Roma

Officially making up 5% of the population of Prilep (according the the 2002 census) is the Roma people.  However, their true representation of the population in Prilep is probably much higher than it was 11 years ago.  Many people today still know the Roma under the term “gypsies,” but Roma is the politically correct term (decided upon at the World Romani Congress in London in 1971). 

Unofficial estimates number the Roma population in Macedonia to be about 260,000 people (at its highest estimate), which would suggest that Roma make up about 10% of the population.  Most Roma in Macedonia live in the larger cities of Macedonia, including Kumanovo, Bitola, and Prilep.  There is a municipality in Skopje called Shuto Orizari that is majority Roma.

Ethnically, the Romani people emigrated from Northwest India as early as the 13^th century and settled in Europe.  Some believe that the Roma first immigrated to Egypt before arriving in Europe, thus picking up the name “gypsies” since they were seen as people coming from Egypt.  Since their arrival in Europe, they have settled all across the Western civilization, traveling from Anatolia to the Balkans, to Central Europe, to Western Europe, and eventually to the US.  As a percentage of the population, Roma compose a large minority (over 10%) in countries like Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. 

Depending on the community, Roma typically live in their own neighborhoods or in squatter communities, usually close to a city or a larger town.  The unemployment rate for the Roma community is typically larger than the national average, and many in these communities face hardships that other communities typically do not face.  For example, in Macedonia, Roma are typically pressured to marry at a young age.  Thus, many had not completed secondary school, though universal schooling and changing attitudes toward education may be changing these trends.  In some Roma communities, there are issues with vaccinations of children and registrations of births.  According to some anecdotes of Peace Corps volunteers, some children are not registered months or even years after their birth.  Many Roma avoid registrations or interactions with the local authority for fear of discrimination.

On Thursday, I had my first interaction with many Roma in Macedonia.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my counterparts is collecting surveys from primary schools to analyze the demand for foreign teachers in the classrooms.  Results from the surveys show that many students learning English, German, or French in the classrooms would be interested in having a foreign teaching assistant at their school.  Yet, the data was exactly opposite at one of the primary schools, which was predominantly Roma.  Students at this school often mentioned that having a foreigner in the classroom would be helpful to learning the language, but the large majority of the students preferred to not have a foreign teacher in the classroom.  This result was mind-boggling to both my counterpart and me.

My counterpart was distressed because she had attended this school only a few years before and wanted to help in any way possible.  When she had attended, the Roma made up only 10% of the class.  Now, about 90% of the children in the classes are Roma.  She had mentioned that many Macedonians in the area are sending their students to other schools because they do not want their students to be in the same classrooms as Roma.  However, she mentioned that she treasured her experience at this school since she had the opportunity to interact with a people that she otherwise would not have met.

I feel blessed to interact with the Roma community in Prilep so early during my time here, even if I had only visited the primary school for a half hour.  There is already a Peace Corps volunteer in Prilep who works with the Roma population, but I will likely not have any direct contact with the Roma given my volunteer assignment.  However, while Macedonia has its diversity of problems, the problems in the Roma community are reflections of abject poverty that other PCVs often witness every day in other countries.  I must focus on my primary duty, which is working with my organization.  However, I will try to keep the Roma community in mind, and I hope to somehow change people’s attitude toward the community.  The more that people think like my counterpart, the better Macedonia will be as a whole.