Before you make another offhand remark about Roma and Travellers in the UK, we'd like to tell you this
Roma Virtual Network
Before you make another offhand remark about Roma and Travellers in the UK, we'd like to tell you this
For our communities, segregation begins early. Roma children are among the most chronically under-achieving in the education system. Just 14 per cent of Roma children succeed in reaching minimum GCSE expectations compared with 60 per cent of their white peers
The Roma community is one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups in the UK today. It is estimated that there are at least 200,000 Roma and Travellers in Britain, although this is thought to be an underestimate due to their lack of participation in the 2011 census. Though Romani communities have been in Europe for centuries, and in the UK since the 15th century (the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland referred to a payment made to "the King of Rowmais" at Hunthall in 1505) people are still ignorant about us and our lifestyle. A recent Pew Research Centre poll found that 50 per cent of people in the UK have a negative view of the Romani community.
In fact, Romani and Traveller communities face challenges in almost every aspect of life from housing, education and employment to negative portrayals in the media. Planning applications made by ethnic Travellers are frequently rejected by councils, making integration ever more difficult.
Katalin Barsony is a Roma activist, filmmaker, and executive director of the Budapest based Romedia Foundation
Damian James LeBas is a Roma filmmaker, a published poet, author and journalist