“Quartiers en Crise” - POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN THE DISTRICT OF ELEFTHERIO/KORDELIO - EVOSMOS - MENEMENI

GEORGIOS TSIAKALOS - DIMITRA KONGIDOU

POVERTY 3 - 1992

The PROGRAMME'S research in the district

PREFACE

The present report was based and written in the frame of POVERTY 3 Programme.

Exact data for the economic and social conditions of the area were not available at the start of POVERTY 3. An example of this is the fact that even the population figures vary according to the reporter: the municipal authorities estimate the population at 90,000 inhabitants while our research verifies the estimate of the Thessaloniki Organisation of 1988 that the population is 60,000, a number it may slightly exceed.

We conducted research in June, 1990 for the study of the basic characteristics of the people of the district using a questionnaire and having the household as the unit of study. The formation of the sample was based on the demographic information which was done by the Thessaloniki Organisation in 1988 in the three municipalities of the area and on the separation of the area into zones with similar characteristics concerning their environment. On the basis of this information and using the method of random sampling we formed a sample of 1800 households distributed according to zones in city blocks. The questionnaires were answered by 1787 households (from the 1800 of the sample). Our research has recorded a total of 6,326 persons. Their distribution according to their different characteristics can be considered to represent the total picture of the population of the district because of the representational nature of the sample.

Simultaneously, because of the special interest of certain groups of people, samples were prepared from special lists belonging to social service agencies for single-parent families, families of individuals with special needs, and recently repatriated Pontians from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with the intention of studying their special characteristics.

The basic objectives of the research were:

a) the collection of information regarding the economic, social and cultural conditions under which the people of the district live;

b) the enumeration of the groups of people who are defined by sociological and/or demographical criteria with a special interest in the possible target groups of the programme;

c) a comparison between the general population, the special groups, and the target groups of the programme.

The questionnaire contained an enumeration of the members of the households in relation to many characteristics, questions regarding their views and attitudes, and self-evaluations of their own situation.

The population of the district - Demographic data

In relation to the 1981 census the population shows only a slight increase. This very minor increase can be explained by the fact that during the last decade the repatriation of immigrants from Western Europe, and especially West Germany, has decreased considerably and internal immigration has almost come to a stop (Table 1).

The average number of persons per household is 3.54.

In the following tables regarding the distribution of the population according to sex, age and education, the missing information will be reported as "missing".

On the basis of sex, the distribution of the population is: 49.5% male and 50.5 female.

It is estimated that the percentage of families declaring members with special needs was very low (in comparison with international figures that come to approximately 10%). The research team, which investigated with qualitative methods the responses of the families with members with special needs as well as the position of these members in society, interprets this outcome as the result of an attempt to conceal the truth because of the superstitions surrounding such individuals and the possibility of their being institutionalised.

The population of the three municipalities of this district consists of refugees who came from Asia Minor in 1922, Pontian refugees of the decades of the 20s and 30s and their progenitors, internal immigrants from the end of the 1950s and the decade of the 60s, returning immigrants, especially from West Germany, the majority of whom do not originate from this district, and those repatriated from Eastern Europe (who lived there as political refugees). In other words, all these groups of people who established themselves in this district "started from zero" with the exception of the returning immigrants, the majority of whom settled in this area after purchasing a house. The creation of the municipalities was achieved to a great extent and for a long time through illegal settlement and construction of houses. The consequences of this random building is evident, especially in the lack of necessary substructures such as sewer systems and the like.

The table that follows shows clearly the different origins of the inhabitants of the region. In combination with the information regarding the year in which they settled in this area, the immigrational trends are clarified as well as the economic, social and political causes which contributed to the formation of the particular social and economic framework of the district. Characteristic of these immigrational trends is the development of the municipality of Evosmos: its population (1961 census) was 7,713 (former refugees and the first internal immigrants); by 1971 it tripled reaching 22,390 inhabitants (as a result of waves of internal immigration); by 1981 it reached 26,528 (the result of repatriation which is not so strong as the internal immigration of the previous period).

Given the fact that Western Thessaloniki does not attract new residents from metropolitan Thessaloniki, we must consider the group of those who were born "in the remaining district of Thessaloniki/Northern Greece" as the overwhelming majority of returning immigrants from the provinces. Given also the fact that in the group of those born in the district are the children of "settlers" (internal immigrants, repatriates from abroad, etc.) it becomes clear that the great majority of the adult population of this district consists of settlers. Of those, 69% were internal immigrants from northern Greece, 18% internal immigrants from the rest of Greece and 13% repatriates from abroad.

