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Coping with social exclusion: survival and saving strategies among the Roma

Literature on how Roma families cope with precarious living conditions and social exclusion remains very limited. Out of all the national minorities and ethnic groups in Croatia, the Roma undoubtedly have the most difficult social position characterised by a high degree of social exclusion. In addition, living standards for Roma have deteriorated more severely since transition and during the current recession than for any other population group. Based on recent ethnographic fieldwork, the aim of this paper is to explore the coping strategies different Roma populations in Croatia employ to meet their everyday needs. This study uses the social exclusion concept, which takes into account more dimensions of people’s lives and the dynamics that affect people’s situations over time. It highlights how belonging to the socially excluded often implies exclusion from formal citizenship rights, the labour market, educational opportunities and participation in civil society and social arenas. Acknowledging the four different forms of interconnected, interdependent and context-specific capital that together constitute advantage and disadvantage in society (Bourdieu 1986), this paper analyses Roma’s access to economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital. Along with discrimination and racism, Roma’s limited access to different forms of capital explicates the necessity of Roma households’ saving and survival strategies, especially in light of stricter social welfare policy measures that have been recently introduced. Personal accounts clearly confirm a wide range of experienced inequalities (social, educational, economic, gender, political, etc.) as well as unlived freedoms. The meanings of these accounts and their implications for Roma families and the future of this marginalised social group will be explored in this paper.

Social exclusion; coping strategies; Roma in Croatia

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