. Villagers, both Roma and Romanians, told that the mayor made many other promises, but never did something. They were actually joking on the first mayor after Revolution, Mr. Lorenz, who apparently was an alcoholic. One day you would find him smiling, the other he was only annoyed and angry. You could do nothing with him, a Roma woman said. With the leaving of the Saxons around 1990, the Roma became the ethnic majority of the sat. The people, both Romanians and Roma, regretted the leaving of the Saxons. An older Romanian woman said: It was a big loss for the sat that the Saxons left, a big loss. I can understand, they had more in Germany. But I am sorry that they left. Unlike in several towns and villages in Romania, where transition to the new system went hand in hand with tension and violent conflicts between ethnic groups, conflict situations did not occur in Nem a. An important source of conflicts in general was the redistribution of land, but in Nem a this was regulated by the collective selection of the land commission. One man told about social relations in the sat: Here the people did not change. Here in the sat, not many changes happened with the people. Changes they did up there (pointing up). The most important changes were the closing of the collectives and factories. Strange investors came and put their hands on our land [confiscated]. After that our country became a disaster! I don t get along with privatisation. (Roma man, 62) He differentiated the general situation in Romania from what happened in the sat. In his opinion, the changes at the national political level caused many problems for the people in Romania. It also created conflicts between ethnic groups. This did not happen in Nem a. Land was redistributed by villagers and Roma and Romanians still had good relations. An older Roma man told me how the distance between Romanians and Roma seemed to become smaller after Revolution. He smiled when he compared the two groups with mixing plants, ensuring new offspring: After the Revolution, igani and Romanians were mixing more, au corcit. Like plants! Crossfertilisation! A long time ago, it was absolutely not like that. They were more separate. But after the revolution they could. Soon after 1990, conditions became heavier for the Roma, while Romanians profited from their regained property and they had more acquaintances in Media to find jobs. Roma families were growing and houses became more crowded in Strad Brazilor and Vench. Finding a job was much more difficult for them, as Roma had not been in leading positions in Media. Besides, public transport to the city was now limited. Some of them received a pension from their work in the fabrics, but those who worked on the CAPs did not. The Roma owned land that was just enough or not quite enough for their own survival and families 59

71 needed to work as for Romanians to earn some money. However, not all families had the adults or teenagers to send as daily labourers. In the mid-1990s, a group of French people visited comuna Mo na to start a twinning project with a French village. With their help, a few things were done for the sat. In a edin, village meeting, in Nem a they asked whether the people wanted to have a bus to go to the city or the road to be repaired and completed with asphalt. The people chose for the asphalt road, as they did not know whether they could keep a bus running and the road was so bad. With financial assistance from the French and the regional authorities, the local authorities had the asphalt road constructed. This improved the connection to Media. Especially in winters it was hard to get to the city, where people went to the market or made use of city facilities. Only Romanians had cars, but only few Roma had bicycles. The bus started running again, although still very infrequently. Before the road was constructed, the city hospital refused to send an ambulance to Nem a. This situation changed and now all villagers could count on transport by ambulance in case of emergency. Altogether, the economic position of the Roma deteriorated after the fall of communism. Although they received land, they do not have as much income as before 1989 and many services disappeared. It was not surprising that the older generation Roma spoke of the communist period as if it were a golden age. Comparing all stories that the Roma told about the changes after communist times, they seemed to evaluate their quality of life in the first place in terms of work and living conditions; work, secure food, housing and clothes. This is what deteriorated after communism. To the people, freedom came together with growing poverty. Several Roma told: First we were not free to chose products and only few products were available. Now we have freedom, but no money to buy any products. Others said that the people lost guidance. First the government told us what to do. Now everyone is doing just what comes to their minds. They can harm others, one Roma woman said. In their opinion, the new democratic regime destroyed everything the communists built in their village. 4.2 Living Conditions of the Roma in Nem a This section will examine the assets of the Roma in Nem a such as housing, infrastructure and income, as well as their participation in the education system, and access to health care. It is a first attempt to measure their level of social exclusion. The next chapter will focus on Roma participation in social activities Housing and infrastructure In general, the conditions of the Roma were poorer than those of the Romanians, especially in material terms. They had less space, smaller incomes, less animals and much less land. However, due to the former presence of the Saxons, the housing situation of the Roma in Nem a was quite good. As we can see in Table 4.2, 30% of the households lived in a rented house, which were all large and solid Saxon houses. The other houses, in Strad Brazilor and Vench, were quite good as well, but much smaller. For several reasons, most Roma were able to build their houses of real bricks. This was quite exceptional for poorer Roma communities in Romania. Usually you see Roma making building their houses from clay and waste materials. Some families in Nem a received bricks from Saxon barns, others got a loan from the Banca Agricola in the 1950s and again others were able to save money from their work in the factories in communist times. Of all houses where lived Roma families, only three 60

72 houses are made of wood and mud. Remarkably, two of these houses belonged to families that migrated from Media after communism and thus did not have the same circumstances as the Roma from Nem a. Roma households were larger than Romanian households, but they still had enough space. The outcomes from the survey show that a household had 4.63 members on average and each household had around 2 rooms. The largest household had 10 members, but lived in a Saxon house with 5 rooms. It were actually two families; the oldest son lived with his wife and baby with his parents, but incomes were shared. Only two families had 5 children, all others had less than 5. Table 4.2 Roma Households in Nem a; size and space Description Household size Average household size Smallest household Largest household Average number of children per household Mode Housing Share of households living in a rented house Share of hoseholds living in own house Average number of rooms per household Outcome % 70% 2.40 Source: own community survey, N= 30 Infrastructure as roads filled with stones, electricity and gas were all present in the Roma streets. In many villages in Romania, roads and electricity stop where the compact Roma community begins. In Nem a, however, the local authorities maintained the Roma streets as everywhere in the village. Also the electricity stakes with public streetlights were extended. Recently, one Roma family received personal assistance from the mayor to install electricity. At the end of one of the Roma streets, Strad Brazilor, a new house was built one year ago. The family needed an electricity stake and submitted a request to the mayor. The stake was delivered and installed on the expenses of the local government and the family had to pay only for the wires and electricity meter. As was discussed in the previous chapter, it is unusual that local authorities take such responsibility. Families that want to install electricity often have to pay all costs themselves. Gas is something many of the Roma did not have. The present pipe lines were installed 30 years ago by the villagers themselves. They built the pipe lines until what was then the end of Strad Brazilor, but now this is only half of the street. However, gas was too expensive for most Roma families and even families that had gas use only wood. This was also the case for most Roma living in the Vench and in Saxon houses. Public water pipe lines were never installed. None of the Roma families had running water, but almost all had their own well in their gardens. In addition, in Strad Brazilor were two public wells, which everybody could use and it was maintained by the people. The Romanian families had enough own resources to buy filters and pumps and to install running water from their own wells. 61

73 4.2.2 Income and assets The survey included a set of questions on all financial and natural resources. Roma households in Nem a had an average income of RON ( ) per month. Approximately 70% of the Roma households had less than this average income. Of the 30 households that participated in the survey, 7 households (23.3%) had a stable salary from jobs in Media. They earned approximately RON on average, which made them the wealthier Roma families in Nem a, but they still did not match with the standard of living of Romanians. As the Roma had jobs such as cleaning trains and production work in a ceramic factory, they did not earn the higher possible wages. Table 4.3 presents an overview of all financial income sources. As we can see, child allocation was the most important source of income both in summer (to 30% of the households) as in winter (to 40%). The difference was caused by those earning wages from seasonal work in the summer time. Salaries remained the most important source of income for 23.3% both in summer as in winter, but child allocation and social assistance became more important when work on the fields was finished. In the summer, social assistance was reduced, as people were expected to have incomes from seasonal work and natural resources. However, Roma families also had to cultivate their own land and thus not all families went working for others. This year, nine households reported that one or more family members went to do seasonal work. The most important source of income in the summer thus depended on the personal circumstances of families, which in most cases depended on having enough members to work both on their own land and for Romanians. Table 4.3 Source of income Income Sources of Roma (% of households) Share of households most important source most important source that receives from this of income (winter) of income (summer) source Child Allocation - Illness pension Pension Salaries Seasonal work Social Assistance Total Source: own survey, N = 3 The mayor told that 62 households in Nem a received social assistance. This meant that their own level of subsistence was below the level of the official Minimum Income. Of all survey respondents, 63.3% answered to be beneficiary of social assistance. The amount of allowance was calculated after all household resources were taken in consideration, varying from pensions, salaries, to land used for agriculture and vegetable gardens or animals. Benefiting families received on average RON ( 16.36) social assistance in the winter. In the summer, it was reduced with 70% to Almost all families in Nem a owned land for agriculture. Romanians owned enough to produce for the market, but the Roma cultivated their land for their own subsistence only. In addition, many families had a vegetable garden close to their house and also animals formed a source of income and food for the winter. Thus, one cannot separate financial incomes from natural resources. Table 4.4 shows the assets of Roma families. We see that most Roma owned between 1 and 100 are, and several families owned more than 100 are. In comparison; 62

74 Romanian families owned at least 80 hectare. Only four Roma families (13.3%) did not have land for agricultural use. The main sources of income of these families were child allocation and job salaries. Table 4.4 Natural resources of Roma households Resource Share of households Accumulative (in %) percentages Land ( in ha.) > Vegetable Garden Animals Poultry 70.0 Pig Goat 60.0 Cow 3.3 Horse Source: own survey, N = School participation Primary school participation of the Roma equalled participation of Romanians. All Roma children attended kindergarten and primary school. According to the teacher, their school results were just as good. Survey respondents had to indicate school attendance of all children in their household. Results are presented in Table 4.5. Table 4.5 School attendance of Roma children in Nem a Percentage of all Performance Number of children children Too small to attend school Regularly attending primary school (up to grade 10) Repeating a year Drop-out Total Source: own survey, N = 30 The drop-out rate was practically 0; it was very likely that all children finish eight grades and they can continue to class 9 and 10 in Mo na. The French twin-village provided a small schoolbus, which takes the children from Nem a and Alma Vii to Mo na for free. However, unlike Romanian families, all Roma families reported that they did not have the opportunity to send their children to grades 11 and 12 and continue to higher education in Media. All said that the costs for public transport were too high. Parents did think that education was important for their children. If you are not able to read or write, you can do nothing, one 63

75 Roma woman said. This opinion was reflected in the choice of the villagers, including Roma, to renovate the school as community project. This issue will be discussed more deeply in the next chapter. School participation was already high among the older generation, which attended school in communist times. Of course education was obligatory, but in many cases this led to teachers reporting fake attendance and fake results. This was not the case in Nem a. Many of the men continued to secondary and vocational schools in Media, but also many women completed vocational school. Table 4.6 presents figures on the highest completed education as came out from the survey. The question was asked for all adult household members. Thus, percentages represent shares of a group of 74 adults. Table 4.6 Highest Completed Education among adult Roma Highest completed education Percentage Primary school (grade 4) Secondary school (grade 8) Grade Grade Total Source: own survey, N = Health Care The Roma had basic access to health care. As many families were beneficiaries of social assistance, they had the right to see the doctor for free and pay half price for medication. If hospitalisation was necessary, they had to turn to the local authorities to obtain a notification that allowed them free admission to the hospital. Those families that did not receive social assistance did not complain about costs for health care. However, one family doctor came weekly to Nem a and another one every two weeks. During the summer, both doctors were on holiday and the people could not see a doctor for over a month. They had no other option but to turn to the hospital in Media. Most Roma, especially women, expressed that the doctors should come to Nem a more frequently or that the sat actually needed a permanent doctor or health post Reflections of Roma on their conditions and needs We are poor people here. The people here are so hard-working, but they have no place where to work! (Roma woman, 53) This was the most frequently heard phrase when the Roma spoke about their living conditions. They told about hard work on the land and a lack of opportunities to find a job in the city. Older people worried about the young ones: Look at our young people; they are healthy men, but they are here in the streets! They have no opportunities to work for their families! (Roma man, 62) 64

76 It was thus not surprising that the Roma ranked unemployment as their biggest problem and jobs as their biggest need. In their opinion, a lack of public transport to the city and the high costs of a season ticket were the main reasons for unemployment. The only bus left at 7 AM and returned to Nem a at 5 PM. This excluded the possibility to work in the night shifts. Some men went on bicycles, but this became impossible in the winter. Also, the Roma said that they lack social connections to find a job. They compared their situation with Romanians. Romanians had pil le; persons they knew, who were employed somewhere and who could put in a good word for them. Roma did not know people that had important positions. Survey respondents were asked to rank needs of the Roma. As all Roma agreed that more employment was their biggest need, the ranking exercise dealt with all needs after the need for employment. The ranking of these needs is shown in Figure 4.1. Transport to the city, singled out by 36.7% was strongly related to the unemployment issue, as people thought this would enhance the opportunity to find work. The need for a permanent doctor was pointed out by 26.7%. The need for better roads was indicated by 20% and due to heavy rain fall that summer. As a matter of fact, one month after this ranking was carried out, the local authorities provided truck loads with stones to improve the quality of the roads. Figure 4.1 Ranking of Roma needs in Nem a 26,7 10 6, ,7 Better roads Transport to city Permanent doctor More social assistance Night Guard Source: own survey, N = 30 A higher amount of social assistance and the appointment of a night guard for the fields were indicated by respectively 10% and 6.7%. To appoint a night guard was a debated issue among the villagers in Nem a. The local authorities raised this issue several times in meetings with the whole village (see section 5.3.2), but the villagers could not reach an agreement. The ranking of needs was repeated with a group of six Roma. The exercise, described in Box 4.4 (next page), took a remarkable turn, as people came to discuss social issues instead of the material needs mentioned above. 65

77 Box 4.4 A remarkable Ranking Exercise Ranking of Social Needs Six Roma, three men and three women, gathered in the kitchen/ living room of Bradule. The purpose of the meeting was to do a rank the needs of the Roma in the sat. Immediately all agreed that the biggest need was to find employment, corresponding to small incomes as their biggest problem. When people have work, they said, they can resolve other problems like saving money for their houses, education or a doctor. Then the discussion took a remarkable turn. Participants spoke more about social problems instead of material needs. They discussed about unity among people and ranked more unity as the second most important need. People have different opinions on how things should be done and not everyone is doing his social duty. They gave an example about Presta i. Presta i is the work done by beneficiaries of social assistance. It is an obligation by law, thus actually not a social duty but an official one, and it usually concerns cleaning or repairing public streets, channels and bridges. The Roma told that some people try to escape from this obligation and this was considered to be against social unity. Also, sometimes crops are stolen from the field. This is a lack of unity too. As a consequence, the participants mentioned that a more correctiveness was a third need. People should correct each other in case someone did not comply with the rules. More correctiveness would be enhanced by the fourth need education/ change in mentality. People have to be educated to be right persons. Therefore, this was considered the fourth need in the sat. The participants had to fill in five needs. It took a while before they could think of the fifth need. At last, it was brought in by the women, who put a permanent doctor. They referred to the situation of a sick child, but the doctor would come only three days later. It was difficult to get to the city. Female participants ranked a permanent doctor on a higher place. The men were all speaking about social unity, which was copied by the women when they had to decide how to rank all issues. Source: own observations Conclusion Nem a is a village with a particular history, which affected the present living conditions of the Roma. The former presence of the Saxons influenced the assets of Roma families. The next chapter will demonstrate that the Saxon presence also had profound impact on social relations in the sat. With the leaving of the Saxons after 1990, Nem a s land reserves suddenly expanded. Due to interaction between the local authorities and the village population, this opportunity was used to distribute land to the Roma. After 1989, the Roma lost stable incomes from the collectives and factories, but to some extent this loss was compensated by the land they received. Also, the abandoned Saxon houses were offered to them against low costs. In both cases, large families had priority, in order to improve their situation. Focussing on the assets of the Roma, it was clear that their living conditions were poorer than the conditions of Romanians. This was especially true for their employment situation. Roma had fewer opportunities to find work in the city, as they are not as mobile as Romanians and they did not have acquaintances in leading positions. The isolated location of the village is thus a factor that influences the situation of the Roma. All Roma children participated in school and, thanks to the efforts of the local authorities, transport to Mo na was organised to take pupils to grades 9 and 10. This situation at least enhanced their opportunities to find work. None of the Roma could afford to send their children to higher education in Media, in contrast to Romanian families. Romanians had more assets, which 66

78 enabled them to move further. This was also the case for access to health care. If a Romanian needed medical care, it was easier for him to get it in the city. However, although the situation of the Roma was not easy, especially for large households, none of the families worried about food or housing. The basics were there. Many Roma in Nem a called themselves poor, but they were aware that the conditions of Roma in other villages were even worse. They frequently recalled that living in rural Romania is hard, but at least they had something of their own and they were able to sustain a family. 67

79 5. Unity and forms of organisation in Nem a Picture: Roma women and children in Nem a often gathered outside for social conversations. They talked about the weather, the harvest, and about the school that would soon start again. 68

80 Introduction Saxon inheritance and Nem a s geographical isolation influenced the way people foresee in their livelihoods today. This chapter will show that Saxon presence also influenced patterns of social relations in the village. The following section discusses existing social networks among Roma, starting from how the Roma define their Roma identity, followed by a description of different networks. The next section discusses networks between Roma and Romanians. Finally, the last section extensively discusses the relationship between Roma and the local authorities. 5.1 Social networks in the village Roma identity As the Roma in Nem a did not speak Romani and no longer lived strictly separated from the non-roma population, one had to listen carefully how they describe themselves as a distinct group. They referred to themselves as igani and frequently emphasised their unity. Everyone was speaking about we, igani. As Iulu would say: Roma is a word more political (pointing with is finger in the sky). Here (pointing at the floor) we are igani. For us it is not a problem to say igani, we have always been igani. (Roma man, 44) igani is a word that meant without place in the past, because originally the igani were travelling and did not have houses. It is not a bad word. (Roma woman, 25) The people knew exactly who in Nem a was Roma and who was not. Drawing the map of Nem a in a PRA exercise, the participants gave different marks to Romanian and Roma houses. When visiting all families that were identified as Roma on the map, they indeed spoke about themselves as igani. They were even proud to speak about themselves as such and all spoke about the Roma in Nem a as hard working and hospitable people. However, some of the Roma must have declared themselves as Romanians in the national census. Asking for reasons why some Roma had refused to declare their Roma identity, the people said that they might have been nervous to talk with officials or that they did not want to be confused with those Roma that behaved badly. They often described their ethnic identity by summing up differences between them and Roma in other places : Here the Roma are not like in other places; where they steal and often fight. And their houses are not clean and they have seven or eight children! Here the people work and they are good people. In other places you cannot trust the igani, they do not want to work for their food and they steal, they drink and fight. We are not like this, we are good people. (Roma man, 68) Our sat is different. For example, here the igani do not speak igane te [Romani]. We learnt to speak Saxon, because we had to deal more with them. In other parts they say romi. Not here, we are just igani. (Roma man, 62) 69