With regard to the population movements it is significant for the investigation of the multifaceted poverty of the district and its consequences to know of the losses of inhabitants from this district. The correlation of the real increase of the population of this district -- very small during the last five years - and of the number of new settlers during the same period (13.4% of the population has settled in the district during the last five years) shows that there are such losses. These losses suggest that people consider this district to be underdeveloped in many ways and have the option of moving to better areas of Thessaloniki.

Economy - Employment

According to the information of ICAP (1986), in the Industrial sector of Western Thessaloniki the clothes industry prevails (35.1%) and with textiles (10.4%) and the food industry (10.0%) cover 55.5% of the sector. In the neighbouring district of Kalohori, where a segment of the population of Western Thessaloniki is employed, it is the areas of textiles (31.8%) and food industries (14.9%) that prevail. With these facts the organisational structure of the industrial units of the district does not differ from the total picture represented by metropolitan Thessaloniki. It must be noted here that these branches of industry are considered among the most dynamic of the Greek economy even within the context of European Economic Unification. At the end of this list is to be found Western Thessaloniki, according to the average size of the industrial units which in this district does not exceed 4.3 employed per unit. In the most dynamic branches the average is slightly higher as it becomes obvious from Table 6, a fact which indirectly shows how low it is in the less dynamic sectors.

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As a measure of comparison we mention that in the neighbouring district of Kalohori the average volume of industrial units of comparable sectors is much higher, e.g., in the textiles branch, 38.3% and in the food industry 13.2%. The total picture of the E./K.E.M. district shows that it is the small businesses that dominate (1-9 employed) in opposition to the general picture of metropolitan Thessaloniki where units of medium volume (10-49 employed) dominate.

The employment of the population of this district is presented in Table 7.

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The social composition of the population of the district is best represented in the following distribution of the employed.

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Among the working people 88% work in the private and 12% in the public sectors.

The divergence between that which is considered by the residents of the district as necessary income for a household and their real income is what determines the extent of poverty in the district - more so since the real income as well as what is considered "necessary income" are impressively low.

It is difficult to compare the information we have about this district with information about other districts or the general population of Greece: research regarding the subjective perceptions on what constitutes necessary income is missing and we do not have valid statistics regarding the real income of the Greeks. If we accept the declared income of the salaried employees for 1989 as valid (from which declarations only additional income can be kept secret) according to which the average monthly income of a salaried employee came to 119,903 drachmas (this information comes from the "Sunday Eleutherotypia" of 30/9/90), and if we add to this an increase of 15% for 1990, we can estimate that the average monthly income of a salaried employee is approximately 140,000 drachmas. On the basis of these facts we conclude that 24% of the families of our district have a family income that is smaller than half of the individual income of a salaried employee, as is reported in Table 10.

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Table 10: Distribution of real monthly family income (MFI) and that "considered as necessary" in the districts of Eleftherio/ Kordelio, Evosmos and Menemeni (in % of the total population)

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The data contained in Table 10 become even more precise with regard to the real situation to which they refer as well as with regard to the perceptions on the necessary MFI which they reflect, when we transform it in such a way so that it refers to an individual member of the household (and not to the total household which hides the fact that households have varying numbers of members). Table 11 gives the percentage points of the two distributions.

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Table 11: Percentage distribution of the real and of the "considered as necessary" monthly income per person (MIpP) of a household in the districts of Eleftherio/Kordelio, Evosmos and Menemeni

The two dimensions are fully correlated. With regard to the difference between them we observe that 12% of the population "consider" their income higher than the necessary income, 18% that their income corresponds to the necessary income, and 70% that their income is below the level of necessary income (we use "consider" because the above result came from the correlation of their responses and not from their "declaration" in the corresponding question). These results correspond to the responses of the population with regard to the degree of satisfaction with their income: 25% report satisfaction, 40% consider it to be barely enough, and 35% think that it doesn't cover their basic needs.

The level of ownership of private homes is quite high, 72.5%, whereas 21.5% of the households rent their homes and 6% in homes they don't own but don't pay rent. The level of rent is reported in Table 12.

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Table 12: Distribution of rental prices in the districts of Eleftherio/ Kordelio, Evosmos and Menemeni

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With regard to the quality of housing, 35.9 % state that they do no have a large enough house, and 4.1% that they do not have water and/or electricity and/or a toilet in the house.

One can consider as particularly poor single-parent families, Pontian families who have been recently repatriated from the "USSR", families with members with special needs, and Gypsy families.

The group of the unemployed is obviously poor. To this group, however, belong a high percentage of groups of poor people as characterised above.

