Ten Years After

A History of Roma School Desegregation in Central and Eastern Europe
Editor: 
Iulius Rostas
ISBN: 
978-615-5053-13-9
cloth
$100.00 / €90.00 / £79.00
ISBN: 
978-615-5225-02-4
paperback
$32.95 / €27.95 / £23.95
Part of series: 
New in paperback
Publication date: 
2012
392 pages
Where to buy online: 
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Roma rights have emerged on the political agenda of Eastern Europe. School segregation is one of the hottest issues. Each country has developed its own approach, with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania being more visible in the desegregation process. 
The volume presents the results collated in the frames of the fact finding project led by the editor. The analysis includes the examination of a large number of legal documents and policy statements issued by national authorities and the international community on the matter. A critical overview is also made about the various Roma-specific political campaigns on national and European scale. The second half of the book contains interviews with activists that assumed a leading role in school desegregation. These testimony pieces have been critically reviewed by educational and policy analysts from the concerned countries.

Introduction

Part I
Chapter 1 Institutional Responses to Segregation: the Role of Governments and Non-Governmental Organizations by Marius Taba and Andrew Ryder
Chapter 2 Setting the Roma policy agenda: the role of international organizations in promoting school desegregation by Anita Danka and Iulius Rostas
Chapter 3 Judicial policy making: the role of the courts in promoting school desegregation by Iulius Rostas

Part II
Bulgaria – Interview with Rumayn Russinov
Bulgaria – Policy review by Krassimir Kanev
Czech Republic – Interview with Ivan Vesely
Czech Republic – Policy review by Gwendolyn Albert
Hungary – Interview with Viktoria Mohacsi
Hungary – Policy review by Orsolya Szendrey
Romania – Interview with Costel Bercus
Romania – Policy review by Florin Moisa
Slovakia – Interview with Klara Orgovanova
Slovakia – Policy Review by Miroslava Hapalova and Martina Kubanova

Part III
Conclusion by Iulius Rostas

Elena Marushiakova (Associate Professor) and Veselin Popov (Associate Professor), Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Studies and Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

"Ten Years After examines the social processes and governmental policies which have an impact on the development of the Roma communities. Beyond the discussion of the specific topic of school desegregation, the variety of views presented in the book provide an unambiguous answer to the question what should be the leading approach of the various policies and projects directed towards Roma in Central and Eastern Europe, in order to avoid their treatment as marginalised or as exotic community. The process of school desegregation epitomises the choices that Roma make within the larger societies. Understanding these choices is critical for the social emancipation of Roma and for their equal citizenship in the European societies. The book is an invaluable contribution to contemporary Romani studies and will be of interest for wide audience of scholars and policy makers.”

Jack Greenberg , Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Professor of Law, Columbia University

"The first thing to cross the mind of an American lawyer who encounters discrimination against Roma is that it must be like Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement all over again. But upon getting into civil rights conflict under European law, Americans quickly discover major differences in procedure (e.g., no class actions, no injunctions), the extent to which civil rights law substance has developed, social and political environments, expectations and attitudes of plaintiffs and defendants, and what lawyers actually accomplish. This book has much to teach on both continents.”

James Goldston , Executive Director, Open Society Justice Initiative

"Ten Years After is a comprehensive assessment of progress to date in ending school segregation in Europe and a wake up call that more effort, resources and political leadership are required if the promise of equal justice for all children is to be redeemed.”

Ky Krauthamer, Transitions Online

"As the book makes abundantly clear, school desegregation is no less necessary and no less difficult now than in the 1990s when the problem was first addressed... For me the most valuable part of the book are the interviews with practitioners of desegregation in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The “10 years” of the title alludes to the start of the first serious school desegregation program in these countries, in Vidin, Bulgaria. Like most, if not all other desegregation initiatives, this one would not have happened had not a Romani rights group proposed and run it."