81 Only two persons knew the Romani language. One of the two belonged to the only Roma family that moved from Media to Nem a and had learnt Romani in the city. When asking around about the Romani language, one Roma man said: Why should I speak Romani? I live in Romania, so I should speak Romanian. A few remembered that their parents knew some Romani, but everybody agreed that it was much more useful to speak Romanian and Saxon, because that was what the other villagers spoke. Language was thus not used to differentiate Roma from Romanians, but to distinguish Roma in Nem a from Roma in other places. Roma also defined their own identity by summing up differences with Romanians. In general, most Roma qualified their relationship with the Romanians in Nem a as very good. Here we don t have problems like Romanians and Roma have in other places, the people often said. The expressions used in Romanian are se in eleg bine între ei and vorbesc frumos ; which means respectively to understand well among each other and to speak nicely. All Roma agreed that the most important difference between Roma and Romanians was that the Romanians were wealthier. In the second place, some of the Roma told that Romanians were not as hospitable as the Roma. A poor Roma would always make food for you or let you join the family meal, unlike Romanians, who even had more resources. A third difference was that Romanians walked with their noses up, meaning that they looked down upon others. This was mentioned by only a few Roma, all young ones. The Roma said that they had felt more united with the Saxons, and that the distance between Roma and Romanians always was a little bigger. However, they said their relationship with Romanians improved after the Revolution. We go to each other s festivities, said Mircea, one 62-year old Roma man. All Roma agreed that also Romanians were harnici and gospodari, just like the Roma. Another important difference mentioned, was that the Roma were more united than the Romanians. Iulu, a 44 year old Roma, said about this matter: Români; ei sunt alt categori [the Romanians, they are a different category.] Their families are more individual. When you walk through our streets, you see everybody sitting in front of the gate and talking. We work together, we do much together. Romanians are more in their own court yard. All agreed that also between Romanians existed differences. In the last couple of years, a few Romanian families moved to Nem a. These were very wealthy families and they bought large Saxon houses in the Main Street. The Roma did not know these new Romanians so well. They told that these Romanians did not greet the Roma, unlike the Romanians that belonged to Nem a. Thus, Roma felt better about their relation with the original Romanians. In the following sections we will see that Roma and Romanians have their own networks, but a few cross-cutting networks do exist Networks among Roma Active networks of help and reciprocity existed among the Roma, while these networks between Roma and Romanians were much more formal. When I asked how people helped each other, everybody responded that they could not assist each other with money. The Romanian word for help, ajutor, means in the first place financial help. Here we don t give money, we work, one woman answered. She remembered only one occasion when people collected money to donate. Once a barn will all crops for the winter burnt down. Then the Roma collected money to assist the family. Especially among relatives, but also among neighbours and friends, the Roma helped each other with all kind of labour activities. These activities usually included working on each 70

82 others fields and building or repairing barns and houses. One of the Roma explained that they copied this habit from the Saxons as well: They were organised in everything. For example the way they helped each other. If someone was busy to build a house, they immediately everyone came to help. F r plata [without a bill]; for free. This we took over. I know that, if you help me today, you will help me tomorrow. That is how it is here with us. (Roma man, 56 ) Another category of help was to use items or animals from others, which people did not have themselves. Examples were to use one s horse to fetch wood or crops, to use the neighbour s well or ovens to bake breads and the lending out of all kind of tools. Many people explicitly said that it was not common to lend each other money, because everybody needed all money they had for their own families. While help in the form of labour was supposed to be given back by physical work, practically anything could be given in return for using each other s tools. I once visited a Roma woman called Rodica, whose neighbour had improvised a sort of washing machine for his wife Lena. At that moment, Rodica was washing clothes with Lena s machine, while Lena was sitting on the bed, watching their children and eating a meal prepared by Rodica. For celebrations like a wedding or a baptism, tens of people were involved in the preparations. All these people received the feast and meal in return and help from the host-family for the next celebration Networks that cross the ethnic boundary The villagers in Nem a, both Roma and Romanians, were quite familiar with one another. This was due to the fact that the village was small, geographically isolated and poorly connected to the city by public transport. Besides, only few families migrated to Nem a from elsewhere in the county. Concentrating on the Roma population, one could see that practically all families were now connected through marriages. Aici to i sunt rude ; all are relatives here, three Roma women agreed. A few mixed marriages between Roma and Romanians existed. In the evenings people gathered in the centre to talk, leaning against the wall of the câmin cultural while music sounds from the bar. As a Romanian villager said: Everyone you see standing in front of the câmin cultural in the evening, is Roma. And indeed; when after one month I recognised all people and knew to which families they belonged, I would only seldom see Romanians join a conversation. When I asked about this, the one Roma answered: I do not exactly know. I think they have less time to go out in the evenings, because they have more land, more animals and bigger houses to take care of. They are very busy. Relations of help like described in the previous section, were uncommon between Roma and Romanians. Only two Roma families said to have such a relationship with a Romanian family. It seemed that help even had a different meaning to Romanians. From interviews with three Romanian families, it became clear that it usually involved a transaction of money. Roma went to Romanians to work on their land and received a wage in return. At the time, a Roma earned RON 25 (approximately 7.00 euro) for one day of work. If the person ate lunch served by the Romanians, he would earn RON 20. In general, the Romanian families knew one or two Roma families in the village, of which they hired the men and sons for seasonal labour. In the winter, it happened that some Roma families did not have enough food. If they turned to another Roma family, they could receive some meat and return some back as soon as they could. If they turned to a Romanian family, the Romanians would write down their names and the amount they received. In the next summer, the Roma family would have to 71

83 work a number of hours for the value of food they took in the winter. Only in the case of two Roma families it happened that Romanians went to work on land belonging to a Roma. One of the remaining Saxons was a close friend with one Roma family. He helped them to harvest potatoes and they would go with him the next week. Lending out tools and horses rarely occurred between Roma and Romanians. Usually, materials were passed on from a Romanian family to a Roma for second-hand price. This was what the Romanians perceive as help. In an interview with one of the Romanian families, the grandmother told that she helped a Roma family by employing the sons in the summer. When she had bought new furniture, she sold the old pieces to them for a cheaper price. A a l-am ajutat eu, she said; that is how I helped them. When it came to festivities, networks of help between Roma and Romanians did exist without financial transaction. Roma and Romanians participated in each others festivities like weddings, baptisms and the Christmas meals after December 26. In the case of celebrations, the Romanian families did help with activities like baking pies and cakes. They joined the meal, they ate, drank, sang and danced together with Roma. I was invited to a party for the Orthodox baptism of a Roma baby. After the ceremony in the church, the guests came together in the house of the family for a meal that would last from noon till late that night. Only women were allowed to sit at the tables and the men had to stand and watch from the entrance. Of the 25 guests, 4 were Romanian. It was one of the Romanian women who had made the special pr jituri [stuffed cakes]. The hostess would help her for her birthday party in return. The four women sat next to each other, laughing and singing and later on also dancing with the Roma women. In interviews with Romanians, they emphasised, like the Roma themselves, that the Roma in Nem a were different from those in in other places. We don t have problems here, an older Romanian woman said, We have a good relationship. Also the Romanians said the biggest difference between them was that the Roma were poorer than Romanians. They acknowledged that it was difficult to find work, but some Romanians also thought that the Roma were less gospodar. As they were less gospodar, they did not know very well how to save and spend their money, and this would be the reason that they were not as wealthy. One Romanian woman told: You see how they gather in the centre at night. They buy cigarettes and beers. We stay at home. We don t go to drink, we make all beverages ourselves. Showing her cellar, in which piles of vegetables were stored, she said: Look, we save for the winter. They don t save and for that reason they come to ask for food or some money in January. Then they have to work for us during summer. They should have worked to save in advance, not after! Her son, a 36 year old man with a wife and two small children, had a different opinion. He thought the Roma were poorer, because most of them had less land and animals to make a living. He could imagine that the Roma longed back to communist times, when everyone earned the same. He, and other Romanians in Nem a, did not think of the communist period as better times. All Romanians said it was also heavy now, referring to the bad economic situation in Romania, but all think it was worse during communist times. They were not free and it was very difficult to get products Informal self-organisation: Vecinitate An interesting form of self-organisation, which was originally Saxon, was the Vecinitate. Vecinitate literally means neighbourhood and Nem a used to be divided in three of these neighbourhoods, which corresponded with the Saxon streets, the Romanian streets, and the 72

84 Roma streets. Each Vecinitate thus formed a unit on village level and was led by the parents of the neighbourhood ; parin i Vecinitatelei. Leadership over the Vecinitate rotated; every two years a new family was chosen to be Parents of the Neighbourhood. A Vecinitate had a cooperative function, but also facilitated the sharing of information. If the local authorities had to announce important information, this message was written on a small wooden board, which every Vecinitate passed from house to house. Each Vecinitate celebrated Fosnic with its own members in February. Fosnic was a two-day festivity to celebrate the end of the winter and the approaching spring, when everyone could take up their agricultural activities again. With the leaving of the Saxons, only two Vecinitate remained. As the Roma and Romanians lived in separate streets, both groups had their own Vecinitate. The Roma who moved to the main (Romanian) street after 1990, did not want to leave their own Vecinitate and join the Romanian one. This resulted in the situation that a Vecinitate was no longer geographical unit, but a social unit, divided over ethnic lines. Fosnic was celebrated twice; one weekend by the Roma and one weekend by Romanians. The parents of the Vecinitate regulated the financial administration and distributed tasks among families. In addition, every family cooked or baked a part of the meal. Everybody brought his contribution to the câmin cultural. After the celebration, the parents of the Vecinitate counted how much money was left and people came together in the câmin to discuss what to do with the rest of the sum. Last year, the people decided to buy a few extra tables and benches for the câmin, so that everyone would have a place to sit next time. In 2000, the couple Dan and Lenu a was Parents of the Roma Vecinitate. They decided to re-invent the custom of collecting money for funerals. This was a custom when the Saxons were still living in Nem a, but it disappeared after Dan and Lenu a made a list of participating families and their addresses and thus created a Vecinitate for funerals. If someone died, all members of this Vecinitate for funerals paid a sum of money. This helped the relatives of the deceased to cover the costs of the ceremony and a gravestone. Dan visited each Roma family to discuss and ask whether they wanted to join. Lenu a and one of her cousins, Gabi, kept the lists and made sure everyone would pay. In 2002, the Roma chose a new family to be parents of the Vecinitate, but they did not want that this responsibility would shift to a different family too. Thus, it was decided that Dan, Lenu a and Gabi remained responsible for this task. Membership to the Vecinitate for funerals was quite high. Of the respondents to the survey, 83.3% is a member. Those who were not members were mostly Pentecostals. The Pentecostal church had its own institution of collecting money for funerals. As in some families both members of the Orthodox and the Pentecostal church existed, it happened that the Orthodox persons were member of this Vecinitate and the others were not. The church was traditionally an important institution to bring people together and maintain certain bonds. Two denominations existed in Nem a; the Orthodox and Pentecostal church. All inhabitants belonged to one of these churches, but the Pentecostal church had approximately 30 members and all of them were Roma, while all other villagers belonged to the Orthodox Church and both Romanian and Roma were members. Of all survey respondents, 60% answered to be Orthodox and 40% Pentecostal. An important difference between the churches was the frequency of people going to the services. Orthodox services were held only on Sundays and holidays, while Pentecostals had meetings three times a week. Table 5.1 clearly demonstrates the difference in church attendance. 73

85 Table 5.1 Church attendance among Roma Frequency of going to church Orthodox Pentecostal Less than once a month Once a month Every two weeks Every week More than once a week Total Source: own survey Of the Orthodox Roma, only 5.6% replied to go to church every week and these respondents belonged to the older generation. Most of them, 61.1%, went less than once a month. On the contrary, 75% of the Pentecostals declared to attend more than one service a week and actually nobody went less than once a month. While the Orthodox had a real church building, the Pentecostals came together in the home of a Roma family living in a large Saxon house. One of the rooms was furnished with chairs and one keyboard, which were all donated by a foreign church. Apart from these donations, the Pentecostals did not have contact with foreign churches. They did not exchange information, or other forms of assistance. The only form of cooperation was with seven other Pentecostal churches in the region, but this was limited to collecting money for funerals. As some households had both Orthodox and Pentecostal members, many families had contacts along both religious lines. Besides, all Pentecostals declared to have just as much contact with Orthodox neighbours as with fellow Pentecostals. Thus, the Roma population was not divided and a division between Orthodox and Pentecostals did not extend to other spheres of social relations Cooperation in Fraternitate The Roma NGO Centru de Resurse pentru Comunitare de Romi (CRCR) from Cluj-Napoca created Asocia ia Fraternitate in It was an officially registered Community Based Organisation (CBO), which focused on the improvement of Roma conditions and interethnic relations. The executive committee of Fraternitate was composed of 7 Roma and 4 Romanians from Nem a. This committee was formed after several meetings with a facilitator sent by CRCR. Everyone could join and approximately 30 people came to the first meeting. After several meetings, 11 people remained to form an executive committee. The facilitator explained in training sessions about involvement, how to write project proposals, how to organise projects and that it was important to collaborate with the local authorities. All ideas for projects were discussed. In the end, the committee decided to renovate the primary school. The school still had toilets in small cabins in the back of the garden, which was no longer allowed. The people were afraid that the School Inspectorate would close the school and that all children had to go to Mo na. As all families sent their children to school in Nem a, this would be a good project for the whole community. They received US$ 2000, which they used for materials. The physical work was done by the men, not only the committee members, but by other parents too. They also improved the principal s room and bought a computer for the school, which they as committee can use for meetings. The members of the committee and all other villagers were very proud on this project. On many occasions they told me how hard they worked, even after dinner and after they finished working on their own land. 74

86 An important element of the process was that Roma and Romanians discussed on an equal level and they had identified a project together. The Roma members were all men and the Romanians were women. Cooperation went well during meetings and for preparations, but when the physical work had to be done, the Roma and Romanians had different opinions. As it were the men who did the construction work, the Romanian women were less involved in this phase of the project. They did come to see how the men were working and gave comments on practical matters. Apparently, the men did not do the work exactly as they had agreed on in advance. This led to some quarrelling, but in the end everyone was happy with the achievements of the projects. Fraternitate was recommended by CRCR to the Dutch NGO Heifer Nederland. This NGO donated 48 goats to 15 Roma families in November In May 2005, the new- born goats had to be passed on to other Roma and Romanian families. In this way, the families were assisted in their livelihood and networks between Romanians and Roma should strengthen. This occasion was celebrated with a big feast to which many foreign and national NGOs were invited. Nem a had become the good case and an example to other villagers. Heifer brought more goats in September One of the purposes to form this association was to create a body of villagers that maintained dialogue with the local authorities. In the beginning, when they carried out the school project, collaboration with the local authorities sometimes went difficult. It was more a disagreement on a practical matter than a lack of will or involvement by one of the parties. The committee members and authorities had different opinions on the exact location of the toilets. Actually, the members did not want to collaborate with the authorities; at first they wanted to make it their project. The Roma said about this: We live here in the village, we know what is good for us. It is good that we as association received the money ourselves, because we know best. We had a quarrel with the mayor about the location of the toilets, but when they came and looked how we were working, they were alright with it. Then they gave the doors as donation. That is good, because actually it is the responsibility of the mayor to renovate the school. Now we did it. (Iulu, 44, Roma committee member) Mayor Roba said about this: They were very enthusiastic, they wanted to start building as soon as possible. Then one week they had drawn a map and the toilets were there. And next week they had decided to put it somewhere else! But we had to collaborate; if they want to change a plan, they should discuss with us. And they needed an extra contribution, so the local government paid for the doors. Apart from the school project and the starting phase of the goat project, the committee and the local authorities do not collaborate on a structural basis. Nor is the committee active in promoting interests of the Roma or villagers in general. As we will see in the section 5.2, other institutions already existed to keep the link between the authorities and the sat Respect instead of leadership When asking about persons that were important for the sat, the Roma often said that the CBO Fraternitate was important, instead of mentioning specific persons. The members of Fraternitate initiated good projects; the school was renovated and people had received goats. This is something the people were really proud of and they explicitly said that this helped to 75

87 sustain their families. Roma in Nem a did not acknowledge one of them as a leader; someone they listened to or obeyed. They singled out a few persons who were doing good things for the sat and the igani. These people were respected, but nobody would call them leaders. They had in common that they were all active members of the Community Based Organisation Fraternitate. One was the man who was working in the shop, who kept the lists of the people that bought on credit. He was also the one who initiated the collection of money for funerals. Both tasks were considered important and helped the Roma in their daily life subsistence. Another person was the man who led the Pentecostal church. He was also the one who kept the lists of people who needed to pay for the keeping of the goats. People called him a wise man, somebody who could give advise. An expression often used was omn cum s cade; a man of good intentions. A third person mentioned was his brother. People told he was clever, but sometimes self-willed. He had studied the content of legal articles while he was in hospital for tuberculosis. With this knowledge, he always retorted to the mayor and councillors in a village meeting. People acknowledged that he absolutely wanted the best for the sat, he just had a big mouth. It was him who once sent a letter to the regional authorities in Sibiu to ask why families in Nem a did not receive the full 100% of the social allowance. The Roma mentioned also three Romanian women. The first was Mrs. Cornelia, the local councillor. Although Mrs. Cornelia was respected as a councillor, people did not see her as local leader. The villagers acknowledged her actions, but they saw her merely as someone fulfilling an official function. The same could be said about Mrs. Corina, who was the school director of Nem a s primary school. Her status went along with her function and this was why the Roma identified her as important person. Last, the Roma mentioned Mrs. Elena. She ran a bakery in Nem a and seven other shops in Media, and she owned the local shop and the bar. She was one of the richest people in the village. The Roma called her patrona, as she employed several villagers. However, unlike the three Roma men, she was singled out for her economic status and not for her activity in the community. Both Elena and Corina were members of Fraternitate. 5.2 Relation with the local authorities This section discusses the relation between the Roma and the local authorities. To start with, we will have a look at the whole of attitudes toward each other; what do Roma think off different local government institutions and vice versa. In addition, what do both parties expect from each other. Also, we will pay some attention to the political trust that the Roma have in their authorities. Before I will start with the discussion of the Roma opinions on the authorities, let me first introduce the members of the local authorities. The governing body in Mo na consisted of the mayor, the vice-mayor and 13 councillors in the local council. Table 5.2 presents the party membership of the mayor, vice-mayor and councillors. The Social Democratic Party was the largest, followed by a second social democratic party. Another ten officials worked in the town hall, of which some often deal with the villagers. These are for example the bookkeeper, an engineer, and an official who was responsible for the social benefit. 76

