Hungary

The objectives of this project are to analyze the legal system and education policies for ensuring equity for Romani students and multicultural diversity in Hungarian education; examine the content of education programs and the national, local and ethnic curricula in light of integration and anti-discrimination criteria; examine and analyze selective mechanisms of public education and assess to what degree special policies and funds promote the realization of integration and antidiscrimination; and write a research and policy paper in coordination with mentors for the Hungarian Ministry of Education, European Roma Rights Center, Maholnap Foundation, and Autonomia Foundation.

E-mail: kurucz@policy.hu 

Bulgariaa

The objectives of the project are to conduct interviews and gather and analyze statistical data regarding government overspending in the areas of education, healthcare, welfare benefits (unemployment, social assistance and child-support) and the judicial and law-enforcement system; identify and recommend adequate programs that address problems of Roma discrimination while saving taxpayer money; and write and present a research and policy paper in coordination with mentors for the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Health and the World Bank.

E-mail:gounev@policy.hu

Romania

The goal of the project is to conduct statistical research related to segregated Roma schools in Romania; evaluate segregated schools and mixed schools in terms of human and financial resources and scholarly achievement; identify and evaluate economic and social costs of maintaining segregated schools; elaborate a strategy for desegregating Rosma schools in Romania as well as in Central and Eastern Europe; and write a research and policy paper in the field of Roma education for the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research as well as the Department of Minority Education, Roma and non-Roma educators and journalists, and international organizations such as Center Education 2000+ (Open Soros Network Romania), World Bank-Romania, UNICEF-Romania, and Save the Children-Romania.

E-mail: surdu@policy.hu 

Czech Republic/Hungary

The objectives of the project are to examine the process of public policy formulation regarding the political representation of Roma in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland in the 1990s and evaluate international policy alternatives; define the role of informal and formal mechanisms and policy networks via an analysis of case studies and consultations with regional experts and practitioners; and write a research and policy paper for politicians, governments officials, and academics in relevant countries, international organizations such as ODIHR’s Contact Point for Sinti and Roma in Europe of the OSCE, and Romani non-governmental organizations such as the Romani Union, Roma National Congress and Opre Roma.

E-mail: sobotka@policy.hu

Czech Republic

Racial discrimination is one of the main barriers to full participation in society for all Roma. Such discrimination is a contributing factor to the poor living conditions that many Roma throughout Central and Eastern Europe endure—the slum-like housing, chronic unemployment, poor health, lack of access to public services, segregated schools, and, increasingly, the racially motivated violence that authorities fail to prevent or punish. Asserting the rights of Roma to equal protection under the law, and empowering them to become active members of their communities and the larger society is a top priority for the Soros foundations network.

Hungary

The project aims to follow up on the results of a needs assessment carried out during the 1999 fellowship by evaluating the ability of minority educator training to improve the quality of education for minorities and encourage their participation in majority society, compare the results of various methods of minority education, and develop a policy paper on program strategies in the field of primary education and minority issues in coordination with network mentors. 

E-mail: szilassy@policy.hu; emsyl@freemail.c3.hu; emsyl@freemail.hu

(if her e-mails bounce back, she is a CEU PhD student)

Hungary

The goals of the project are to promote Roma youth participation in higher education to assist them in completing their academic studies in higher educational institutes and encourage them to utilize their knowledge in their community, develop a concrete strategy on how to implement the higher educational concept within the selected CEE countries of the Soros foundations network, work out the framework mechanisms and processes in place after one year in order to successfully implement the project in selected countries, establish an implementation partners network to extend the program to other countries in the region, and develop a policy paper on program strategies in the field of higher education in coordination with network mentors. 

Roma Higher Education Research Background

E-mail: kocze@policy.hu ; angela@errc.org

Plamen Makariev

PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University

Bulgaria

The cultural discrepancies, which make problematic the school education of children from Islamic minorities, contribute substantially to the difficulties in the integration of these minorities into the modern societies of the Balkan countries. It is both necessary and dangerous to seek a common denominator in the problems of Turks, Pomaks, Albanians and Moslem-Roma in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece (countries where people from these groups live in narrow cohabitation with the respective Christian majorities). The danger is to explain all antagonisms in this cohabitation as ensuing from a "clash of civilizations". The difference in religion, bearing here far more cultural implications than in many other cases, is not the only factor, which accounts for the apparent tensions. And if its importance is exaggerated, it is possible that a Pygmalion effect might catalyze the contradictions, and bring about a development of Islamic fundamentalism in places where it has no genuine roots.

E-mail: makariev@phls.uni-sofia.bg