Montenegro

Bringing Roma in from the cold in Montenegro

After centuries of being excluded from the larger societies they live amongst, Roma are starting to knock at the door and ask for entry. Few will be surprised to learn that Roma are the most marginalized ethnic minority in Montenegro. Plagued by endemic, age-old social ostracization, poverty and illiteracy, improving the plight of Roma is one of the toughest challenges faced by the tiny Balkan country that is trying to deal with scores of tough challenges.

The impressive economic development recorded by Montenegro so far in the first decade of the 21st century has meant precious little to Roma. The vast majority of Roma are considered unemployable by the vast majority of Montenegrin employers. Suffering under a stigma that dates back five centuries or more, most Roma seem to believe that dreams of being accepted by the larger societies in which they live are little  more than dreams. For the most part, Roma grudgingly accept their perceived fate as the damned of Europe - doomed to live their lives toiling in low paying, subsistence jobs or scavenging for sustenance from the leftovers discarded by others as the masses turn their heads in revulsion, or look on in indifference. 

However, in every society there are individuals who dare to dream; individuals who are not willing to accept the often bitter realities of life; individuals who have the intestinal fortitude to defy the odds and bring about change. When such individuals meet each other and begin to converse, they realize that there is little they cannot change, albeit often with a great deal of effort.

As other Montenegrins continue to elevate themselves from the conflict that engulfed the region in the 1990s and begin to create a nation that is prosperous and just, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working with Roma in the country who are intrepid and industrious enough to stand before their people and attempt to convince them that they can do likewise.

Jaha Samir is the 25 year old Executive Director of the Herceg Novi based NGO Young Roma. Samir is as far away from the Roma stereotype as black is from white. He is sharply dressed, clean cut, hard working, articulate and passionate about his mission to integrate Roma into Montenegrin society. His organization has earned the faith and confidence of his people and has been acknowledged by Montenegrin authorities and international NGOs as representatives of an ethnic minority that has a legitimate right to be included. And Samir says that no one should doubt that Roma want to integrate, as many believe. “Show me the parents who do not want their children to attend school,” Samir says. “The idea that Roma do not want to integrate is an untrue stereotype that has lasted too long.”

According to a 2008 survey by the Montenegrin national statistics bureau MONSTAT, the Roma National Council and NGO Coalition Romski Krug, there are around 11,000 Roma residing in the country, including those displaced from Kosovo.

Along with a number of other organizations, UNDP Montenegro is helping Roma NGOs build capacity. From these NGOs a new generation of Roma leaders is emerging. These new leaders and their organizations partner with UNDP on numerous small scale projects which are designed to both help the larger Roma community and give the leaders the kind of first hand experience needed to assure proper representation of their people in the future. Similar efforts are underway in 11 European countries.

In 2003, a high level regional conference on Roma was held in Budapest, Hungary. Two years later the prime ministers of eight countries met in Sophia, Bulgaria to sign the Declaration of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 - 2015. The twelve countries currently taking part in the Decade are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain. Thirteen international organizations, including UNDP, are partners in the effort which they describe as:

“… an unprecedented political commitment by governments in Central and Southeastern Europe to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma within a regional framework. The Decade is an international initiative that brings together governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as Romani civil society, to accelerate progress toward improving the welfare of Roma and to review such progress in a transparent and quantifiable way. The Decade focuses on the priority areas of education, employment, health, and housing, and commits governments to take into account the other core issues of poverty, discrimination, and gender mainstreaming.”

Emboldened by their new found collective voice, Montenegro’s Roma made it clear that they wanted to be directly involved in any developmental efforts aimed at them. “Nothing for Roma without Roma,” is a slogan that was heard far and wide in Montenegro. The message was heeded and today Roma have a place at the table whenever and wherever discussions are held about how to integrate them into Montenegrin society.  

Many of Montenegro’s Roma have been excluded from the protection of governmental social safety nets simply because they did not have the identification documents (ID) to prove that they are, in fact, Montenegrin citizens. The 2003 survey estimated that as many as 25% of domicile Roma in Montenegro did not possess sufficient ID to access national programs for health, education, social benefits, social services, employment mediation services, financial assistance and other services.

Supported by UNDP, various Roma NGOs launched projects to secure ID for their people. So far, more than 600 Roma have been issued around 1200 various personal documents and are now able to access social services that had previously been denied to them. Jaha Samir and his NGO have now begun to undertake the long and labourious process to gain ID for Roma who live in the municipality of Herceg Novi.

There are approximately 400 Roma living in Herceg Novi. According to Samir, most of the families were brought to the coastal town from Kosovo in the 1960s, when both Montenegro and Kosovo were part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to be employed in sanitation services. Samir says there were never problems about ID until the Kosovo war in 1999. Prior to the dissolution of Yugoslavia, citizens moving from one community to another were required to register their moves with the government and so it was with the Roma of Herceg Novi. However, parts of the registry listing movements of people from Kosovo disappeared during or shortly after the Kosovo war and 144 members of the town’s Roma community have to acquire new ID as part of the country’s efforts to adhere to EU requirements.

 

Obtaining the documents needed to become citizens of Montenegro for the Roma of Herceg Novi involves an lengthy and no doubt frustrating process. In order to avoid being tangled in a bewildering mass of red tape, Herceg Novi’s Roma have signed over power of attorney to Samir et al.  UNDP Montenegro has in the interim fundraised additional resources from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) - for the entire documentation process in accordance with the new Montenegrin law on citizenship, which can run as high as 500 to 700 euros per person and take anywhere from six to eighteen months.

Although gaining legal status in Montenegro will be a major victory for the country’s domicile Roma population, gaining social acceptance for them will require a much greater effort.  They have been so shut out of mainstream society that there are only two Roma in Montenegro who have graduated from university and Samir is not one of the two (although he hopes to change that as soon as he can find the time to complete studies). If Samir does not manage to find the time to finish a degree it will likely be, in part, because he is too busy trying to establish university scholarships for his people. Samir’s agenda also includes working with government employment agencies to establish training programs for Roma, particularly to endow them with basic IT skills.

Despite its name, Samir’s organization helps Roma of all ages and his office, which is provided by the municipal government, is visited at least ten times a day by people seeking help in various matters.

Integration is a two way street and Samir acknowledges that his people have to change before they will be accepted into the mainstream. Roma NGOs in Montenegro are working to eradicate socially abhorrent traditional practices such as families ‘arranging’ marriages for their daughters at very early ages.

All across Europe, governments are struggling to come to grips with their own ‘Roma problems’. In Montenegro, the government has a very powerful incentive to improve the plight of Roma and integrate them – the EU insists that it do so in order to become a full member of the bloc. Montenegro must, of necessity, try much harder than EU member countries to bring Roma in from the metaphoric cold. One day, EU member states may be very thankful for the work of people like Samir because it is just possible that they are drawing a blueprint for the social inclusion of Roma that will be used far and wide in the future.

As the old saying goes, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’ and people like Jaha Samir are finding a way to end centuries of enmity between Roma and the rest of civilization. In the future, historians may ask, ‘Why did it take so long?’ and when they ponder that question long and hard they may come to the conclusion that prior to the Declaration of the Decade of Roma Inclusion no one ever cared enough to really try.