88 Table 5.2 Official Party membership of the local government since 2004 elections Party Mayor Social Democrat Party (PSD) Vice-mayor Rroma Party (RP) Councillors Social Democrat Party (PSD): 5 Democratic Party (PD): 3 Rroma Party (RP): 2 Liberal Party (PNL): 1 Conservative Party (PC): 1 No Party member: 1 Source: Interview with Mayor Eugen Roba, 5 th of October 2005 The present mayor, the Romanian Eugen Roba, was serving his second mandate; he was reelected in the 2004 local elections. The vice-mayor, Marius, is Roma and one of the wealthy villagers in Mo na. Two of the twelve councillors are Roma and all from Mo na too. Nem a is represented by one councillor; the Romanian Mrs. Cornelia. The survey (N = 30) included a set of questions on the Roma s opinions about the performance of the local authorities. Questions on how the authorities were functioning, what they did for the people and the village, usually led to answers that described what the mayor did for them. The reason for this was that the mayor was the face of the local authorities; it accompanied his status, but he was also the one the villagers see most, apart from Nem a s councillor. He visited Nem a at least once a week, while the vice-mayor and councillors kept their occupations in Mo na. The Roma evaluated the performance of the mayor to be quite good (Appendix B). An overwhelming majority of the respondents considered him a good or even very good mayor. The vice-mayor, even though he was Roma, scored a little less than the mayor. The people made a few remarks about this. First of all, the vice-mayor owned one of the two shops in Nem a, but in this one the people could not buy on credit. The people considered it a great help for their daily life that they could pay on credit in Elena s shop. Another reason was that he was not as frequently seen in the village as the mayor. As he was active in keeping the relationship with the regional authorities and the regional Roma Party, he did not visit Nem a often. Also the councillors received good scores, but this result needs a few remarks. To the villagers, face and voice of the local council was Mrs. Cornelia, the Romanian councillor from Nem a. When the Roma answered the question about the councillors, actually all of them gave a score to Mrs. Cornelia and only afterwards said something like: Our councillor is very good, the others are more in Mo na s cube. Many of the people in Nem a thought that the council was mainly interested in the village Mo na and not in the sat Nem a. Remarkably, the Roma evaluated the local authorities on different levels. The first level is a personal one and is about the kindness of the mayor and that he is willing to talk to anybody, illustrated by a quote from Iulu : The mayor is a good man. I like him very much. Whether he is a good mayor? This is my answer; I think he is a good mayor 70%. This 70% is because he is a good and kind man. I agree with him for 70%. For 30% he has different political ideas. I do not agree with him. A ranking exercise with 30 persons had to indicate what Roma considered to be important aspects for evaluation of government performance. In the first place, 49.5% found it most important that officials such as the mayor and vice-mayor are open to them. Openness is the first characteristic that they expected from officials and the first aspect they evaluate. This 77

89 meant open for discussions, for questions and requests. The Roma considered it highly important that the mayor greeted and talked to them in the streets, and received them in his office. They were very much aware that Roma in other parts of the country were not well received in offices and they emphasised that the opposite was true for their comuna. In the second place, they evaluated the mayor and the council on what they did for the sat in terms of the whole village and community. This was considered most important by 36.3%. Issues mentioned were the maintenance of roads and public buildings like the school. Last, they evaluated the authorities on what they did for (their) individual families; 13.2% ranked this to be most important. Few families had submitted personal requests to the authorities. Examples were the family that requested an electricity stake and another family received a wheelchair for a disabled household member. Thus, the people differentiated attitudes from action. The survey therefore included questions on the satisfaction with the attitude of officials in their contact with the Roma (Appendix B). Again, the mayor received the highest scores for his openness and receptiveness. The vice-mayor received a slightly lower score, for the same reasons as already mentioned. The councillors were also considered open in communication, but again the Roma made a difference between their councillor from Nem a and the others. In general, people were quite satisfied with the way the authorities addressed the needs of the sat. Specific issues will be discussed in the next section. Figure 5.1 shows that 63.3% thought that the authorities did quite well and 16.7% thought very well. Only 10% thought negative about the actions of the local government. Their criticism was mainly related to the small amount of social assistance. Respondents highlighted the renovation of the câmin cultural that summer. Every family from the sat had contributed with 100,000 Lei (appr. 34,-). The mayor had asked for this contribution, because all families made use of the câmin for celebrations. Although some families had disagreed, the majority thought it was natural to contribute and in the end everyone paid. Figure 5.1 Satisfaction about the way the authorities address the needs of the people 16,7 3,3 10 6,7 63,3 bad neutral good very good don't know Source: own survey, N = 30 Questions on political trust were also related to local government activities in the sat. Roma were asked whether they trusted that the authorities would help in case a problem occurred in the village. Results are shown in Figure 5.2, in which we can see that only 13.3% had no trust in the authorities at all that they would be assisted. The majority, 56.7% had a little trust in the authorities, 20% had much trust and a small minority of 10% had very much trust in the authorities that they would help the villagers in case of problems. Respondents gave the example of one of the bridges that was washed away in a heavy storm one month earlier. It was reported to the authorities and everyone was convinced the authorities would act upon it. The same question was asked in case someone had a personal problem. How much trust did the Roma have that the local authorities will help them? The answers, shown in 78

90 Figure 5.3, did not differ much from the previous question. Of the survey respondents said 16.7% not to have any trust that the local authorities would help. The share of people who said that they had some trust was again a majority with 63.3%, and 13.3% said they had much trust in the authorities. Only 3.3% said to have very much trust in the authorities to receive personal help. Figure 5.2 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of communal problems Figure 5.3 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of personal problems ,3 56,7 no trust a little trust much trust very much trust 13,3 3,3 16,7 no trust a little trust much trust 63,3 very much trust don't know Source: own survey, N = 30 The Roma did not often go to the town hall personally and as a consequence they did not have much to tell about the officials working there. None of the Roma who went there had complaints. Of course, it is due to the distance and lack of transport that the Roma do not quickly go to Mo na themselves. However, nobody thought this to be a problem. Much could be arranged through the councillor and people addressed the mayor when he visited the sat. They evaluated the attitude and performance of the officials rather neutral. Let us now look at the opinions of the local authorities. In two interviews with the mayor, he did not make a difference between the different ethnic groups in the sat, nor did he separate problems in Nem a from those in the rest of the comuna. It was notable that he spoke of oameni în satul, people in the village, and never of Roma and Romanians separately. This was in contrast to the situation in the second village, as we will see in the next chapters. When asking about the Roma in specific, he answered that they were harnici, hard working people, but unfortunately not as wealthy as Romanians. Therefore, many of them received social assistance. He did say that the Roma might be less gospodar and did not know very well how to spend their money. On the other hand, he did not think that they were much to blame for their lower level of welfare. He considered the economic situation in Romania, the closing of the factories in Media, and the geographical isolation of Nem a to be the main causes of poverty. He expected from them to keep the sat clean and to pay their taxes in time as any other villager, and he did not have any complaints regarding these matters. As more Roma than Romanians received social assistance, they were more involved in obligatory community work. The mayor expected them to comply with this rule. Community work was organised by the councillor in Nem a and also in this case the mayor was satisfied. Especially regarding the social relations between Roma and Romanians the comuna could be an example for other localities in the country. Also the vice-mayor, a Roma himself, reflects this opinion in an interview. On social relations in the comuna, he said: 79

91 Here, we have no problems between people. Here Romanians and Roma invite each other. You won t see that in other places. As a result, you can see I am vice-mayor. It is difficult to reach such a position, but I made it and I am Roma. The people respect me, both Roma and Romanians. Also the vice-mayor confirmed that the only difference between Roma and Romanians is that the latter had better living conditions. The councillor from Nem a highlighted the work ethic of the Roma. 5.3 Interaction around critical issues This section describes the most important forms of contact between the Roma and local authorities, concentrating around four critical issues. We will take a closer look on the 2004 elections, and then proceed to the activities undertaken by the local authorities for the village and for the Roma in specific. It will be demonstrated how the Roma played an active role regarding these issues. Social assistance, maintenance of infrastructure, information, and the way authorities involve Roma in decision-making were the critical issues singled out by Roma NGOs (see section 1.3.2). Before fieldwork was carried out, employees of Roma NGOs agreed in several interviews that these are key issues in the evaluation of a relationship between Roma and local authorities The 2004 Local Elections In times of elections, the authorities paid much attention to the village. This should be seen as an exceptional form of contact, as it did not have to do with day-to-day politics. Seven candidates ran for the mayor s office. Each of them came one afternoon or evening to the câmin cultural, to present their statements. Also in Mo na were some events in the câmin and several Roma declared that they attended these happenings as well. Among the candidates were the present mayor Roba, who was the actual mayor at that time too, and vice-mayor Marius. From the sat, Roma man Iulu and the Romanian woman Cornelia ran for councillors. Roba had invited Iulu to join the Social Democrat Party, but Iulu had joined the Roma Party just before he got this offer. One comment has to be made; mayor Roba had chosen very strategic moments to do some renovation works in the sat. Just before the elections, he had all public lights constructed and roads repaired in the village. All was financed from the local budget and completely legitimate, but of course this was a very strategic move to be reelected. Moreover, for two months all beneficiaries to the social assistance received 100% of the benefit, while the local elections were held in September and in that time of the year people receive 30%. On the day of elections, villagers went to the polls with their own family. It was of course a special day, but everything went well. Roba and Marius were thus elected for respectively mayor and vice-mayor. Iulu lost from Cornelia. Iulu is a respected among the Roma, but they thought the Romanian woman to be more capable in dealing with the councillors from Mo na. 80

92 5.3.2 Critical Issues Social Assistance In the comuna Mo na, 280 households received social assistance; ajutor social. In Nem a 62 households were on the list of beneficiaries, of which only two Romanian. According to Nem a s councillor Mrs. Cornelia, these Romanian households were both newly-wed couples, who received only a very small amount of assistance. Of all survey respondents, 63.3 % received this benefit. Social assistance was paid regularly on the 6 th of every month, which made it a reliable source of income. From April until October, people did not receive 100% of the amount they are entitled to. Mayor Eugen Roba commented on this: We did not cut the social assistance on purpose; we received only 30% of the total amount from the state. In the summer, we consider that people can find seasonal work from April. We expect them to work for the amount of RON 50, which means two days of work. They can do this; they can work for two days a month. I see healthy, young men between 30 and 40, who receive social assistance. They should not be lazy they can work in the summer. From October we think people cannot find work anymore and we pay 50%. In the harsh winter, December till March, we pay 100%. All respondents in the survey were satisfied with the regularity of the payment. However, all families agreed that the amount was too small. Survey respondents were asked to indicate their satisfaction with government activities on a scale from 0 to 4, of which 0 reflects absolute dissatisfaction, 2 is neutral and 4 is very satisfied. As Figure 5.4 demonstrates, a large share of the respondents (36.7%) was absolutely unsatisfied with the amount of social assistance and 30% were just a little satisfied. Some of them even suggested the local government did not distribute all they received from the regional authorities. Iulu wrote a letter to the regional authorities in Sibiu. He received a reply, saying that the local government did not do wrong. Figure 5.4 Satisfaction with the amount of social assistance Percent 20 36, , ,3 3,3 very unsatisfied neutral satisfied N.A. unsatisfied Score Source: own survey, N = 30 (N.A. = not applicable; no beneficiary) Of each household receiving social assistance, one member was obligated to work 72 hours a month for the community. The way in which this obligatory community (Presta i) work was organised was taken as indicator for the just behaviour of local authorities toward Roma. In Nem a, the councillor was responsible for the organisation and control of the 72-hour work. The Roma agreed that the work was chosen correctly and to the benefit of the whole community. Many of them considered it very important that their village looked clean and 81

93 organised. The only comment they had, was that not every person was working as hard as others; Some are smoking a cigaret in the shadow, while others are working! (Roma man, 42). Councillor Cornelia kept an accurate list of households and decided what work they should do. People who received only a small amount of assistance did not have to work as much as others. Activities varied from cleaning the streets, to building bridges over streams in the fields for horses and carts. Due to heavy rainfall and floods in many parts of the country, she paid much attention to the drainages and small channels this year. The people had to clean and deepen them, to make sure all water would flow away. A heavy storm on month earlier had washed away one of the bridges over the stream in the main street. The people had proposed to repair it themselves for their community work. If the authorities would pay for the wood, they could fetch it with a cart and build a bridge. They did not have to fulfil the 72- hour work in the winters, when it was very cold and there is too much snow in the streets. In two cases, Mrs. Cornelia organised collective work apart from the Presta i. When parts of the village streets were overflown, she called people to deepen the channels to avoid that the road would wash away. It would be on top of their community work and thus she could not oblige them to come. To compensate, she went to the regional authorities in Sibiu and asked for extra funding. She wanted to pay more social assistance to those people that worked, as the work was heavy and lasted many hours. In a second case, she had organised a team to bring cable connection from Mo na to Nem a. A wealthy Romanian, who had moved to Nem a from the city, wanted cable TV and was willing to finance the costs of all materials needed. Other villagers could have cable too, if they helped to bring it to the sat. A cable of three kilometres long had to be placed one meter deep into the soil. Mrs. Cornelia brought a team of people together and kept lists with names and working hours. They gathered at eight in the morning in the centre, and worked till the evening. The job was finished after ten days. Infrastructure The local government was responsible for roads, electricity and public streetlights, channels and bridges in the main street, and the Saxon houses that they rent to families. It was an indicator of good behaviour if they did this work and whether they did the same for Roma streets as for Romanian streets. From observation and discussions with the Roma, it became clear that the authorities maintained all works mentioned, except for the Saxon houses. The explanation for this is that not all families living in Saxon houses paid their rent and as a result the authorities had no funds for renovation. One of the houses looked very well maintained and their façade looked brand new. A Roma family lived here, of which the man had a job in Media and they had paid the rent from his salary. The local government did maintain all other elements and made no difference between the Roma and Romanian streets. Figures 5.5 and 5.6 show the Roma s satisfaction with respectively the quality of the streets and electricity, as came out from the survey. It shows that the Roma were not as satisfied with the quality of the streets as with electricity. However, one month after this survey was carried out, the authorities brought six trucks with stones to repair holes in streets where actually live only Roma. In a edin [village meeting] held in the spring, the mayor decided together with the councillor and the people that small bridges in the fields around Nem a had to be repaired. This was carried out by the people as community work for social assistance. The kindergarten, the school and the câmin cultural were renovated in Many Roma asked me: Have you seen our câmin? It has become very bright! Also in the other sat Alma Vii the school was restored. 82

94 Figure 5.5 Satisfaction with maintenance of the roads Percent 20 36, ,7 13,3 23, absoluteley unsatisfied Source: own survey, N = 30 unsatisfied neutral satisfied very satisfied Score Regarding electricity in public places; public streetlights were everywhere in the sat and electricity wires were recently repaired where needed. As described in section 4.2.1, the Roma family living in the last house of Strad Brazilor was assisted to construct electricity. As a result, satisfaction with the facilitation was quite high; 50% of the respondents answered that they were satisfied and 10% said to be very satisfied. Figure 5.6 Satisfaction with the facilitation of electricity Percent ,7 26,7 6,7 absolutely unsatisfied neutral satisfied very unsatisfied satisfied Score Source: own survey 10 All renovations were big expenses for a local budget. The bookkeeper in Mo na explained that hardly anything was renovated during Roba s first mandate to save money. With these savings, they now managed to renovate the public buildings and roads. In addition, the authorities had looked for special funds from ministries and applied to the European Commission. They also managed to receive funds from their foreign acquaintances. For example, the Ministry of Transport and the French acquaintances financed the asphalt road in In an interview, the mayor told they had just won a project from the European Commission and the Ministry of Education. Mo na will receive 50,000 euros from the programme Access to Education for Disadvantaged Groups, With Special Focus on Roma. The vice-mayor had seen the Roma Councillor to the Prefect, an institution at the regional authorities in Sibiu, to discuss the programme. The comuna then applied for this fund. This money will be used to renovate school buildings and place a heating system, but also to provide poor families, among which many Roma, with school materials. The vice-mayor, who had close connections with the Roma Party and the Roma Councillor to the Prefect in Sibiu, tried to be informed on all funding possibilities. 83

95 Information, consultation, and involvement Inhabitants of Nem a had contact with the local authorities on a number of occasions. Roma mention in the first place their councillor from the sat; Mrs. Cornelia. It is very common to turn to her with all sorts of questions and requests, which she takes to Mo na if she could not handle issues on the spot. She said she was supposed to work two days in Mo na, but because of the many villagers coming to her house, she worked one day in Mo na and the other in Nem a. Second, people went to Mo na on their own, which for most villagers meant a onehour walk over the hills. Usually they needed to go for documents like birth certificates, identity papers and, in the case they are beneficiaries of the social benefit, certificates to be admitted to the hospital. In these cases they dealt with the staff in the town hall. For other requests and special cases, they could meet with the mayor and vice-mayor. They had office hours from 9 to11 AM, but people came all day long. All people reported that especially the mayor was willing to receive everybody in his office, also outside consult hours. The authorities employed several means to announce public information in the village. The local councillor played an important role in providing information. Three other ways existed. Sometimes posters were put on the walls of the two shops and the câmin cultural, where surely everyone would see them. As all Roma could read and write, they had access to this information. In such way, the local authorities announced the date and time of a council meeting five days in advance and included an agenda. Council meetings were open to public. The vice-mayor said in an interview that it did happen that villagers came to the meetings, although most were from Mo na, and that they came up with ideas. Another way to provide information was to beat the drum. This was a custom that is found in several places in Romania. If information or an event, like a edin [village meeting], had to be announced at once, a man walked through the village while beating a drum and announcing out loud what is happening. The drum was passed from father to son. Not only the authorities could use this method to make announcements, but also other families in the village. Figure 5.7 presents the satisfaction of the Roma with the way the local government furnished information. Figure 5.7 Satisfaction with the way local authorities provide information Percent ,7 13,3 absolutely unsatisfied neutral satisfied very unsatisfied satisfied Score Source: own survey Third, the mayor came to the câmin cultural for a meeting with all villagers; a edin, several times a year (Box 5.1). It was mentioned in the third place by Roma, but the mayor himself thought this to be the most important occasion. In my opinion, this reflected that the Roma rank these occasions after what was important in their day-to-day life, while to the mayor a edin was important for his function, to show leadership in public and to coordinate issues 84

96 in the total comuna. In an interview with the mayor, it became clear that he did not separate issues in Nem a from the total comuna. One example: I try to go to Nem a and Alma every month or every two months for a meeting with the whole community. We discuss all issues and problems that are important to the village. Since I became mayor in 2000, I gave even more attention to Alma Vii and Nem a than to Mo na, because in the two sat the conditions of the roads were worse. I cannot make difference between the villages. Box 5.1 Interaction between authorities and villagers: a edin Taxes, school busses and the European Union in the câmin. The mayor organised a edin in Nem a in early October. The rumour that the mayor would come for a meeting was already heard for two days. Finally, the man beat the drum to announce it. The mayor, the vice mayor, the engineer and the councillor from Nem a took place behind a table in the front of the câmin cultural. Villagers trickled in and took place on the benches. Only 50 people came, as the time of the meeting was exactly at the moment the herds were coming back from the fields and most adults were waiting for their animals in the streets. The mayor welcomes the people and tells that the major issue for this meeting is an upcoming agricultural law and related subsidies in preparation of Romania s accession to the European Union. After this, the mayor wants to make a few announcements and finally, people are free to ask questions. The engineer and the mayor explained in turn that a new law will oblige the people to use machines to milk goats and cows. Everyone who sells milk to the market has to use machines and can no longer milk by hand. The European Union provides subsidies to compensate costs. The mayor explained the law and the possibility to receive a subsidy of 65%, and that people have to think of buying machines collectively instead if one machine for each family. After compensation, a machine will still cost from 13 million up to 24 million Lei (note: this means at least 365,-, while the average income of a household is 60,-). People were protesting; they sold only so little, why should they buy a machine if it s not much? The mayor explained once again about European Union legislation and that the purpose of the edin is that the people are at least informed. The mayor proceeded to announcements. Everyone paid their taxes, for which he thanked those present. He also thanked the people who cleaned the sat before the arrival of guest from Germany. The cleaning was done as communal work for social assistance. A third announcement was that a French delegation from the twinning village might donate a sum to renovate the interior of the câmin cultural. Last, the mayor said that transport to Mo na for the pupils of the 9 th grade would be earlier in the winter. The mayor then invited the people to ask questions. One man asked about a piece of land that is still not given back to Nem a after communism, which the villagers want to use for their goats. The mayor said he was still expecting a reply from the regional authorities in Sibiu. Another man asked for more stones to improve the streets. Six trucks were delivered in the previous month, but more was needed. The mayor answered that trucks were ordered and they were supposed to come soon. The last question was about the amount of the social benefit, which provoked substantial discussion. The people asked why they received only 35%, if the state provided 80% of the money. The mayor replied that the local government had received only 30% from the regional authorities in Sibiu. The people did not seem to believe it and started talking out loud. The mayor promised it would be more in the winter and that gas and wood for heating would be compensated. People will receive restitution for their gas bills and wood will be provided. After the meeting, the people gathered around the mayor and other officials to ask all kind of personal questions. The officials stayed another half an hour to discuss with them and then left. Source: own observations 85

