The Nature and Social Determinants of Roma Poverty - A Cross-National Comparison

Abstract

This paper is based on data from the survey "Poverty, ethnicity and gender in transitional societies" carried on in 2000 in six Central and East European countries. The paper focuses on three of them (Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania) with a significant Roma minority. The first part presents the recollection of Roma and non-Roma about their poverty experience before 1989, and the second part reviews evidence about the impact of the changes. The situation of the majority of both groups seems to have deteriorated but decrease is much stronger in case of the Roma. The third section offers an overview of cross-national and inter-ethnic differences in living standards in the year 2000. In a cross-national perspective both groups seem to fare better in Hungary than in the other two "neo-patrimonial" systems, but the difference between the Roma and the non-Roma is everywhere significant. The fourth section assesses how various new capitalist countries deal with the challenge of new poverty and under what circumstances - if ever - can one meaningfully apply the concept of the "underclass".