SPF belong to the poorest segment of the population of the district. 21% of the "very poor" of the district (income below 70,000 drachmas) are single-parent families. Single-parent families are characterised as those in which young children grow up with only one parent, regardless of what happened to the other parent (death, divorce, abandonment, etc.) and regardless of the fact that in the family there may be other individuals in addition to the parent and children (grandparents, uncles and aunts, etc.). In this district reasons reported for the absence of the other parent were: death 30%, divorce 13%, separation 23%, unmarried mothers 23%, and other reasons 11%.

SPF constitute 10% of the general population of the district. In 23% of the SPF they speak some other language or dialect, which suggests that some of those families belong to minority groups.

Half of SPF consists only of the parent and children while in the other half there are other members included in the family, usually relatives of the parent. In the first case, the average number of children is 1.73 with the family consisting of 2.73 persons; in the second case the average number of children is 1.71 and of the other members 1.90, consequently a family consisting of 4.61 persons.

There is considerable difference among single parenthood, sex and age. Single parenthood "happens" to men mainly over 55 years of age, whereas there is no difference in women of different ages.

There are no significant differences between men and women with regard to their origin. Differences exist with regard to this between single-parent families who live alone and those who live within a broader (usually parental) family: the parent in the first is a "settler", whereas in the second case more often is a "native".

The educational level of parents in SPF is low, and this does not change with other factors: 70% are in a category that includes the totally illiterate, those who have attended primary school for a few years and those who have graduated from primary school (the corresponding percentage in the general population of the district is 52.3).

20% of SPF receive some form of pension or stipend which constitutes their main or exclusive income. Among women one in three reports that she is working, one in three that she receives a pension or stipend, the rest report housewife as their main occupation. Among men two in three report that they have a job.

Economic dimension

54.9% of SPF (as opposed to 17.7% of the population not belonging to any of the target groups) have an income of up to 70,000 drachmas. Many families are not only unable to satisfy their real needs but they are confronted with the real problem of survival: approximately half of the households do not have basic house equipment, and two out of ten households have no electricity and/or water and/or toilet in their house.

Causes

SPF in the district are families of internal immigrants without property or descendants of internal immigrants or refugees without property. This fact makes them absolutely dependent for their survival on whatever revenue they receive. Their poverty therefore is a result of a lack of a steady and satisfactory income that is the result of underemployment or unemployment.

The causes of underemployment or unemployment, beyond the fact of the very high unemployment, particularly among women, which exists in the district are:

a) the low educational level and the consequent lack of professional training;

b) the lack of facilities to care for the children of working parents. This forces parents of SPF without other relatives (50% of the total of SPF) to be underemployed and/or to refuse types of work that are incompatible with the care of their children;

c) health problems, which are reported by the group of SPF more frequently than among the general population of the district as the main cause of poverty.

Poor living conditions have bad consequences on the children's development -consequences which constitute the cause that reproduce the conditions of poverty in these families: The children of SPF drop out of school early in order to join the work force.

Social and political dimension

SPF are less incorporated into the social, cultural and political environment than the general population of the district: their participation in clubs, political organisations, athletic clubs, etc., of the district is almost nonexistent, allowing us to speak of them as being alienated and living a marginal life.

The majority of them do not participate even in the simpler forms of entertainment and for a large percentage the only entertainment outside the household is visiting friends. Only 31.4% of SPF take vacations and these are limited to visiting relatives. The only area in which this group exceeds the general population of the district is in watching television and videos. The picture we see of SPF is one of cultural deprivation.

The social isolation and cultural deprivation are reflected in the fact that while the overwhelming majority of the population of the district report that they ar satisfied with life in the district and generally with their everyday life, the opposite is the case with SPF.

Causes

A smaller number of SPF appeared to know about the existence of organisations, societies, clubs, etc., in their district than in the general population of the district. Generally SPF are counted among the least-informed segment of the population.

Members of SPF have no sense of communal responsibility when confronting social problems in the district and reject the idea of organising themselves for the solution of such problems.

SPF, although they believe to a greater degree than the general population that their situation is getting worse and that poverty has increased, do not think that the situation can change for the better and are incapable of offering solutions to their problems.

Women, who represent the greater number of single parents, become socially isolated after separation, divorce, or the birth of a child out of wedlock (this is the result of sexist attitudes among their relatives and the members of society).

THE EXTENT OF POVERTY AMONG PONTIAN FAMILIES

The recently repatriated Pontians from the “USSR” belong to the poorest section of the population of the district. Their numbers are increasing steadily, as many persons come from the “USSR” every day and a large number of those settles in Thessaloniki, mostly in the area of Eleftherio/Kordelio.

The average number of persons per family is 4.24 (it is 3.48 in the rest of the district); 47% of the families have a family income of less than 70,000 drachmas (compared to 17.7% of the population which does not belong to any target groups); 24% has 70,000 -100,000 (compared to 26.1% of the population which does not belong to any of the target groups); and 11% has 100,000-130,000 (compared to 20.4% of the population which doesn't belong to any of the target groups).