97 The custom to organise a edin in the câmin cultural is rooted in the communist period. The Communist Party used to direct orders from the higher to the local level, which were made public in these meetings. Meetings were also used to propagate nationalistic ideas. In Nem a, the new authorities frequently came for a edin to resolve the issue of land re-distribution after From what the villagers told, it appeared that for candidate mayors it then became a stake in their election campaigns; they promised to hold a edin on a regular basis. Two survey questions were related to the edin. The first question asked the people to indicate how often they attend village meetings. Figure 5.8 shows the results. As we can see, attendance was high. Half of the people attended every edin and 26.7% went almost every time. The answers seldom and very rarely were given by respectively 20% and 3.3%. Nobody answered never. The second question asked to indicate a reason for attending the meetings. Respondents could give only one answer. In Figure 5.9, we see that most respondents, 53.3%, opted for it is important for my family. Less respondents, 36.7%, opted for it is important for the community. Only 10% answered that they go because everybody goes. Figure 5.8 Attendance to a edin Figure 5.9 Reasons for going to a edin 50 3, ,7 very rarely sometimes almost every time every time 10 53,3 36,7 important for the community important for my family everybody is going Source: own survey, N = 30 The Roma told about the issues discussed during a edin and how the people interacted with the mayor and other officials. The Roma mentioned issues like taxes, renovations, legislation and administration of agricultural land. For the villagers, a edin was an opportunity to request things for the sat or their household, but also to give comments on local government s plans. For some issues, villagers were directly involved in decision-making during a edin. This was the case when the French proposed to finance either a road or a bus. It was also customary to choose the shepherds for different animals collectively. The mayor asked anyone who is interested to apply and to mention a price. The people chose the shepherd in the following procedure: We know all men who want to become shepherds. People who have cows choose the shepherd for the cows. People who have goats chose the shepherd for the goats. We negotiate about the price, but we also look at the person if it is someone who knows much about animals. If he knows how to remove a stone from a hoof and to disinfect. I remember from when I was a small child that the people chose shepherds in this way. (Roma man, 48) 86

98 When the shepherd was chosen, the local government provided him with an official contract, but the people themselves paid for his wage. All people that had animals pay a fee for each animal to Iulu, one of the respected Roma and member to the association. Iulu administered the list of contributors and pays the wage to the shepherd. Another example was the issue of a night guard for the agricultural land. In this case, the villagers themselves could not agree whether to employ a night guard or not. The mayor let the villagers vote during a edin for a couple of times, but so far the majority did not want to contribute for a night guard. As we can see, the people were involved in issues that relate to the level of the sat only. When it came to taxes or allocation of funds to renovate public buildings in the sat, it was the government that decided. However, the mayor said they had not increased taxes for land in the last four years, because the villagers had complained that they did not have enough money. Formally, the Roma were represented by the vice-mayor and two Roma councillors. As was said, the Roma had more confidence in their councillor than in any other councillor from Mo na. One other Roma man from Nem a candidated in the local elections, but the most Roma voted for the Romanian woman. A Roma man called Mircea said, smiling: Our present councillor is very straight and resolute. She dares to speak, she knows to help everybody. Our Iulu (the Roma candidate) is more of speaking and less action. He is more philosophical. Yes, he is wise. But the people preferred somebody who acts. Association Fraternitate also counted as an official body that represents the Roma interests and should maintain dialogue with the authorities. So far, the members of the association fulfilled this task only in respect to the school and goat projects. As has become clear, the villagers had possibilities to participate in politics during a edin. They were heard and, to some extent, they are involved in decision making. In turn, the authorities have the possibility to ask the people s opinions. Results from the survey in Figure 5.10 show that 53.3% of the Roma said to be not very satisfied and 26.7% was satisfied with the way the authorities consulted the Roma, 10% declared to be neutral, and 6.7% was very unsatisfied. Figure 5.10 Satisfaction with the way local authorities involve the Roma Percent ,7 53, ,7 3,3 absolutely unsatisfied neutral satisfied don't know unsatisfied Score Source: own survey When Roma came to talk about local politics in general, they were less positive than when they spoke about the concrete activities that the authorities had actually done in sat. Again, 87

99 criticism evolved from the perception of the Roma that the authorities did much more for Mo na than for Nem a. Bradule, one of the respected Roma men, commented on the distance between people and politics. On the other hand, he did acknowledge that the people in the village might have a one-sided opinion on government performance: Our relation with the local authorities is more like the relation between a chief and his employees. It is not equal, there is a distance between them. While it should be equal. The mayor is speaking well with everyone. But he is just alone, for three villages. We are with many, we want much. Maybe we don t understand the situation well. Maybe he is away from the comuna often, maybe he also has a sick child sometimes. Maybe the local government does not have the money for all that we want. His brother Iulu relates the issue of involvement to the financial resources of the town hall: We do not really have influence on the authorities. Maybe we can give our opinion in a edin and if there is money our idea will be approved and else not. If something can be solved without money, then something is organised. If it can be resolved with the work of the people. Also if funding comes from outside, like with the Fraternitate projects, then they assit us. In a edin they are receptive to our problems, but there is not enough money. That is a problem in Romania in general. Much money is missing from the local budget. We do not have influence like: We want this and that and then they do it Linking people s expectations and government actions. Let us look again at the ideas of the Roma about their needs and see whether these were compatible with the ideas of the local authorities. As we have seen in section 5.2 the people expected the members of the local government to be open and receptive. As became clear from the survey, the authorities did meet this expectation. The Roma agreed that their biggest needs were opportunities for employment, better roads, and transport to the city, a permanent doctor, and some think it better to have a night guard. They do not expect the local authorities to be able to resolve the unemployment problem. Two other needs, public transport and a permanent doctor, they did not submit to any of the officials. They only spoke about this among themselves and nobody recalled that any of them have put requests to the authorities about the issues. The issue of roads was negotiated. When the mayor visited Nem a after heavy rainfall to see what damage was done, people asked for stones to improve the streets in the sat. This also counted for the issue of a night guard, but in this case the villagers themselves disagreed. The mayor used the edin as a platform to discuss about the matter. The câmin cultural was renovated that summer. It were the villagers who had brought this issue in a edin. Like the Roma, the mayor and vice-mayor thought the biggest problem in the sat was unemployment. The mayor was hopeful that the Dutch organisation Heifer wanted to finance a collecting point for goat milk, which would enable the villagers to sell their milk on the market. He also mentioned to maintain good relations with the Labour Office in Media and tried to send people there. Regarding the expectations of the villagers, the mayor thought some of the poor households expected too much at once. The local authorities had no budget to make everything right now. Both the mayor and the vice-mayor tried to find complementary funding, apart from what they received from the county council. As for the roads, six trucks with stones were brought one month after the storms. In the edin of October 2005, the villagers asked for more stones to be brought to the end of the sat, upon which the mayor promised that more trucks were ordered. Thus, those issues the villagers pushed forward themselves, were negotiated. They did not book success on the amount of 88

100 social assistance, but the mayor was receptive for the quality of the roads and the issue of a night guard. Conclusion The previous chapter described the social economic position of the Roma and showed that they had fewer opportunities to access the labour market than Romanians. Also, the Roma had less financial and natural resources. This chapter showed that the Roma did participate in the social and political spheres of the comuna. Networks of reciprocity were strong among themselves, but between Roma and Romanians this relationship was much more formal. On the other hand, they equally participated in each other s festivities. Although the Roma had less assets, they were involved in all other elements of village life. Social networks among the Roma were quite horizontally structured. A few Roma were respected for what they did to the community, but none of them had the authority to tell others what to do. People were familiar with collective decision making within the institution of the Vecinitate. Leadership over this form of organisation rotated and member decided collectively how the money that was left was to be spend. The administrative system used for the Roma Vecinitate for funerals, was later copied for the administration of the Heifer goat project. The success of the school project and the Heifer goat project may be explained by the skills Roma and Romanians had already acquired through these village traditions. The Roma were also able to participate in all stages of the projects, because all had a certain level of education. It needs to be said that much of the Roma s social activity was possible, because they had at least a minimum of assets. They emphasised how they helped each other with work. This is only possible because they had work to do, on their land and with their houses. They had tools to lend out and had a certain minimum that could be shared. Interaction with the local authorities was partly mediated by the local councillor, Mrs. Cornelia. Also, interaction was institutionalised in a edin [village meeting]. Although the people still thought that the local authorities were more interested in Mo na than in Nem a, in recent years the authorities had carried out just as many activities in the sat as in the centru de comuna. The edin offered the people the possibility to comment, request and also to participate in decision making. Roma and Romanians participated equally. Although it used to be a communist habit, it was continued after the regime change. In general, the Roma were quite satisfied with local government performance. This was partly caused by the open attitude of local officials, especially the mayor. On the other hand, they also expressed to be satisfied with specific activities. What was remarkable, was that many Roma agree with a certain degree of complementarity between government actions and the people. If they provide the resources, we will do the manual work, was something many of them confirmed. Although not everyone was happy with the authorities, many tried to see it in a broader perspective. They reflected on the general situation in Romania or indicated that the present national government was a liberal one and not a social government. On the side of the local authorities, it can be stated that they addressed needs of the whole sat, of all villagers, and did not discriminate against Roma. The authorities put efforts in finding extra funding, whether from Romanian state institutions or through foreign acquaintances. The openness of the mayor, the vice-mayor and the local councillor may be personal attributes, but the people s expectations that they should be open and the vote they had to cast, may have influenced that the officials actually were responsive. The existing situation in Nem a, with its social activities, its history, and people being very familiar with one another, may have resulted in responsive governance. 89

101 6. Roma in Ogra A growing community, increasing needs Picture: Children standing in front of their house in the Roma quarter. Most houses were built during the 1990s. Most Roma do not have the resources to use bricks and build their houses from clay. 90

102 Introduction Ogra is a comuna situated in Mure county, a district named after the Mure river. Due to the heavy rainfall the river flooded in the summer of 2005, causing immense damage to many villages in the county. The county is well known for its large ethnic Hungarian population; almost 40% in It was in Mure capital Târgu Mure where post-communist tensions between Romanians and Hungarians led to violent riots in 1993, causing a number of deaths. The city was a centre of industrial production during communist times and people from all surrounding villages came to work here. Many of the factories closed down after the regime change. The main road from Târgu Mure to Cluj-Napoca leads trough the comuna Ogra. Coming from Târgu Mure it is about 20 kilometres to this village close to the Mure river. Minibusses connect the city to all villages belonging to Mure county that are located along the road and run every fifteen minutes. Before one reaches Ogra, the winding road runs through several other smaller and larger comuna s and fields. A couple of times, one passes by long-shaped barns so typical for the communist era. Most of them are abandoned, but some are put into use by new landowners. Houses have the typical trenches in front and many people grow vines in their gardens. The farming lands around the villages are mostly used for cattle and corn. North from the road, one can catch a glimpse from the Mure river. In Ogra, the minibus stops in the centre, just in front of the newly built public garden with a bust of Romania s national poet Mihai Eminescu. What the villagers call centre is an open space along the road, flanked by the public garden, in front of the row with two shops, two bars, the pharmacy, and the small post office. Here the villagers have their conversations about animals, land, and the weather. In the evenings the sound of rumouring voices comes from the bars. A bit further down the road is the town hall. This grey building is a clear trace from the communist period, with Romanian flags flapping in the wind. The câmin cultural is attached to the town hall. It is in need of renovation, but still used for festivities and events. The busy road thus divides the village into a northern and a southern part. The centre and the town hall are on the northern side. On this side are also the Orthodox Church and the Hungarian Reformed Church. Most Romanians and Hungarians live in the northern part and, since a couple of years, also a few Roma families live here. Houses on this side are large and many have large vegetable gardens. Shallow channels in front of the houses drain all rainwater away to the Mure river. South from the road one can see one row of Romanian and Hungarian houses. At the back of these houses, three to four meter high fences surround the back yards. These fences mark the end of the Romanian and Hungarian part and the first street of the Roma quarter. Differences are clearly visible. From here, houses are small and look like they could break down after one heavy storm. Only few houses are made of bricks and many roofs are constructed of straw and a piece of nylon. Streets are very uneven. As here are no channels, the streets change into pools of mud after rainfall. Only two electricity stakes rise above the Roma quarter and public street lights were never installed. Most families tap their electricity illegally from the two stakes or from neighbours. The Roma refer to their neighbourhood as cartier, which is the Romanian word for quarter. Romanians and Hungarians say iganie or that quarter on the other side of the road. Only the first street of the cartier has a name, Strada Unirii, but not all Roma know about this. This chapter is set up like chapter 4. It will start with a description of Ogra s history, developments after the fall of communism and the changing circumstances for the Roma. In section 6.2 I will describe the socio-economic position of the Roma in the cartier and the problems they face in everyday life. The next chapter will discuss the social networks, community structure, and the relationship between Roma and local authorities. 91

103 6.1 A description of the village and its history Village population Ogra is a comuna with seven smaller villages, the sat, scattered around it. Research was carried out in the village Ogra itself; this is the centru de comuna, which means that the local administration is seated here. The total population of the comuna is 2441, of which 64% lives in Ogra village. Table 6.1 shows the ethnic composition of the comuna as was recorded in the 2002 official census. Of the comuna s population is 21.99% Roma, of which most live here in the centru de comuna and not in the sat. Table 6.1 Ethnic composition of comuna Ogra in 2002 Ethnic group Absolute numbers Percentage of total population Romanians 1, % Hungarians % Roma % German % Ukrainian % Total 2, % 28 Source: Government census 2002 According to the mayor, Mr. Meghe an, this number was fairly accurate. He told that most Roma did declare their ethnic identity, for all spoke the Roma language Romani. He thought the actual number of Roma living in the comuna Ogra would be just slightly higher. One of the local councillors, who is Roma and living in the Roma quarter, thought that the number of Roma was actually higher. His estimation was based on the number of houses in the Roma cartier. The Roma quarter consisted of approximately a hundred houses. In the total comuna 960 were houses registered, of which 555 houses in Ogra village. The Roma councillor considered that Roma households were larger than Romanian or Hungarian households and in some cases two or three Roma households lived together in one house. Therefore, he estimated that the Roma made up for at least 25% to 30% of the village population. Roma from Ogra did not know why their people once settled here, or whether their ancestors came from a particular Roma group. What they did know was that their number used to be much smaller. In communist times, the Roma quarter was only one street large with a few other houses in the field behind it. In most houses lived more than one household. For Roma said that, the expansion of the Roma quarter was the most important development of the past 10 to 15 years. Asking about changes in their neighbourhood in the 1990s, many of them replied: Now so many more families live here in cartier and Now we have more streets. The quarter has become large, but people have nothing. Also the Romanian and Hungarian villagers mentioned the expansion of the Roma quarter. In their opinion, this was due to the large Roma families: The igani have many more children. They always had! Sometimes six or seven children in a household. In communist times were only few igani here. Now you see how many there are. After ten years, they will be the majority in Ogra! (Hungarian villager) 28 A complete data base of the 2002 national census can be found on Population numbers are given per county and locality, specifying for ethnic identity and mother language. 92

104 The Roma cited a few other reasons. For a long time, the police did not verify whether people lived legally in Ogra. Thus, several Roma families moved in from different places. As Ogra is situated along a connecting road it was easy to reach. Also, it often happened that a man found a wife in another village, who moved in with his family. The previous mayor allocated a few hectares of land to the Roma in the end of the 1990s. Young families and newly wed couples received a small piece of land to build their own house. This measure greatly reduced the problem of overcrowded houses. As a result, from two new streets were added to the cartier; around 30 small houses The Communist Legacy When speaking about their living conditions, Roma adults repeatedly referred to their fortunate lives under communist rule. Time and again, they emphasised that they never had to worry about food and that no differences existed between ethnic groups. However, one of the schoolteachers told that the conditions in the cartier were at present actually better than in communist times: Then their quarter was much less organised. The yards had no fences and animals were walking everywhere, making everything dirty. The people did not have toilets, no toilet boxes in the garden. All children had lice. They came to school dirty. Parents could buy school uniforms, but these were not compulsory. Now it is a little better in the cartier. Now they built fences and toilets. Some houses have electricity now. The pupils I taught in Ceau escu s time are now parents themselves. They have had at least some education and are a bit more gospodar. 29 (Anja Szente, primary school teacher) The older Roma, however, never related the communist period to the way their neighbourhood was organised. They only recalled how they enjoyed a certain basic level of livelihood. They acknowledged that conditions were far from wealthy, but at least they enjoyed an income and social services. Then we had work! We worked altogether for the collectives and we received corn, vegetables, and a little bit of money! I did not have to worry about tomorrow. I worked for what I needed and I received it. Everyone worked together; it did not matter whether you were Hungarian or igan. (Roma man, 45 ) My husband and I worked for the CAP. When I had small children, I stayed home, but when they were older I went again. Everything was so good in the past! The whole comuna was working. I don t remember how many equip, so many! And everybody together, Romanians, Hungarians and us igani. (Roma woman, 53) The Roma spoke so much of the good communist times that it was even difficult to receive information about how their work was organised. After one sentence with factual information, they would only say everything was better then!, after which they started talking about their problems to make a living. Slowly they gave some insights on what kind of work they 29 To manage a household well. See Box 4.3 in chapter 4 on the meaning of harnici and gospodar. 93

