2. General „Roma“ context in the
Czech Republic
offcially recognised Roma minority (i.e. – a group of people actively
proclaiming their nationality – in the last census in 2012 less than 12,000
individuals);
• inhabitants of cca 300 excluded Roma localities (60,000 to 90,000 people);
• registered unemployed Roma (39,187 - the Ministry of Social Affairs
estimation);
• „just“ plain Roma people, numbering according the demographic studies
around 200,000 – (i.e. less than 2% of the overall population of the Czech
Republic).
• the institutional framework around housing, field (social) work and labour
counselling is part of a rather complicated structure of mutually semi-
independent bodies (in case of governmental ministries, regions and
municipalities) and administrators of the EU structural funds. They all use
the terminology of social exclusion, inclusion, and integration, etc.
3. clients of Social Integration
Programmes (SIP) of the PiN
Mostly live in rental flats or lodging houses of
dubiousquality that do not correspond to the
rents they are required to pay. Large families
are cramped in small rooms that sometimes
lack heating and hot water; often this type of
“residential” housing is provided in buildings
without an occupancy permit. In addition,
rooming houses and asylum homes frequently
admit only adults or mothers with children.
4. SIP_ goals
• The cornerstone - outreach to clients and the
provision of a broad range of social services,
such as assistance in solving problems with
housing, debts, education, jobs, etc. Initially,
the key task is to prevent further social
decline that might result, for instance, in
placing children in institutional care.
5. Current state of the
housing market in the Czech Republic
• there are more than 450,000 vacant housing
units - a sufficient capacity for all who need
rental housing;
• building new capacity (so called social
housing) is pointless;
• solution: removing the barriers preventing the
entry of the socially excluded families into the
system of adequate rental housing.
6. Size of Roma population and key
characteristics
• Roma comprise a varied grouping of extended families and
individuals whose estimated number varies considerably.
• While the official overall estimates give a figure of 200 000 to
250 000, the number of those declaring themselves to be of
Roma ethnicity was 11 716 at the last national census (2001),
i.e. more than 20 000less than in 1991 (32 903).
• Around 90 000 Roma reside in about 330 socially excluded
localities.
• The vast majority of Roma suffer from low education levels
and a lack of functional literacy and numeracy skills. Around
60% have only a primary education and 14 percent attend
special school for children with learning disabilities
7. Wider policy context for Roma
• Main strategic documents: Governmental Concept of Roma
Integration (updated more or less annually from its first
adoption in 2000) and the National Action Plan of Social
Inclusion – mention field work and labour counselling as a key
instrument to achieve greater Roma access to the labour
market and thus increasing their chances to obtain adequate
housing.
• The most needy Roma live in lodging houses - these are not
simply used in cases of emergency, but often are used as
permanent housing.
8. Description of policy example
• Field (social) work as a strategy for combating social
exclusion of Roma started 1999 by the NGO People in Need)
was gradually adopted by the government ( from 2000,
financed by PHARE programme) nad perceived as a strategy
aimed at the solution of problems facing clients such as a lack
of documentation (or even citizenship), inadequate housing,
debts, lack of skills, etc;
• Within the EU structural funds in the Czech Republic (ESF, and
mainly EQUAL) field work has been used in close connection
with housing issues. In reality, field workers often became
labour counsellors and housing agents, adding this
responsibility to their other field work skills.
9. Results of the policy
Introduction of field work resulted in
awareness, that the only sensible approach to
the integration of Roma lies in combining
educational, housing and welfare policies.
Such a more complex approach is currently
used in pilot projects undertaken by the
government agency for social inclusion
(Department of the Government Office).
10. Success factors
• The gradual establishment of the (governmental) Agency for
Social Inclusion (2008) could be seen as a viable outcome
from a limited success of field work a and labour counselling.
• The agency launched cooperation between local self-rule
bodies (regions, cities and municipalities), associations,
schools, labour offices, firms and inhabitants from
problematic localities so that the ghettos might eventually be
eliminated, or turned into regular neighbourhoods.
11. Policy constraints
• The concept of field (social) work (and connected to it
housing issues and labour counselling) has gradually become
quite widespread and started to be imitated by a number of
pro-Roma NGO´s, which confused it with revivalism of pan-
Roma ethnicity. A division between two incompatible basic
approaches (the national/ethnic and social ones) has become
clearly visible while variety of NGO´s competed for state
money allocated to finance field work schemes.
• A considerable part of the clients became “long term clients”,
respectively, and became recycled in different systems (being
registered and re-registered as clients of NGOs), because
their situation could not be solved by field work alone.
12. Conclusions
• Field work and labour counselling has
developed over the last decade into a
generally accepted tool for combating social
exclusion, inadequate housing and long term
unemployment among individuals from the
ethnic Roma community.
14. Individual and family based
approach
• In 2012, we provided a total of 19 registered
social services, used by 4,797 people, with
whom we resolved a total of 8,933 matters.
Among the most common areas of support
were job-search assistance, housing, debt
counselling, support in caring for children or
dealing with health problems.