105 actually did. Most of them worked for the Cooperativa Agricola de Produc ie (CAP); on the land and on cattle breeding farms. The elderly worked in the large vegetable garden. Each family, including Roma families, received 15 are to use as a private garden and to cultivate for their own purpose. One Roma women described how she had to combine work on the CAP with keeping the household: Because we had the garden, we survived. My husband had died young. I had to look after my children. They were still very small. So, I could not work enough for the CAP to have one norm. I did not get much food from the CAP, but I could grow some potatoes in my garden. (Roma woman, 53) The engineer, who was employed in the town hall, used to be chief of a brigade until 1975 and President of the CAP from 1975 to He gave more information on how work was organised in the comuna. A total of 2,000 hectares was used for agriculture and cattle breeding. The long barns on the west side of the village still reminded of the CAPs. Indeed, every family had its private vegetable garden of 15 are. Before 1976, people worked the land in two brigades. Each comprised three teams, equip, of 30 to 40 people. The teams were mixed; Hungarians, Romanians and Roma worked together, but only Romanians were chiefs and administrators. Most Roma worked with the animals. According to the engineer: Only some of the older igani worked on the land, because only they were harnici. And they knew how they had to work it. The younger one worked more with the animals. Around 40% of the village population worked for the CAP. Most worked for cattle breeding farms. But most people from Ogra worked in the factories in Târgu Mure. Not the Roma, because they did not have enough education to work in the factories. As everywhere in the country, the organisation of agricultural production was directed from central level. The local administration did not decide what to produce; the county ordered the directors of the brigade - and later the firms - what to cultivate. After a reorganisation in 1976, six agricultural firms were created. From this moment, people worked more for firms instead of in equip. In the 1980s production shifted to cattle breeding and only three firms remained. Several Roma recalled they had attended the edin (village meetings) in the câmin cultural. In these meetings, the local government told how many norme (amounts of products and working hours) the people had to produce and what they people would receive for their work. Other Roma said they never attended these meetings, because the Roma were not allowed to enter. As several Roma could mention the issues discussed in meetings, it is likely that the authorities did not prohibit the Roma to attend the meetings. All labour activity was strictly administered. After the orders from the county level, the directors of the brigades or firms calculated how many norme the people had to produce. The chief and staff of the firms accurately administered names and working hours of the people. Thus, people were paid after the amount of norme they had produced and received goods and small amounts of money in the end of the month. It was an obligation to work, although someone did not receive severe sanctions if he did not show up for agricultural work. A person would simply have less working hours registered and consequently received smaller portions. For those working at the animal farms, rules were a bit stricter. The engineer gave the example that a person, who came 3 hours late for two days, would receive two days less working hours from the administration. Another method was to warn a family that it might lose its private garden. The older Roma do not recall that they had a strict schedule. As one woman explained: 94

106 We went to work when we wanted to. If we didn t want, we didn t go. Here the police did not come to put you to work. We went to work in order to receive food. They had lists of course; we received goods according to how much we worked for the CAP. If we did not want to work one day, or had to work in the house, we stayed home. (Roma woman, 54) Many villagers were employed in the factories in Târgu Mure. In order to become employed in a factory, one had to complete eight grades of education. Roma had had very little education and as a consequence only two or three Roma men worked in the factories. To avoid problems with the communist regime at county level, teachers let all pupils pass to the next grade every year, but actually few of the Roma could read or write. One teacher explained about the school during the communist period: Every morning at half past seven, we came together in the centre with the mayor. Then we went together in iganie and went from house to house to call the children to school. Child allocation did not exist, they did not come to school for that. When they opened the doors, animals came running out! What a smell came from their houses. We went to get them, every morning! Just like now, boys went to school more often than girls. Girls married on the age of 14 and became mothers! (Anja Szente, primary school teacher) After the revolution, a new local government was installed. A mayor was put to office, who stayed only a few months. Then a new mayor was elected, Mr. Vu, who served three mandates. He was mayor until 2004 and was then replaced by Mr. Meghe an. Meghe an was the son of the communist mayor who had held office during the last 15 years of communism. Like in Nem a, the first task of the new local government was to redistribute agricultural land to former owners. Land from the collectives had to be returned and also the private gardens were to be redistributed. This process took place in a completely different form compared to the way it was organised in Nem a. After the collapse of communism, the collectives did not immediately close. According to the engineer, the CAPs did not close until 1991 and the land was only afterwards re-distributed to the former owners. What happened was that many of the former officials appointed themselves as members in a commission for land distribution. In the words of the engineer They had the first right and they chose others. An older Hungarian man told how the commission distributed land to people, using old maps: They were important people, like former police officer and chiefs of brigades. Many were relatives and they gave much land to themselves. They also made sure their relatives received a good piece of land. One high police officer his family owned not one gram of land before communism. Now he is the biggest landowner of Ogra! Another villager explained that many people did receive back their land, but that the members of the commission took much from the reserves. Also, much land belonged to older people, who were unable to cultivate it. Members of the commission bought this land for a very cheap price, without making public that is was for sale. Some villagers were still waiting to be given back their land. To re-establish the exact borders was a source conflict between families. Another Hungarian man told about this: Ogra has the least registered land of the whole county! It has created severe arguments between old neighbours, even between brothers, or between fathers and sons! In Ceau escu s time, 95% 95

107 of Ogra s land was cultivated. Now look at us; Ceau escu would die another time if he saw how much land lies fallow! Of course, by law 18/1991 was stipulated that people who had worked a certain number of years for the collectives, had to receive 80 are of land. The engineer presented a table, showing family names and the size of land they received. Of the 30 Roma families that had worked for the CAP, seven families received land. Apparently, other Roma families had not worked enough years to be entitled to a piece of land. All Roma families sold their piece immediately. With the closing down of the CAPs and abolishment of the private gardens, the Roma had to find new sources of income. This was complicated by their low level of education, even though many adults were in the possession of a diploma. It was thus impossible to find a job in Târgu Mure and they had to look for other job opportunities. Roma recalled two distant places where many of them went for temporary work. Many went to work in factories near Sibiu, but most Roma found work at the Black Sea in Mangalia. They would stay away from home for weeks or months. They found jobs in the tourist industry, in restaurants, public lavatories and other touristy places for the summer. Those Roma who did these jobs for many years, managed to save money and now lived in better houses on the north side of the road. The dormitories where the Roma were accommodated used to be free of charge. This changed a few years ago and they were now obliged to pay for this accommodation. Since then, they could no longer afford to do seasonal work in Mangalia and the Roma now had to look for agricultural daily labour in Ogra and neighbouring villages. Nowadays, only two Roma still left to the coast each summer. Since two years, a few Roma have been able to find temporary work in Hungaria. Roma from Sînpaul, a neighbouring village, were the first to establish a relation with Hungarian employers and passed these acquaintances to Roma in Ogra. Five Roma from Ogra worked in Hungaria this summer and they earned a sum of money that they would never have made in agricultural work. However, for most Roma it would remain impossible to obtain a passport and to use this opportunity. Thus, living conditions quickly changed after the fall of communism. Most Roma recalled the sudden insecurity about what would happen tomorrow. Although some Roma used to have job opportunities in other parts of the country, these possibilities had now disappeared. Several households used the opportunity to build houses after land was allocated in the late nineties by the previous mayor. Although this improved their living conditions, the high unemployment rate and an increasing population made the Roma feel that their situation was deteriorating. As was already mentioned, the Roma considered the expansion of their cartier to be the most important change. This had strong consequences for the social relations in the quarter, as a large share of the Roma did not know each other well. One old Roma woman explained why this change was not a change for the good: Strange people came here. Many of them were drinking! In Ceau escu s time people were not allowed to drink. The police would catch you if you drank! The new people argue and drink! (Roma woman, 72) The issue of social relations among Roma and between Roma and the majority population will be elaborated in the next chapter. For the moment it is enough to say that, after the regime change, no violent riots occurred in the village. Romania was shocked by clashes between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in Târgu Mure in Also Roma from the city were involved in these incidents. People from Ogra said it has always been quiet in their village. In communist times, the majority of the population was Hungarian. After the revolution many Romanians moved to Ogra and Hungarians left to the city. The growing Roma population did not lead to violent conflicts with the majority, but it did have 96

108 consequences for social relations in their quarter. In the following section we will focus on the socio-economic conditions of the Roma. Main problems will be discussed for each indicator. 6.2 Living conditions of the Roma in Ogra Housing and Infrastructure Differences between living conditions of the Roma and the majority population were striking and clearly visible. Houses were small, ran down, and crowded. Houses in the first street of the cartier, which was the oldest street, were made of bricks. Families living in these houses were able to build brick houses with what they earned from the collectives and loans from the banc. Only four other houses in the cartier were made of bricks. The rest of the people made their houses of wood and mud, or only mud, and houses often lacked windows and had ramshackle roofs. Clay houses had to be repaired each year, because wind and rain leave the walls with cracks. Summer was the ideal period to do these renovations, but most Roma needed this time to find seasonal work. Table 6.2 shows the average household size and number of rooms per household. The average household size was 5.19 and the average number of children in a household was Households had on average 1.72 rooms. Table 6.2 Description Roma Households in Ogra; size and space Outcome Household size Average household size 5.19 Smallest household 2.00 Largest household 9.00 Average number of children per household 2.66 Mode 2.00 Housing Share of households living in a rented house 0.00 Share of households living in own house Average number of rooms per household 1.72 Source: own community survey, N= 32 I will present a few more specific figures, as to give a more detailed insight in the composition of the Roma households in Ogra. Although the average number of children per household was 2.66, the average age of the respondents was 35 and 50% of the respondents was younger than 30. All of these young respondents had already 2 to 4 children, which means that the number of children per household will probably grow in the next few years. The youngest respondent was 16, having a 1-year-old baby, and she and her partner had just finished constructing their own house. Regarding the number of rooms available to a household, 50% of the respondents lived in a single-room house. Most of these houses were just a couple of square meters large. One of the poorest families had seven children, of which three children had to sleep outside on a couple of blankets. On top of this, 25% of the households were composed of 6 persons or more and most of these households had only 1 or 2 rooms to live in. Besides the poor quality of houses, also the infrastructure was poor. As was already mentioned, the Roma had serious trouble to reach their houses after heavy rainfall, because the streets lacked channels and appropriate stones. The mud made it difficult for Roma 97

109 children to reach the school and made them concerned about their clothes. It was impossible to keep their clothes clean and as a consequence their teachers reproved them. On request of the Roma man who was member to the local council, one truck with stones was delivered. This was exactly enough to renovate the street from the beginning of the cartier up to his house, which was the fourth house from the edge of the quarter. Another problem was the lack of clean drinking water and electricity. A few wells in the cartier had to serve a large population and the water was far from clean. Each well belonged to a family, which meant that other families had to make certain agreements on the use of the water. One woman told that the family whose well she used was going to clean it and she was expected to pay a contribution. To a certain extent, the consumption of water was thus exploited. Two electricity stakes rose from the neighbourhood. Successive administrations promised to install electricity in the whole cartier, but so far nobody lived up to this promise Income and Assets A monthly income was small and insecure for almost all Roma families. Roma frequently told that of all Roma in Ogra, only two men had a real job with a contract and stable income. Other families depended on child allocation, social assistance and seasonal work. Child allocation was the only income that came on a regular basis, but it was conditioned by school attendance. Teachers issued the cheques, with which parents obtained the allocation at the post office. Although all Roma families were entitled to social assistance, they could not rely on this source of income. The families received social assistance for the last time in April Hereafter the social allowance was not disbursed for at least 6 months. Families with children lived from Child Allocation only, whereas families without children were fully dependent on finding seasonal work. Table 6.3 shows survey results of income sources. As monthly incomes were not stable, questions were asked about the previous month; August Especially seasonal work is fluctuating; in August many people found work in agriculture, while in September not much work was done. Thus, while the average income per household was RON in August, this amount would be considerably smaller in September. Apart from seasonal work in agriculture, Roma try to find small jobs like repairing or cleaning houses of Romanians and Hungarians. Especially some of the Roma women knew a few families on the northern side for whom they work on regular basis. Table 6.3 Source of income Income Sources of Roma Share of households most important source most important source that receives from this of income (winter)* of income (summer) source Child Allocation - Illness pension Pension Salaries Seasonal work Social Assistance Total *) When social assistance is paid 100% Source: own community survey, N= 32 98

110 We can see that irregular payment of social assistance and demand for seasonal workers had its effects on the financial incomes of Roma families. While social assistance was the number one source of income in the winter, Roma families mostly lived from Child Allocation and seasonal work in the summer. Social assistance would probably have been the second most important source of income in the summer time, if it had been disbursed regularly. From January to April 2006, the people had received a certain amount. In January in February it was almost 100%, but in the following months it was decreased to 60%. In the whole comuna, 119 households received social assistance. Of these households, 83 lived in Ogra village and they were all Roma families. The situation was recently complicated by new conditions added to the law on social assistance. In order to obtain social assistance, beneficiaries had to register at the Labour Office in Iernut every three months. After registration, beneficiaries received a note, saying that they were entitled to receive the allowance. Beneficiaries were also entitled to free hospital admittance and to obtain the certificate for free admittance one needs this note as well. However, a new law was implemented, that obliged beneficiaries to follow courses organised by the Labour Office. If someone had not followed a course, the necessary note was not issued. Not one of the Roma from Ogra followed a vocational course. It thus happened that Roma needed to see a doctor in the hospital, but they did not obtain a certificate from the local authorities. Hence, they were unable to see a doctor for free. They had no resources to pay for consultation. Consequently, they did not have access to health care. Some Roma households were entitled to various types of state allowances, but for several reasons they were excluded from these services. In most cases these Roma lacked identity papers or other documents required to receive assistance. On top of this, people did not know where to go or how to make the required documents in order. Two examples; one is a single-parent household, composed of a mother and 3 daughters, of which the oldest daughter had a baby. The oldest daughter left school when she got pregnant and was abandoned by her boyfriend. The second daughter is mentally handicapped and should receive an allowance for disabled persons. The youngest daughter was still in primary school. The only stable income of this household was child allocation for the youngest daughter. The handicapped girl did not have an identity paper and therefore the family did not receive the allowance for disabled persons. The mother tried to find seasonal work and sometimes did small jobs for Romanian and Hungarian households in the village. At the same time, she had to take care of the handicapped child and of the youngest daughter who was in primary school, and to help the oldest daughter with her baby. The mud house had only one room with two beds. The walls had cracks and should be restored with new mud, but the mother simply had no time to fix it, else the family had no food. She did not have relatives who would help her to repair the house. The other example is of a household with seven children. If everything was arranged properly, they would receive child allocation for seven children. One of the children dropped out from school and thus was no longer entitled to child allocation. Three children had no birth certificates. Two of the certificates were eaten by the rats in the house. The third child, a twelve-year-old boy, had never had a birth certificate. Formally, he did not exist. As it was not possible to enrol in primary school without a birth certificate, the boy had never had any education. He hardly spoke Romanian, only Romani, which will limit his job opportunities when he is growing up. The parents were afraid to go to Târgu Mure to have him registered, as it would be a difficult and long procedure, facing many officials and also police. Regarding the two certificates that were lost, the parents thought it was extremely expensive to make new ones. They thought it would cost them RON 50 for each certificate, while the actual price 99

111 was RON 2.4. Thus, they received child allocation for only 3 children instead of seven. Similar stories existed for another 10 families, all of which lacked some documents or do not know how to get a ccess to social security. Apart from financial resources, Roma hardly had any other sources to sustain in their livelihood. Nobody owns land for agriculture and only a few families had some animals (Table 6.4). Only three families had a garden to grow vegetables. Most families did not have space to make a garden, while a few others did have space, but they did not make one. Table 6.4 Resource Natural resources of Roma households Share of households (in %) Vegetable Garden 9.4 Animals Poultry Pig Goat Cow Horse Source: Own Survey, N = School participation The primary school in Ogra offered education up to the 8 th grade, but did not have enough classrooms. In order to teach all classes, pupils came in turns. The older pupils had school from 7 AM to 1 PM, whereas the younger children came from 1 to 4 PM. This measure is applied in most schools in Romania that do not have space to teach all classes at once. Until last year, the school organised special classes for pupils who were much behind or had dropped out before. According to the school director, pupils in this class were only Roma. The special class was abolished, because the number of pupil had become too small (3 to 5 children). Apart from this, the special class had so few hours, that it did not help the pupils to enrol in the regular curriculum after all. On request of the school, the County School Inspectorat started programmes to enable children to enrol in primary education. The State Project Laptecorn provided a modest breakfast to pupils in grade 1 to 4. Another State Project provided free materials as copybooks and pencils to children from low income families. From all 492 pupils, 240 children were entitled to these packages. Especially the Laptecorn Projects stimulated parents to send their children to kindergarten. Table 6.5 shows school attendance of Roma children. As we can see, the number of children that was repeating classes or dropped out completely was quite high. Table 6.5 School attendance of Roma children in Ogra Performance Number of children Percentage of all children Too small to attend school Regularly attending primary school (up to grade 10) Repeating a year Drop out Total Source: own community survey, N=

112 Many Roma adults completed only a few classes in primary school. As we can see in Table 6.6, 30% of the adult Roma dropped out before finishing primary school and 30% finished only 4 grades. Most Roma who finished primary school enrolled in secondary education, but not all of them graduated. As we can see, only 13.6% of the Roma completed secondary school and 26.4% dropped out. Only one of the survey respondents continued after secondary school. His family was able to finance education in Târgu Mure. He belonged to the same family as the Roma man who is councillor in the local government. Table 6.6 Highest Completed Education among adult Roma Highest completed education Percentage Primary school (grade 4) 30.0 Secondary school (grade 8) 13.6 Grade Grade Dropped out from primary school 30.0 Dropped out from secondary school 25.4 Total Source: own community survey, N= 32 The school director listed several problems that hindered the children in regular attendance and good results. She concentrated especially on circumstances at home and differentiated between age groups: First of all, their clothes are a problem. Have you seen their homes, have you been inside? You must have seen how they live, how many people live in one room. They do not have enough space to prepare themselves to go to school, properly washed and dressed. It is not clean there! Besides, they do not have socks and shoes. And the smell If they have no window to open and if they did not keep the room clean, the smell is in everything! Many of the small children did not go to kindergarten. For them it is very difficult to keep up in the first grades. They don t manage, they missed to much! The older children are often kept at home to look after the small ones when the parents found work somewhere. Many of the girls marry at early age or get pregnant and then they leave school. We had girls of 14 or 15 years old that left for this reason. But you cannot stop them! The school director also blamed the parents for a lack of mind to take good care of the children. She mentioned the isolated cases of a few families that sent their children to school and let them finish 8 grades. An example was the family of the Roma man who was now member to the local council. With them we booked some results, others no. She explained how the staff tried to teach parents on health, hygiene and discipline during the monthly meetings with the parents. However, she acknowledged that Roma families faced different circumstances and that their biggest problem was their cartier: What should change most is their care for hygiene and clothes. Then the children would feel better and would not have to feel ashamed in front of the other children. The real problem is their neighbourhood. If they had more rooms, more space. Their environment, that is the problem. The situation did improve in the last 5 years. Before they did not even know how to knock the door before entering, or how to stay in their seats. It is better now. Also, we have more dialogue. They used to speak only Romanes, no Romanian! And they go to kindergarten more often. They start to get used to that programme. 101

113 It was clear that the marginal circumstances of the children affected their school performance. The opinion of the school director resembled the ideas of other teachers and also of many Romanian and Hungarian villagers. Concepts of care and cleanness were often mentioned as causes of the poor situation of the Roma. We will come back to this issue in the next chapter. The Roma themselves indicated the lack of resources to provide their children with proper clothes and especially shoes to be the main problem. Parents quickly felt ashamed. If a child had proper shoes, but no good trousers, they would not let the child go to school. The idea of decent clothing lives very strongly in Romania. A child is sent to school only if it has everything, not if it has half of what it needs Health Care Beneficiaries of the social allowance have free access to family doctor consultancies and the right to buy medicines half price. Others have to pay doctors expenses themselves. Those households with a pension or salary did not seem to have problems with this, although it would always be a lot of money. To see a doctor is especially difficult for who for some reason missed documents to be on the list for social assistance. These were very poor families, which did not know how to arrange their documents and consequently were not entitled to see the doctor for free. Two family doctors run their practices in Ogra. One was working every working day and the second doctor came once every two weeks from Târgu Mure. The small pharmacy in the centre of the village provided basic medicines. The Roma said to have problems with the permanent doctor. She would not examine them carefully if they did not bring gifts like coffee or sweets with you. Apparently, the other doctor did not request such presents. Roma who required special medical care had much more trouble to obtain what they needed. For many it was too expensive to go to the hospital in Târgu Mure on a frequent basis. This especially affected some of the Roma children with a rare disease and the few persons that were mentally handicapped. Thus, basic health care is available to almost all Roma, except for the very poor families that lack documents. One of these families had a small boy who was suffering from haemophilia. They did not receive social assistance and, consequently, admittance to the hospital was very expensive. They only once saw a specialist, but they could not afford to go back and buy suitable medicines Reflections of the Roma on their conditions and needs Two major concerns for Roma families in Ogra are the quality of the houses and making sure that the family had a meal. Food and housing are, off course, central tasks for any family, but the Roma faced circumstances that made it extremely difficult to fulfil these needs. Competition for daily labour was high and the demand for labour was seasonal. They often expressed their feelings of insecurity about their conditions (See Box 6.1). Most of them could not afford to buy materials and were therefore forced to use mud, which was not lasting long. The Roma themselves referred to their poverty situation on many occasions: I have six children. I cannot send them to school. They need good clothes, a bag and you have to give them some food to take to school. We don t have money for that. Allocation would not be enough. (Roma woman, 38) 102

114 Yesterday I worked on the land. Also my neighbour was working there. The people gave me a bag with potatoes in the end of the day. I actually needed money to buy things for the house. Maybe this week I will work somewhere for money. (Roma woman, 36) We are poor, we are very poor. We are igani and nobody cares. People say we steal. Some maybe steal, but they are forced to! Some are also foolish. They drink, while they have children. They want to forget, for this reason they drink. But they should feed their children! (Roma man, 40) Maybe next year, I want to marry officially. I am ashamed now, I have two children with my husband, but we are not officially married. Maybe next year, if we have the money. First we have to repair the roof and wait how we go through the winter. (Roma woman, 23) Box 6.1 Insecurity about day-to-day needs. How Duda gathered her food together Duda was cleaning the floor of her house when I came to see her. Her husband died several years ago, after which she had to take care of her three children by herself. The oldest child is 17 and he completed only 3 grades. He dropped out from school after his father died, to maintain the house and to find small jobs in the village. This is what is father used to do. Duda sometimes cleaned the house of Hungarian families or she worked in their gardens. She speaks better Hungarian than Romanian, because she never worked much for Romanians. With the money she earned, she bought clothes for the younger two girls to wear to school. Last Sunday, Duda took her children to the Mure river to collect wood that was drifted ashore. She no longer dared to go to the woods to fetch firewood. The last time she was caught by the police, who beat her. It is not illegal to collect wood from the river. Tonight they will have a good meal. Proudly she showed a bag full with potatoes. A family in the village had harvested their crops, but these potatoes were left on the field. Duda secretly went there at night. Carefully sorting out the potatoes, she told how she was looking forward to the end of September. Then the rose hips would be fine and ripe. She will collect them and sell them in the village. Many Roma will do this, there will be so many bushes! Every year, a man comes with a truck from Târgu Mure to collect the bags full of rose hips. She shivered and wrapped her scarf tight around her head. It was already getting colder. It would be harsh in the winter. The roof of their house was leaking and they still did not have time to repair it. In the snow, it would be difficult to fetch wood. They had no space to store firewood and outside it would easily be stolen. She called her children inside and lighted a fire in the stove. The girls clapped their hands when they saw the bag with potatoes and wandered what they would like to eat the next day Source: own observations Survey respondents (N = 32) were asked to rank the most important needs of the Roma and the quarter. Outcomes of this ranking exercise are shown in Figure 6.1. Improvement of the housing situation was indicated as the most important need (25%). The second most important need was the payment of (more) social assistance (21.88%). The Roma felt to be ignored by the authorities, an issue that will be thoroughly discussed in the next chapter. They had so little and the only assistance they should receive, had not been paid for half a year. The third need mentioned was the improvement of the roads in the cartier (18.75%), followed by assistance for heating and firewood (15.62%). Results must be considered in the light of that 103

115 moment in time. Heavy rainfall during the previous month made some streets almost inaccessible and many of the houses were damaged. The roof of one of the houses had come down. Many families had trouble to keep their houses clean, because their houses have no constructed floors. Rain and mud came inside, which was very problematic for families with small children. Equally important was the fact that the winter was coming, which for many families means fighting the extreme cold. Figure 6.1 Ranking of Roma needs in Ogra 6,25 12,5 15,62 18, ,88 Better houses More social assistance Better roads Heating Electricity Employment Source: ranking exercise, N = 32 As gathering wood was illegal, the Roma had to buy wood from the forester. Apparently, last year they had not received the compensation they were entitled to. Whereas some families spent money on buying wood, others took the risk to be caught in the forest and collected wood illegally. Several Roma were caught by the police and received penalties or were harassed. It was thus not surprising that houses, roads and support for heating were ranked high. The need for electricity was ranked by 12.5% of the respondents. Some families said to have enough money to pay for electricity, but not for the electricity stakes, the cables and meters. Other tapped electricity from relatives, but would rather be independent. Last, the need for employment opportunities was ranked by only 6.25% of the respondents. The upcoming winter and the problems with rain probably explain why employment was ranked on the last place. When asking the Roma about their needs, actually everybody pointed at dayto-day needs and effects from poverty. Therefore, I also carried the exercise to draw a problem tree, in order to find out what the Roma considered to be main causes of poverty. A group of four women and three men gathered in a backyard to participate in the exercise. They put seven problems and needs in the leaves of the tree; social assistance, houses, electricity, health care, roads, employment, and heating. Table 6.7 presents an overview of the causes mentioned by the participants. Notably, in many occasions they had lengthy discussions on the lack of money for everything they wanted to do, without discussing why they did not have enough money. Thus, having no money to buy building materials was not related to unemployment. They would rather mention that the local authorities had retained their social allowance. From the discussions it became clear that they actually did not know exactly the official rules for receiving social assistance and compensation for heating. In a few occasions, they looked for solutions in what others could do. This was either the local government, but they also knew about a project in ipou, a nearby village. Apparently, foreigners had carried out a housing project and Roma now lived in relatively good houses. It had been a church-based initiative and families regularly received food packages. Participants thought this would be a good idea for Ogra as well and even asked whether I was able to initiate such a project. 104

116 Table 6.7 Problem Considered causes of problems Causes Social Assistance Houses Electricity Health problems Local government is unwilling and corrupt; they put the money in their own pockets. They do not consider us important. No money for materials. No foreign funded projects. No money to install electricity stakes. Authorities are unwilling to pay for construction. Doctor is not providing good care. Roads Authorities are unwilling to pay. No opportunities in Ogra or surrounding. Employment No diplomas to find a job in the city. No money to buy wood. Heating Problems with the policy and forest ranger. Source: own observations and notes taken from discussions Conclusion After the regime change, Roma in Ogra were left with nothing. The Commission for land redistribution carried out its task in such manner, that actually no family could profit from the land reserves. Romanian and Hungarian families could cultivate the land that was given back to their families and many retained work in the factories. In contrast, the Roma lost any form of employment and also lost their private gardens. Ogra s location on the side of the main road attracted Roma from other localities, which led to a rapid expansion of the Roma cartier. The Roma population in Ogra thus rapidly increased, while resources such as seasonal work were scarce. This was one of the reasons that conditions in the quarter could not improve. As we will see in the next chapter, this also led to a competitive sphere in the quarter. Roma in Ogra lived segregated from the majority population. This segregation was clearly marked by the asphalt road. Apart from this geographic distance, differences between their environment and the north side where lives the majority were clearly visible. Roma faced severe living conditions. They lacked conditions that should be provided by public services, like infrastructural works. They also lacked assets to improve their housing conditions. Lack of employment opportunities in the comuna, transport costs to the city and especially a lack of education limited their opportunities to improve their situation. For their livelihood, they were largely dependent on state allowances such as Child Allocation and social assistance, of which the latter was not paid for six months. Many tried to find work in the summer period, but the demand for labour was small. Finding seasonal work was especially difficult for those families that did not have enough manpower. In case a household was ran by a single adult, this person had to take care of the house, the children, and food. Several families lacked the necessary documents to obtain special state allowance, and did not know how to complete their files. The Roma reflected sometimes quite emotionally upon these harsh living conditions. They also reflected the feeling that they could not do anything about their situation, nor was anyone else interested to do something for them. It seemed like these feelings of despair lead to a certain passive attitude regarding their conditions. It also led to certain conflicts between families. We will return to this issue in the next chapter. 105

117 7. A poor and fragmented community Picture: A Roma family put all their belongings outside to renovate their one-room house. While the mother was painting, the children watched over their furniture and clothes. Being a single mother, she had to do the work alone. They all slept outside at night, because they did not dare to leave their possession unattended. 106

118 Introduction Ogra s location along a main road led to the rapid expansion of the Roma quarter. This had profound impact on the way social relations among the Roma were shaped. Consequently, it influenced the capability of the Roma to collective action. The first section of this chapter will elaborate on the community structure and social networks in their cartier, followed by a section on their relationship with the majority population. Finally, the relationship between the Roma and the local authorities will be thoroughly discussed. As we will see, this relationship is complicated by the role of the Roma man who is member to the local council; Mr. Ianos Bidi. Hence, I will pay considerable attention to his position. 7.1 Social networks and forms of organisation Roma identity The Roma use several characteristics to describe their identity and distinguish themselves from the Romanian and Hungarian villagers. First and foremost, they refer to themselves as igani and indicate their language as most important distinguishing mark. Suntem tigani pentru c vorbim igane t. A a sunt pe la noi, which means: We are igani, because we speak igane t. That is how they are here with us. The Roma always speak Romani among them, sometimes complemented with Romanian words. Romanian is the second language for most of them, but some know better Hungarian than Romanian. At school, Romanian is the language of instruction, but few Roma have finished 8 grades. They thus had little education in the Romanian language. As we have seen in the previous chapter, many Roma children have difficulties with learning, because they were not used to speaking Romanian. Whether someone s second language was Hungarian or Romanian often depended on the contacts one had in the village. Several Roma families have structural contacts with certain Hungarian families for work. As a result, Roma children from these families picked up the Hungarian language. Second, Roma referred to the geographical segregation from the rest of the village. Although some Roma families lived north from the main road, the way villagers speak of the cartier illustrated how the location of houses became a characteristic of being Roma. We are igani. We live on this side of the road. We are very poor, you can see we are very poor. You can see that our houses are bad and that we have nothing. This brings us to the third characteristic the Roma used to describe their identity; their socioeconomic status. Being Roma was directly related to living in poverty, regardless of socioeconomic differences within the cartier and the better off Roma families that lived in the village Social cohesion and social networks Before we turn to the existing social networks and their functions, it is necessary to describe the general social situation in the quarter. This will provide us with a framework through which we can understand the forming of social networks. The social situation will be discussed on the basis of stories about the community - and especially the way the Roma spoke about the social situation-, the existing tensions in the quarter, and the fact that Roma were stealing from each other. 107

119 From what the Roma told about their life in the quarter, it became clear that the level of social cohesion was quite low. Unlike the Roma in Nem a, the Roma in Ogra never expressed unity or solidarity. On the contrary; they frequently emphasised that they were not united. Here, everyone lives and works for his own family. People are too poor to think about others. Even within families you see people arguing. (Roma woman, 35) Almost all Roma expressed the phrase that everyone works for his own family, or a variation of it. One argument was that it was already hard enough to take care of the own family, let alone to think of your neighbour. In addition, many told how Roma envied each other. One young Roma woman said: The people in the quarter are jealous. If I have something more than my neighbour, maybe if I have one chicken, he is not happy for me. He will not speak with my family or me anymore. People in the quarter are bad. They speak badly about me as soon as I have something more. For example, we are building an extra room on the side of our house. It is for our children, for when they are bigger. Then they don t have to build it when they are grown up. The people think we are stupid, because we want a big house. Nobody will help us to make bricks. My parents also will not help me. My mother did not like I married this man, because he is poor. But he is a good man, we understand well. He does not beat me. Many men beat their wives. (Roma woman, 23) Many stories reflected a competitive sphere among the people in the cartier. Seasonal work was an important source of income during summer, but there was not enough work for everyone. This lead to situations of conflict between families. As one Roma woman told: I will give you an example. If a Hungarian in the village has work for six people, I will go and offer my family and myself. We will talk about a price. If another family comes and say that they will work for less money, he will chose them. Then we will have a fight with that family! (Roma woman, 23) The Roma reported several reasons for disputes. Sometimes their children argued, after which the parents started arguing too. In other cases it was gossip that came out, a card games that was lost, or a loan that was not paid back in time. Also alcohol gave rise to disputes in many situations. The same woman that mentioned job competition told how often Roma have a scandal, dispute, in the streets. Indeed, a few times a week you could see people arguing in the quarter. People screamed out loud to each other, raised their arms high in the air, and clenched their fists. Other Roma, who watched the happening and who sometimes joined the argument, surrounded them. The woman said that, in several instances, these fights had resulted in violence and the police had to come to the cartier to end the conflict. This happened several times a year. Conflicts like these sometimes resulted in families that remained opponents. The Roma often used the words împotriv or dusman, respectively opponents and enemy. Furthermore, they told that not only different families opposed each other. Also within families existed conflicts. Usually these conflicts had similar causes, but in a few cases it had more to do with family status. Some women told how their parents disagreed with them when they married men from poor families. Since then, they have had problems. The Roma themselves gave two main reasons that people so quickly had 108

120 arguments. In the first place they mentioned alcohol. Second, they said that jealousy among people was an important problem and often led to conflicts. In several instances the Roma spoke about theft in the quarter (See Box 7.1). They blamed other Roma to be the thieves. Actually, the only fact they knew for sure was that things were stolen from yards or houses in the quarter and they assumed that the thieves were Roma. Not once they expressed the idea that the thieves could have been Hungarian or Romanian villagers. Box 7.1: Chicken thieves Burglar at night One night, the sister the man in my host family exclaimed to her brother to wake up. She had heard someone in her yard. When she looked through the window, she saw a man near the chicken run. As she lived alone with her two children, she was too afraid to go out and woke up her brother, who lived in the opposite house. He ran out, but the burglar had already disappeared. Although she had a fence, the burglar had succeeded to climb over it. Source: own observations The possible risk of burglary affected people s behaviour. For instance, one man explained that he never stored large piles of fire wood. As the house was too small to store wood inside, they would have to store wood in the yard. He figured that there was a high chance that it would be stolen from there. Thus, even in the winter, it was better to go to the forest every two days and gather wood bit by bit, than to pile up and possibly lose it. A woman was planning to make a vegetable garden the next spring. To be sure that the vegetables would not be stolen, she or one of her four daughters would be home all the time. At night, the dogs would protect the yard. These examples illustrate that the Roma community in the quarter was strongly fragmented. Actually, one cannot speak of a community in the sense of communal solidarity. In the case of Ogra, referring to the Roma community meant the geographical locality where live Roma families that face social insecurity and lack of trust. Apart from this low level of cohesion, the community was characterised by an unequal social structure. Inequality was caused by differences in assets, but one family was particularly influential. It concerned the family of the Roma man who was member to the local council. He could control which family had access to information and requests for state services, by helping only those families that had cast their votes for him in the 2004 elections. This issue will be elaborated in section A lack of trust was reflected in the density and quality of existing social networks in the quarter. It may be clear that the situation as it was, was not a fruitful basis for networks of help among people. Indeed, networks of reciprocity were limited. Few Roma said to have friends and even less said to receive help from them. Networks of reciprocity seemed to be limited to relatives, but even relatives rarely helped each other. Sometimes the notion of reciprocity was blurred and families that helped did not receive help in return. The situation was illustrated by numerous stories from Roma: People work up to the gate of their own yard. They do not look to the neighbours yard. Also within families people do not have to expect that their brothers come to help. It is already so hard to take care of your own family. We cannot help somebody else. People will not help me, so I will not help others. Here people do not know to help. (Roma man, 60) 109

121 I built this house with my husband, bit by bit. We received this land from the previous mayor and built a house. My husband is ill. He has many brothers in the quarter, but nobody came to help us. We built it ourselves. (Roma woman, 38) Everybody is taking care of his own family. Last year, my husband and I helped my uncle. He was building a house in the quarter. I went there every day, for two weeks! While I have two small children to take care of. I went there and made bricks from mud. It is heavy work, I can tell you. This year, I am building a second room to our house, with my husband. It is going very slowly. My uncle and his family did not come to help us. They did not even come to look, not once! (Marico, 23) The form of help was also different in nature when compared to Nem a. In Nem a the Roma helped each other with physical work and explicitly said not to assist one another with money. In Ogra, Roma usually did not help each other in terms of work, but some Roma lent money to others. Only relatives sometimes helped each other with work such as restoring their houses, but even this was exceptional. To give money as a loan, a da bani împrumut, was considered the most common form of help. Poorer families often approached those families who had more money. Families who gave loans kept lists of names and the corresponding amounts of money that had to be paid back. In other cases families had sold goods on credit and were paid off later (See Box 7.2). Box 7.2 A da bani împrumut Two examples of assistance through credit. Mari a, the woman of my host family had grown chicks and sold the chicken to Roma in the quarter. Most Roma could not pay her immediately. Some had paid a share; others had not paid anything at all. I asked her how she could be sure that the people would pay her back. She showed a list with 28 names. After each name was written what she was supposed to receive from them. Once in a while, some of these Roma came knocking at the gate to give her some money. She carefully counted the notes and calculated whether it was enough. Mari a had not learnt to write very well and also calculating was difficult for her. Sometimes she asked her oldest son to do it for her, as he just finished 8 grades. One morning, she asked me to join her to the centre. The Child Allocation was to be distributed that day. She took her list with her. A crowd had gathered in front of the post office. It was just half past seven in the morning, but many Roma had come for the allocation. She stood waiting, in the middle of the crowd. Mari a stood in the middle of the crowd, watching carefully who of the persons present was on her list. Many Roma who came out from the post office directly came to her and paid off their loan. They proceeded to the shop to buy bread, oil and juice for the children. It took three weeks before Mari a could cross out the last name of her list. One afternoon my attention was attracted by loud noise in the street. I went out from the gate together with Mari a, to see what was happening. A bit further down the road, two women were shouting to a man. Many Roma had gathered around them, watching. Mari a started to laugh. What a noise they make! It is about money. The women sold meat to this man. He moved to another village. Now he does not want to pay. Eating without money, that is. He is leaving and they cannot do anything! 110

122 Stories from various respondents revealed that people did not give loans to anybody. In general, they knew to differentiate between persons that would act responsibly and those who would not. For instance, persons known for their alcohol consumption had much more difficulties to borrow money than others. Also, a person who had the reputation no to be serious would have difficulties. In Romanian, serios was understood as honest, trustworthy, or not speaking nonsense. When speaking about loans, Roma used this word to indicate whether someone could be trusted. Reciprocity was very important when it came to celebrating festivities. People knew exactly what should be the value of gifts and what to expect in return. They always related the value of their gifts to the type of celebration. Roma in Ogra celebrated birthdays, baptisms and weddings. Weddings were rare, as they cost a couple a lot of money too. Most Roma couples were not married at all, but they moved together and subsequently registered their names and addresses. It was more common to celebrate birthdays and baptisms. These were celebrated among relatives and a few friends. Guests should be served a meal in exchange for the gifts. The amount and quality of the food was very important. Also, hosts were keen on remembering what they received, in order to give a suitable gift in return Lack of collective action It may be clear that the situation in the quarter did not provide a fruitful, stable basis to enhance cooperation between Roma and between the different ethnic groups. Within the Roma quarter, relationships were complicated by envy, competition over labour, and conflicts between families. Alcohol caused distrust. One example illustrated this situation. Roma told how the previous mayor, Mr. Vu a, had donated 4 electricity stakes to the Roma. These stakes were left after construction works on the edge of the comuna. Vu a arranged horses and a cart to fetch the stakes. The only thing the Roma had to do was to go there and bring them back to the cartier. This would be the opportunity to install the stakes for free and connect Roma families to the electricity net. Apparently, the Roma could not work out who would go there and do the work. They did not even discuss about the matter, they did not take any steps. Thus, nothing happened. Another example is the trouble caused by the rain. One of the reasons that the roads turn into inaccessible mud pools is that there are no small channels that drain the water. When this street was added to the quarter a few years ago, the Roma did not make any channel. Even now, when they faced all this mud, they could not come to collective action. They said that either the local government should do something about it, or they came up with a phrase like If my neighbour does not dig a channel, it has no use that I would start digging (Roma man, 34). Between Roma and the majority population did not exist a relationship that enabled people to start things up together. As we will see in the next section, important institutions in the village such as the CBO did not succeed to bring the ethnic groups together Bridging social networks As we have seen, the density of networks among Roma was low and the level of cohesion was low. The relationship between Roma and the majority population was one of labour supply and was even cooler. The most important aspect of their relationship was In general, Roma did not have a high esteem of the Romanians and Hungarians, and vice versa. Many Roma thought the Romanians were greedy and arrogant. They would pay only small amounts and never helped them if a situation was urgent. Romanians and 111

123 Hungarians, on the other hand, thought the Roma were unreliable and would not do anything without being paid. In interviews with Romanians and Hungarians, they always made clear that they understood that the Roma lived in a difficult situation. However, this was considered to be their fault. As the Roma were not gospodar, they drank their loans or spend it on cigarettes. In the evenings the centre was crowded with Roma and many of them visited the bars. For this reason, many villagers considered the Roma not gospodar and lazy. What are they doing in the centre all the time? They drink their money while they have children at home. They should look for work! They don t want to work, I tell you. They don t know how to work! (Hungarian man, 53) The Roma were also said to be unreliable when they did have a job to do. Maybe they came, but they would not stay until the job was done. A Hungarian man described how he had hired a Roma to work in the garden: I would pay him the normal 20 Lei for a day. This we agreed. In the morning he got coffee and a packet of cigarettes. He would have lunch and dinner with a glass of wine. He simply left at AM! Saying he preferred to work together with someone, not alone! The idea that the Roma were not trustworthy was strengthened by a burglary in one of the bars, in the month that this research was carried out. One night, someone had broken the windows and had stolen bottles, cigarettes and food. The next day the police came with dogs. The dogs took the police to the school, to a small Roma boy. The boy confessed and mentioned the names of two men, who were arrested and had to pay a fine. It was a larger rumour for a few days, during which some villagers warned me for burglars. Some Romanians and Hungarians were more understanding about the conditions of the Roma. They thought a lack of education led to bad behaviour and poverty Cooperation in Interetnica The Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center, an NGO focusing on the improvement of interethnic relations, helped to establish a formal Community Based Organisation in Ogra. This CBO, called Interetnica, was running mostly cultural projects such as theatre and dance performances. At the start in 2002, the initiative group was composed of 4 Romanians, 4 Hungarians, and 3 Roma. Together they formed the executive committee. The executive director, Mr. Szente, told that approximately 9 Romanians, 4 Hungarians and 2 Roma were still active in He could not remember the names of the Roma though. Interetnica started in 2002 with a project to improve the school building, the meeting room in the town hall, and to renovate a small room in the town hall that could function as the association s office. Many villagers, including Roma, participated in the school project. When the project finished, Szente mapped out a new course for Interetnica. An NGO from Bucharest ran a programme called Theatre Forum. Aim of the programme was to bring different ethnic groups together and perform a theatre play to make social issues such as discrimination and interethnic relations negotiable. Szente had experience in making performances and took up Theatre Forum. He involved mainly Hungarian and Romanian youth. They made five different plays, which they performed in the câmin cultural. Also, Szente organised rehearsals for traditional dances. Hungarian, Romanian, and also Roma youth danced folklore and thus drew up a programme together. 112

124 However, the organisation had reached an impasse. Participants had different ideas about what to do and how to attract funds, but they actually never came together to discuss about the matter. Also, Interetnica was losing involvement of its members, especially the Roma. The position of the executive director was crucial for the situation. Although Szente had only good intentions, he had attained such a dominant position that he made it impossible for others come with initiatives. He actually made Interetnica his personal project. He did invite members to the meetings, but his clear-cut visions predominated and made it impossible for others to become really involved in the association. On the other hand, committee members were slightly easy-going about all the work Szente took on his shoulders. Szente had adapted the aim of the association. He bypassed the idea that the aim of making a performance was to bring members from different ethnic groups together and raise discussions about social issues in the village. To perform plays and dances was no longer an instrument, but became an aim in itself. While especially the Hungarian youth became very involved, because finally they had something to do in their leisure time, the Roma gradually withdrew from the activities. Concentrating on Roma involvement, it was obvious that they had different perspectives on the continuation of activities. In interviews, Szente held lengthy stories about all that went wrong. Central point in his monologues was that he could not rely on people, especially the Roma: People are interested up to their own fence. And they are greedy! They don t want to spend that bit of money! I have enough of it, I am tired of doing it all alone! Nobody is helping me, also from Hungarians I cannot expect much. They often come late, then they act just like the igani. But igani are worse; if Romanians and Hungarians come half an hour late, igani come one hour late or they don t show up at all. However, what Szente called lack of reliability, was for the Roma a consideration of priorities. The Roma were all excited about the school renovation, but they thought cultural projects were not very useful. Roma often had to choose for daily labour if they had the chance, instead of attending the rehearsals. They clearly had priorities Szente could not understand. He was furious when two Roma withdrew from a performance one day in advance, because they could do agricultural work in the village. The Roma councillor, who for a long time actively participated in the council, had personal difficulties with Szente. Szente once did not invite him to a festivity, when foreigners had visited Ogra. Bidi thought this had been an Interetnica event, but it was actually an exchange between the Hungarian church and a Dutch reformed church. Szente was one of the villagers in Ogra who maintained the relationship between both churches. Nevertheless, Bidi felt offended and refused to come to Interetnica meetings. Secondly, he did not agree with the course Szente had taken. igani have no food. You cannot dance if your stomach is empty! He should organise different projects; he should bring packages with food, clothes, shoes! He should organise a project to build good houses! We cannot live from dancing if it does not pay! [ ] He and his theatre he is just reading lines from paper. Many igani cannot read text. If you say it out loud, they cannot remember. They feel shy to go, they do not want to participate anymore! It is not useful to them! He is not doing anything for the igani (Bidi, Roma councillor) Other Roma were suspicious about Szente s intentions. The Roma youth that participated in cultural activities thought Szente kept the price money they won at the festivals. However, the 113

125 festival did not pay price money to the winners at all. They also thought Szente was paid for his work and that he received subsidies to pay them. In reality, Szente spent all his time voluntarily, taking days off from work, and he gave them money from his own pockets to buy food and drinks on the day of the festival. He expressed his frustrations about this issue: I told them six months in advance that they had to put money aside for the day of the festival. To buy food, to take with them. The day before we left, they said they did not have anything. So, I gave them each 5 Lei from my own pocket. In total 30 Lei, I have to work for that too! The next day, when we went to Svini a by bus, we stopped to have lunch. We all sat together on one table. Together, not separated! Then what happened they had no food, nothing! I don t know what they did with the money. They smoked or they drank it away. I don t know. [ ] They just want money. They will not do anything if they are not paid! They do not know what it means to do something voluntarily! Two facilitators of the Bucharest organisation visited Ogra to have meetings with the Interetnica members and volunteers. Discussing about activities, it became obvious that the association lacked a clear scope and that Szente s position was problematic. Although he was supported by a group of 10 Hungarian youngsters, who were anxious to continue Theatre Forum, the adult committee members were mostly concerned about the problem of running the association and the Internet connection to get access to funds. They were discontented with the financial administration, thinking the expenses were not clearly indicated by Szente. Both facilitators from Bucharest tried to explain it was possible to get people committed, if they had the feeling that something was really their project and designed to their expectations. It was agreed that tasks should be clearly divided and the administration should me more transparent. Unfortunately, one of the Roma came to the first meeting only. Most of them do not see the use of Interetnica and due to the discord between Szente and Bidi it would be a hard job to involve them in new projects Leadership It was briefly mentioned; the formal function of the Roma councillor led to informal abuse of power. Ianos Bidi, a Roma man from the quarter and member of the Roma Party, was reelected as local councillor in Roma from the quarter frequently turned to Bidi to let him complete various forms. It usually concerned requests for assistance such as allocation. Bidi no longer gave necessary information to Roma who voted for his opponent Ghesuca, nor did he fill in their forms. His wife had to send them to Ghesuca, who could read and write, but who was less familiar with procedures. Also, Bidi had a word to say in the registration procedure at the Labour Office in Iernut. As we saw in the previous chapter, beneficiaries of the social assistance had to register every three months to be entitled to the social benefit. Bidi had an arrangement with a Labour Office employee; he sent a list with names, so beneficiaries did not have to go personally. Bidi had crossed those persons of the list that had voted against him in the 2004 elections. These Roma had to go to Iernut and register themselves. By favouring some Roma families above others, he no longer represented all Roma, but only half of the Roma living in the cartier. As a councillor, Bidi had institutional possibilities to influence local governance. As the Roma councillor, he was supposed to be the official representative of all Roma in Ogra. As will be discussed in the last section, this is what other local councillors, the mayor and the Roma expected from him. The cleavage that was created during the 2004 local elections did not extend to social interaction between Roma. Although Bidi and his opponent Ghesuca created two teams, these 114

126 teams no longer subsisted after the elections. Roma from both teams still interacted on normal basis. The wife of one of Bidi s opponents commented: People in the quarter are acting the same. Only Bidi and my husband no longer talk to each other. And Bidi s wife no longer talks to me. You should see yourself; when we see each other in the streets, we won t speak. When I approached small groups in the streets and started to ask about this issue, it often turned out that some of them voted in Bidi s team and others in Ghesuca s team. It was quite obvious that Roma from different teams were on speaking terms. Those who voted for Meghe an agreed that he was not a good mayor, something the others could only confirm: They now feel sorry for supporting Meghe an, because he did not do anything for them. The previous mayor was better. Now they found out. (Roma man, 34) Remarkably, the Roma seemed to think it was logical that Bidi no longer helped those who voted with the other team. Apparently, Roma from both teams thought they had lost their right to be assisted with forms. 7.2 Relation with the local authorities This section discusses the Roma perception of the local officials. Table 7 introduces the members of the local government. The mayor, Mr. Meghe an, and the vice-mayor, Mr. Viin sa, are both members of the Liberal Party. The majority of the local councillors is member to the Liberal Party too. As mentioned in the previous section, the Roma are represented by one councillor in the twelve-member council. Table 7.1 Official Party membership of the local government since 2004 elections Party Mayor Liberal Party (PNL) Vice-mayor Liberal Party (PNL) 12 Councillors Liberal Party (PNL): 5 Hungarian Party (DAHR): 3 Social Democrat Party (PSD): 2 Conservative Party (PC): 1 Rroma Party (PR): 1 Source: Interview with Mayor Meghe an, October 2005 The geographical distance from the Roma quarter to the town hall was small; it was only a five-minute walk after you crossed the asphalt road. However, the distance between the Roma and the authorities was incredibly large when it came to the ideas both parties had about each other. Most prominent figures were the mayor, the vice-mayor and the Roma councillor. Other councillors had hardly anything to do with the Roma and most Roma did not even know their names. Accordingly, Roma in Ogra evaluated the local authorities on two points; on the way the authorities communicated with them and on what they had actually done for them. We will examine these issues separately. The survey contained questions on the 115

127 attitudes of respectively the mayor, the vice-mayor and the councillors in communication with the Roma (See Appendix C). Roma spoke extremely negative about mayor Meghe an. They said he was uninterested in their situation, cold, corrupt, and a liar. The Roma often compared the actual mayor with the previous mayor, Mr. Vu a. They emphasised that their situation only worsened under Meghe an. Apparently, Mr. Vu a used to have better contact with the Roma. He had regularly visited the quarter and had tried to organise a few things for them. For instance, he had maintained contacts with an organisation from Târgu Mure, which brought packages with clothes and food. Time and again, the Roma told how Vu a came to the quarter, even visited their houses to talk with them. Several Roma told that he had given some money from his own pocket when they turned to him with problems. As a result, the behaviour of the previous mayor strengthened the negative ideas about the actual mayor. One of the respondents who thought he was a good mayor commented: He was a man from the military. He is so tough with the people that they do not dare to commit any crime. The people steal less now! They are afraid of him! So, he is a good mayor, because he has control. (Roma man, 58) More specific questions were asked about the Roma s opinion on the attitude of the official in communication. Roma perceived the attitude of the mayor to be very negative and closed. Few respondents did not know what to answer, because they had actually hardly seen him. A Roma woman recalled how she once appealed to the mayor s office: I had no income for a month. My child was ill. I went to the town hall for help and went to see the mayor. He shouted, he sent me away. His face was so red, he looked angry. But he always looks angry and he drinks, that s why he has a red face. He will never listen to us. He will not do anything for us. The mayor had made promises before the elections, but afterwards nothing happened. He had never come to the Roma quarter again. This was something the Roma very strongly disapproved of. To them it was a clear sign of an uninterested mayor, who felt completely indifferent about their living conditions. The mayor s perceived misbehaviour was in this case extended to the vice-mayor; neither the vice-mayor made any efforts to improve the situation of the Roma. Many of the Roma were of the opinion that the vice-mayor was actually more in charge of the local government than the mayor. They saw the mayor in first place as a man who drank and had a bad temper. Besides, he was often out of town. The vice-mayor was much more visible and more often the focal point for day-to-day bothers. They were thus slightly more positive about his performing in the village. A Roma man explained why he perceived the attitude of the vice-mayor neutral : One day you see the Vice walking and he won t say a word. The other day he greets you back. One day you see can find him in his office and he will speak with me, the other day he will say I should not bother him with anything. The Roma opinion on the councillors was positive, but this needed further clarification. The Roma made a sharp distinction between their Roma councillor and all other councillors. They gave a good score to the Roma councillor, while about the other councillors they said that they were not to be trusted and they had not done anything for the Roma (Se Appendix C). Only few Roma were able to mention a name of any of the other councillors. It was remarkable that the Roma councillor also received quite a good score from those Roma that 116

128 were no longer supported by him. Even though he did not help them, they still thought he was doing better than the other councillors. Also, they seemed to be of the opinion that it was normal that he did not help them anymore. Mayor Meghe an did not keep his promises; he proved to be a bad mayor. Therefore, Bidi was right when he said they walked out on him. The other way round, the mayor and vice-mayor did not think positive about the Roma either. In interviews they frequently mentioned that there was not much to do about their situation, because the Roma were lazy and not gospodar. They rather drank and smoked their money than to invest in their families. They lacked education and discipline. Especially the mayor felt disturbed by their frequent visits to the town hall to ask for money. One Hungarian councillor did not speak much better about the Roma. He thought Bidi, the Roma councillor, was a clever person with whom he could cooperate well, but this was exceptional. Roma went to the town hall every so often, usually to organise official documents or submit requests. They would see the secretary, the treasurer or the official who is responsible for the social assistance. From observations it seemed that the Roma were always received in the office, but sometimes they were told to come back later. This could vary from several hours to several days. In case the Roma needed documents that had to be sent to the regional authorities in Târgu Mure, such delays could have the consequence that they did not complete their documents in time and therefore missed certain allowances or approvals. Also from the experiences they recalled, it appeared that they were not satisfied with the often slow procedures. This led to 12.5% of the respondents who said to be very unsatisfied and 31.2% who said to be unsatisfied (Figure 7.1). Not one said to be treated badly, in the sense that they were shouted at. Figure 7.1 Satisfaction with the manner respondents were treated by officials Percent ,5 31,2 absolutely unsatisfied a little unsatisfied satisfied Score Source: own survey, N = 32 43,8 12,5 don't know One can imagine that the Roma in Ogra lack considerable trust in their authorities to take action upon their needs, whether these needs are communal or personal. This is demonstrated in Figures 7.2 and 7.3. None of the respondents opted for the answer very much trust. Figure 7.3 shows the amount of trust they had in the case a problem occurred in the comuna. An overwhelming majority of 62.5% answered that they had no trust in the local government to take action, 25% answered a little trust, only 3.1% said to have much trust and 9.4% of the respondents did not know. 117

129 Figure 7.2 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of communal problems Figure 7.3 Amount of trust in the authorities in case of personal problems 3,1 9,4 3, ,5 no trust a little trust much trust don't know 18,8 71,9 no trust a little trust much trust don't know Source: own survey, N = 32 As was already mentioned, the Roma were not happy with the contact they had with the mayor or vice-mayor. Many were sent away and occasionally the mayor had treated rudely. It is therefore not surprising that Figure 7.3 on trust in the authorities in case of personal problems shows even more negative results than Figure Now, 71.9% said to have no trust in the authorities at all and 18.8% said to have a little trust. The percentage of Roma who said to have much trust remained the same (3.1%), as did the percentage that did not know (9.4%). 7.3 Interaction around critical issues This section focuses on critical events and issues that shaped the relation between the local authorities and Roma. To obtain a better understanding of the relation between the Roma and local authorities, it is necessary to present a full account of the 2004 local elections. Happenings before and after the elections had a profound impact on this relation and also on the Roma quarter. Subsequently, this section describes the opinion of the Roma on the authorities and how these opinions are shaped. These issues will be again the social benefit, infrastructure in the Roma quarter, how the authorities provide information, and how they involve Roma in community issues Critical Events The 2004 Local Elections The local elections of 2004 were characterised by a series of events, which strongly affected the relationship between the Roma and the local authorities. Key figures were the candidates for mayor, Mr. Vu a and Mr. Meghe an, and the Roma councillor, Ianos Bidi. Mr. Vu a had served three mandates as a mayor and was supported by Bidi, who was councillor during Vu a s third term. Candidate Meghe an did not refrain from clandestine methods to win votes. Bidi was employed in a factory close to Târgu Mure. Meghe an was acquainted with one of Bidi s supervisors. Before the election campaigns started, he tried to force Bidi to persuade the Roma to vote for him. Meghe an said he would make sure that Bidi would lose his job if Bidi refused to collaborate. However, Vu a was acquainted with the director and through this 118

130 acquaintance Bidi was hired in the first place. Vu a s acquaintance was thus higher placed than Meghe an s and Bidi s job was secured. However, also Bidi s moves were questionable. Bidi was on the Rroma Party election list with 4 other Roma from Ogra. They got an argument about which candidate mayor to support. As Bidi had very good relations with Vu a, he thus wanted campaign for him. Two others wanted to support the new candidate, Mr. Meghe an. Being the President of the local branch of the Rroma Party, Bidi cut these two men off the list. One of the men, Ghesuca, then started to collaborate with Meghe an and actively campaigned among the Roma, while Bidi campaigned for Vu a. On the day of elections, Bidi went with one team of Roma to vote for Vu a. Two hours later, Ghesuca took his team to the polling place. Ianos Bidi has seen exactly who supported him and Vu a, and who was in the other team with Ghesuca and Meghe an. Meghe an won the elections for mayor. Ianos Bidi was elected to the local council and thus won institutional powers. Since then, Bidi has refused to assist those Roma households that voted against him. Using informal methods, he excluded several families from access to public services. Vu a and Meghe an both had the opportunity to campaign, but it was mostly Meghe an who campaigned. Vu a came to the quarter and said he could not make promises. He tried to explain much depended on the state government. If the Social Democrats would win the national elections and remained the leading party in the government, then the comuna would have money to do projects. If the winner would be the Liberal Party, then not much budget would be allocated for social purposes. Meghe an, on the other hand, promised to improve the roads, install gas, construct electricity and attract a housing project. The reason for many Roma to believe him was that he used to be a high-ranking officer from the Târgu Mure police department. People expected him to have important acquaintances and influence in the regional council. Consequently, they expected that he was able to attract substantial funding. Apart from these promises, Meghe an amply treated on meat, food, and alcohol as part of his campaign. We will see that he gained votes through his promises, but not keeping his promises made him very unpopular later on. Police raids The following event had profound impact on the way Roma think about government institutions. The quarter was confronted with two raids carried out by the police force from the regional authorities. One raid, or razia in Romanian, occurred quite recently in 2004, the other one approximately 4 years ago. It was difficult to reconstruct what happened during the raid in the nineties and what was the motive. In August 2004, the police units from Târgu Mure came at four o clock in the morning, masked and armed. They lifted everyone from their beds and asked for identification documents. Some Roma said the police knocked politely on the doors, others said they were shouting and persuasive. Those Roma who could not hand over their documents at once, or those who protested, were taken to the front of the quarter. Many Roma recalled that those Roma were beaten and taken to the police office in Ogra. Roma had two ideas about what caused the second raid. One story was that the police was looking for illegal inhabitants, as the authorities wanted to get rid of illegal Roma. The other story was that the police came looking for a man who had argued with a policeman from Ogra, the night before in the local bar. Apparently, the man had punched the policeman in the face. In any case, the police took the Roma without documents to the office, where they had to spend some hours in jail and they were fined. The Roma councillor went to the mayor, Vu a at the time, to pledge that these fines were reversed. Vu a arranged this with the regional authorities. The way some Roma told about this event was remarkable. Some were very angry and saw this event as evidence that it were always the Roma who were accused, by any 119

131 authority. Others seemed to think this was a very normal procedure. The masked police, the early hour, the way they were treated, the shouting, the beating, the fact that they came only into the Roma quarter; they considered it logical, because it was their own fault that not all of them had identity papers. Like one Roma woman said: That is what they do if people have no papers. They were not bad for me. They knocked the door and after I showed my papers we could go back to sleep. Others, like the man in the first street who is often drunk, they took to the road. Probably he had been drinking again and said stupid things to the policemen Critical issues Apart from the local elections and the police raids, three critical issues can be identified around which we can observe the attitudes and actions of both the Roma and the local authorities. Social assistance, infrastructure, and information and involvement are three issues that raise lots of criticism on part of the Roma. As we will see, they actually never took action to change the existing situation. This is partly caused by their lack of assets and unwilling officials, but we can also speak of quite a passive attitude on their account. Social Assistance The people had not received social assistance for six months, which caused insecurity about how to sustain their families. It is thus not surprising that all survey respondents said to be absolutely unsatisfied with both the amount of assistance and the regularity of payment. According to the Roma Councillor to the Prefect in Târgu Mure, the county council had received very few resources from the state to pay social assistance. 30 Therefore, every comuna in Mure county had received only 60% of the full amount of the social benefit. Hence, the local authorities were not to be blamed for the small amounts they paid. However, we could criticize the motives of the authorities for the irregular disbursement of the social benefit. The local government had decided not to spread the payment of the benefit over more than four months. As the vice-mayor explained: igani have to work 72 hours a month for social assistance. It is difficult to organise. They won t come if they receive only small amounts for many months. They are lazy. So, we pay them a bigger amount for only few months. Else it is no use for us. Besides, in the summer they will try to find seasonal work. Then they won t come to work at all. Why would they come to work for Presta i, if they can make 20 Lei a day in agriculture? They would not show up anymore! (Vice-mayor, Mr. Viin a) In Nem a, the authorities spread the payment over a longer period, to make sure that families had at least some financial income every month. Of course, it is up to people s own responsibility how they spent their money. It could be considered paternalistic if the local authorities decided to spread the payment over a longer period, to avoid that Roma would not spend all their money at once. However, it was not out of principle that the authorities in Ogra chose for payment within a short period of time. They only thought about the Presta i and how to benefit from it. 30 Interview with Mr. Nicolae, Councillor to the Prefect, Buro Judetan pentru Romi, Târgu Mure, Seeptember

132 This brings us to the work people have to do, Presta i, for social assistance. Under the previous mayor, Vu a, it was Bidi s responsibility to organise the work and control the working hours of the Roma. After the local elections, this task was shifted to the vice-mayor. Apart from the cleaning work in the centre, the Roma were often put to work to deepen the channels in the Romanian and Hungarian streets. In the minutes of the council meetings, I found that deepening the channels was a responsibility of every household. Every villager had to maintain the channel in front of his own house. Hence, this should not be delegated to the people working for Presta i. Also, the Roma reported that they had to paint the fences of the councillors residencies. Obviously, the sort of work they had to do cannot be considered community work. Infrastructure It was clearly visible that the roads in the cartier needed thorough maintenance. After heavy rainfall, the edges of the quarter became nearly inaccessible. Parents had to carry the small children to reach the houses. Not surprisingly, the results from the survey on the quality of the roads are extremely low (Figure 7.4). A few women declared that they had individually visited the town hall to ask for stones to improve the road. They were answered that the mayor was not there to receive them. Otherwise, Roma did not take action to improve this situation. On the contrary, section 7.1 demonstrated that Roma did not want to start digging channels, because they did not think their neighbours would do the same. Figure 7.4 Satisfaction with maintenance of the roads Percent ,8 18,8 3,1 9,4 absolutely unsatisfied neutral a little unsatisfied satisfied Score Source: own survey, N = 32 In an interview with the mayor, he frequently emphasised that the comuna had no resources to do any maintenance work. He made clear that the priorities were elsewhere. For instance, some of the sat around the comuna were difficult to reach, as the bridges over streams were old and ramshackle. However, Hungarian respondents recalled how Meghe an had made a deal with the director of a brickfield in the neighbourhood. In return for six truckloads with stones, the company was allowed to dig from the public reserves belonging to the comuna. So arranged, the comuna received stones to repair roads without losing money from the budget. These truckloads were delivered and dumped only in the Hungarian streets on the north side, where roads were by no means in need of reconstruction. Regarding the prioritising of needs, the mayor seemed to have overlooked a few. As several families had electricity, Roma were more satisfied about this issue. Also those households that tapped illegally from relatives elsewhere in the quarter were relatively satisfied with the situation. They arranged payment with their relatives. Still, a large share of 121

133 the Roma had no electricity or great difficulties to make use of the two available stakes. Therefore, Figure 7.5 shows dissatisfaction. Of the respondents said 37.5% to be very unsatisfied and 46.9% to be unsatisfied. Usually the people who tapped illegally gave a neutral answer, 12.5%, and the 3.1% that said to be a little satisfied were all households with a legal connection. Figure 7.5 Satisfaction with the facilitation of electricity Percent ,5 46, ,5 3,1 absolutely unsatisfied neutral a little unsatisfied satisfied Score Source: own survey, n =32 The previous mayor had made an effort to provide the quarter with electricity stakes, but the Roma did not complete this job, failing to decide collectively how to arrange it. The new mayor had promised to install electricity stakes at the time of elections, but until this moment did not meet up with his promises. In an interview, he said to have negotiations with a company. He hoped the stakes would be installed in March The Roma in the quarter laughed about this statement, saying they were promised electricity for ten years, but it would never happen. They would wait and see. Roma councillor Bidi also had his doubts about this seemingly positive action of the mayor. The issue of electricity in the Roma quarter was never discussed in the council meetings. Indeed, an examination of the minutes of the council meetings of the past three years proved that this issue was not discussed in this period. Apparently, Bidi had not raised this issue. Information, consultation and involvement For ordinary issues, Roma turned to either their councillor in the quarter or to the officials in the town hall. Several times a week, Roma visited Bidi with all kind of forms that had to be filled in or requests to be submitted. Some brought small bags with instant coffee, but he also assisted those who did not. Unlike in Nemsa, the authorities did not organise plenary village meetings, edint, to inform the people and discuss relevant issues. Usually, Bidi announced information to a few others, who had to spread the information around. Some thought this worked alright. It is important to note that many Roma did not know how to look for information themselves, which is probably due to their low level education. The previous chapter described that some families lacked documents, which are sometimes easy to obtain. Many Roma thought they missed information, because they did not trust the local authorities. As the officials never came to the quarter, they would probably not bother to announce important information. The mostly negative answers to this question, as shown in Figure 7.6, thus reflected the general negative opinion on the local government and the feeling that the authorities were completely indifferent to the situation of the Roma. 122

134 Figure 7.6 Satisfaction with the way local authorities provide information Percent ,6 absolutely unsatisfied Source: own survey, N = unsatisfied Score 9,4 a little satisfied The measure that beneficiaries of the social allowance should follow vocational courses was a recent change, which was important to almost all Roma. They should be informed about this; else they would suffer the consequences. Bidi said to have announced this information to several Roma, who would pass on this information. I asked around in the streets and in the centre. Many Roma had heard about this measure, but just as many had not. None of the Roma had acted upon the announcement. In the period that the research was carried out, the first persons came to Bidi to say that they did not receive certain papers, because they did not attend courses. Answers about the way the authorities involve Roma in communal issues, reflected the distance between the local authorities and the Roma. Roma stated that nobody ever asked them what they wanted, what they considered important, or what they needed. Nearly everyone expressed the phrase They just work for themselves. Figure 7.7 shows these negative responses by a majority of the Roma; 46.9% said to be absolutely unsatisfied and 37.5% said to be unsatisfied with the way the authorities involve the Roma in policy processes. Only 3.1% answered to be neutral and another 3.1% a little satisfied. The share of respondents that did not know, 9.4%, had no idea whether the local authorities ever involved the Roma. They vested their hopes on the local councillor and his ability to put Roma issues on the agenda. Figure 7.7 Satisfaction with the way local authorities involve the Roma Percent ,9 37, ,1 3,1 absolutely unsatisfied neutral a little unsatisfied satisfied Score 9,4 don't know Source: own survey, N =

135 7.3.3 Linking people s expectations and government actions It will be clear by now what the Roma expected from their government; regular social assistance, improvement of the roads and instalment of electricity, and if possible a social housing programme and employment opportunities. In the opinion of the mayor, the biggest problem of the Roma was the size of most households. Poverty was caused by the large number of children and persons living in one room, which was again caused by a lack of education. The mayor and vice-mayor were aware of the assistance the Roma wished from them. The standard argument, with which the mayor, vice-mayor and councillors replied, was that the comuna had no resources. In general, it is absolutely true that local governments in Romania have few resources. As there were no companies or factories in Ogra, the only revenues for the comuna were taxes from the villagers and the few shops and bars. According to the treasurer, the comuna depended largely on state subsidies. The argument of having no resources was a critical one, as it was difficult to find out what was the annual budget of the local government. The treasures and bookkeepers proved not very cooperative. If the local government wanted to do so-called projects on top of the maintenance of roads, public buildings and the budget needed salaries for the staff and office costs, project proposals had to be submitted to the county council. One big project that was started in 2000 and was still in process was the construction of waterworks from Iernut to Ogra. Ogra was not connected to waterworks with drinking water and all villagers used wells. The main pipes would be constructed with state money, after which households could install connecting pipes to their houses on their own expenses. Another way to examine how local authorities dealt with Roma issues was to inquire how they prioritise the needs in the community. From reports and interviews, it became clear that the situation in the Roma quarter had the lowest priority, if any priority at all. I went through the agendas and minutes of all council meetings held from January 2003 to August In none of these meetings Roma issues appeared on the agenda. At least for the last three years, the council did not speak about their quarter. Focusing on Roma councillor Ianos Bidi, it came out that he only once focused attention on an issue that involved Roma. He had requested a piece of grazing land near the quarter for animals belonging to the Roma. However, as we have seen in the previous chapter, the Roma hardly possessed animals that need grazing land. Actually, only Bidi s mother does. Thus, the only issue Bidi raised in the council meetings, was one that for his own good. The issue of social assistance appeared in January 2005, when the comuna received the sum of money from the Mure county council, which was to be allocated for social assistance. As only Roma were beneficiaries, this indirectly was a Roma issue. In the council was mainly discussed that the social worker who dealt with these files should receive her salary. Interviews with the mayor, vice-mayor and a Hungarian councillor reflected that the poverty situation of the Roma was not one of the comuna s priorities. Each of them was asked to list the most important needs of the comuna and the activities undertaken by the authorities. They all agreed that the roads in the whole comuna and the school buildings in the sat required thorough renovation. The roads from the sat to the centru de comuna had suffered from the rain and one bridge required reconstruction. The mayor said he probably had ways to order stones for the roads. The kindergarten had to be renovated and the councillor expressed the wish to build class rooms for grades 9 and 10, as the school now offered education up to the 8 th grade. Also, they wanted the waterworks to be finished. Finally, the mayor hoped that they could finance sewerage in the comuna. The officials gave preference to issues that concerned the relationship between the centru the comuna and the sat. Roma issues were not on the list. Apart from this list of priorities, it became clear that the mayor considered the poor 124

136 conditions of the Roma not his problem. The vice-mayor shared this opinion. Roma caused their own conditions, so they should solve it on their own. As the vice-mayor said: They have many problems; with their houses, their hygiene. They are poor, they have no money. Asta e via a; that is life. There are a few who work. Many are not disciplined and don t work. They prefer to drink.we do try to educate them; we let the police speak with them. Maybe that will help, they will learn and have less problems. On a few other occasions, the vice-mayor expressed that the Roma problem was part of life and that hardly anything could be done about it. This legitimized that he, as member of the local authorities, did not have to make any efforts. Any effort would be a waste of time and money. The mayor had the same opinion; the Roma themselves caused their poor conditions and therefore they should solve their own problems. Any move from the authorities would not help. In his words: igani from Ogra do not really want to work. They are more lazy. Here the igani are not really interested in a more civilised life with work. You can offer, but they won t take it up. Several times, Roma raised the issue that the local councillor represented their interests in the local council. Other councillors did expect him to put Roma issues on the agenda. Councillor H r igan compared Bidi s position with the positions of councillors from the sat, the small villages around Ogra village that belonged to the comuna: The igani are Bidi s responsibility. Ogra has several sat and from several sat we have a councillor in the council. They raise issues about their sat, which the people from the sat asked them or told them to do. One councillor is asking for the renovation of the roads and the bridges that connect the sat to Ogra. This is what Bidi should do for the igani. Also the mayor and vice-mayor had this expectation. The Roma Councillor to the Prefect in Târgu Mure, Mr. Nicolae, acknowledged that it hard for a single Roma councillor to put Roma issues on the agenda. Other councillors would react reluctantly. Bidi had contacted Mr. Nicolae in the past, to inquire about resources. In Nicolae s opinion, Bidi was not persuasive enough to make his point in the local council. A Roma councillor should try to raise issues time and again. Unlike Bidi, who in the past three years did not raise any issue but the one for his own family. Thus, from the council minutes and interviews with officials it became clear that the Roma conditions had no priority. Even when we take in consideration that comuna Ogra has few resources, it turned out that the poor conditions in the Roma quarter were never a topic for discussion. After all, mayor Meghe an organised material to repair the roads in the centre without financial resources, while the roads in the cartier were in much worse conditions. Lack of involvement in Roma issues was partly due to the quite passive attitude of the Roma councillor. On the other hand, other officials made clear that any effort to improve the situation would be a waste of time and resources, as the Roma themselves are to blame for their poor conditions. As long as they did not improve their own situation, the authorities felt it was completely legitimate not to take action. Conclusion The situation in the Roma quarter is characterised by a low level of social cohesion and distrust. Relations of reciprocity hardly existed; the expression Everyone works up to his own fence seemed to be the rule. Even among relatives it was uncommon to assist each other with 125

137 labour activities. Several factors played a role in this situation. First, the quarter had rapidly expanded in a relatively short period time. As a consequence, many Roma did not know each other well and the community hardly had any shared history. Second, resources to live from were scarce and families sometimes had competition over labour. In addition, one came to envy the extra assets other families gained. This led to a situation in which Roma did not trust their neighbours, which made cooperation almost impossible. Arguments and conflicts frequently occurred and the whole situation was made worse by the alcohol consumption. This lack of trust and prevailing competition hindered cooperation to that extent, that even in a situation that the previous mayor offered something that could improve their conditions, the example of the electricity stakes, the Roma failed to cooperate. Although Roma participation in the CBO Interetnica was largely determined by Szente s role, it did tell us a few other things. Roma did involve in the school project. They were even enthusiastic about it, as their children go there as well. None of the Roma would deny that music and dance are important activities in their daily lives. However, they had very different priorities when it came to spend their time effectively. The fact that Roma participants chose to work instead of attending rehearsals, clearly demonstrated that the CBO needed to organise different activities if it wanted to involve Roma. The relationship with the authorities was one of mutual distrust and lack of understanding. Roma expected their authorities to provide public services such as social assistance and infrastructural works, but also an interested attitude in their situation and openness in communication. They merely feel ignored. They also expected assistance from the authorities in issues that border personal responsibilities, like the digging of channels in the new streets of the quarter. While the authorities should provide the quarter with stones, the Roma themselves could start draining rainwater. The authorities see Roma issues as problems they should resolve on their own. They were convinced that the Roma caused their own conditions and as long as Roma did not change, the authorities would not make any efforts either. Even when we took in consideration that the comuna has few resources, it is clear that the local authorities did not give priority to the living conditions of the Roma. The lack of ability to act collectively also hampered the Roma to take collective action regarding the government. On the other hand, the local authorities offered no institutional possibilities to interact such as village meetings. The only institution the Roma had to represent their interests was their councillor, Ianos Bidi. As an official representative of the people, the Roma thus had their person in the local council. It was clear that the actual situation is different; the Roma councillor did not actively pursue interests of the Roma, he chose who to assist and excluded people from assistance on purpose. Although the writing of requests and sending information to the Labour Office were no formal responsibilities, he used these tasks to exclude Roma families from access to resources. 126

138 8. Conclusion Picture: Roma man in Nem a lost in thought. 127