The number of people who live in rental housing is much higher than that of the general population of the district (81.58% compared to 23.06%).

In their everyday life almost all speak Russian or Pontian, a Greek dialect, while most of them either do not know Greek at all or know it only partially.

The educational level of these people in comparison with the rest of the population is high: 2.63% declare that they never attended school, 7.89% attended only primary school, 34.21% attended Gymnasium, 2.63% attended Lyceum, 36.84% completed post secondary professional schools, and 15.79% are graduates either of universities or technical schools. A large number of those who have had basic education have also acquired professional specialisation at some technical/ professional school and often in professions whose practice in Greece is the result only of experience.

When they settle in Greece, Pontians are entitled to a settlement stipend, but they rarely make use of it often out of lack of information.

For their professional placement the most important measures are the following:

a) the assistance which is given to employers for a year when they hire Pontians;

b) the right of the Pontians to be placed in professional development programmes when their knowledge of Greek is adequate.

Many of the measures that have been announced for the incorporation of the Pontians into Greek society have not been implemented to date.

The Economic Dimension

The income of the Pontians places them financially in the poorer groups of the district (47% of the families have a family income of less than 70,000). The households appear to have a larger number of appliances than the general population of the district; in reality, however, these appliances have been brought into Greece tax-free from the “USSR” as part of the household and usually after one year (during which they cannot be sold according to the law) they are sold in order to satisfy other more basic needs. These needs often cannot be met and the families are faced with the problem of survival.

Causes

The families of the recently repatriated Pontians from the "USSR" do not have any property. Moreover, because no agreements have been signed between the “USSR” and Greece, the elderly do not receive any pensions. This makes them completely dependent for their survival on their salary. Their poverty consequently is the result of lack of steady and satisfactory income that is the result of unemployment or underemployment.

The causes for their underemployment or unemployment are:

a) their ignorance of modern Greek;

b) their inability to seek and find the appropriate civil services (as a result of lack of information concerning the realities of Greek life) and their lack of connections with the informed segment of the population of the district.

Social and Cultural Dimension

The families of these Pontians are isolated from their social environment in spite of the most positive attitude of the Pontians in Greece who settled here before the Second World War and who constitute a large and dynamic segment of the general population of Thessaloniki; and in spite of the fact that the economic and social incorporation of these people has been considered by all the social and political groups as a "national issue". All their daily activities take place within their own group while their aim and wish is to be incorporated into the larger society of the district. Their isolation makes this incorporation difficult.

Cause

The main cause of their isolation is their ignorance of modern Greek. Young children are seriously affected because their lack of the language makes their integration into the schools that much harder. This intensifies the isolation of the group. In addition, if this phenomenon becomes permanent it can itself become a mechanism for the reproduction of poverty in the future.

Families which include individuals with special needs constitute the poorest section of the population. This follows from the quantitative and qualitative data regarding income, the quality and cost of housing, and the other factors that constitute the dimensions of poverty in the district.

According to the results of our research the disabled constitute 5% of the population of the district. This must be corrected upward, not only because for a population of this nature the percentage is estimated at about 10%, but also because of the fact that no disabled individuals are reported below the age of fifteen. This is interpreted as an attempt to conceal handicapped individuals, especially the mentally disabled, and because of the indeterminate number of disabled individuals in various institutions.

With caution regarding the representativeness of our data concerning the various forms of infirmity we report the following with regard to this category in Table 13.

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Table 13: Type of infirmity in the district of Eleftherio/Kordelio - Evosmos - Menemeni (in % of the total number of disabled)

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Of the disabled, 57% were men and 43% women.

Their educational level is much lower than that of the general population of the district: 37% have not attended school and 50% have attended only primary school.

The number of disabled who were born in this district is very low (19%), whereas 8% have lived in the district for fewer than five years. In our research we have observed a very high level of disabled (40%) who appear to have come to the district from abroad. This fact is explained a) by the high percentage of repatriated Greeks in the district (who often receive a disability pension) and b) by the fact that some of the districts in the outskirts of metropolitan Thessaloniki are among the poorest and cheapest with regard to housing. Consequently they attract those internal and external immigrants who are the poorest, and it is to these groups that the families with the disabled belong.

A comprehensive examination of the disabled and their families leads to the observation that in this group the complex and multi-dimensional aspects of poverty are much worse than they is in any other group of poor people. One could maintain that infirmity constitutes by itself a separate category of poverty.

Economic dimension

In the general survey we have conducted in this district we have ascertained that 52.8% of the FISN (compared with 17.7% of the population which does not belong to any target group) have an income below 70,000 drachmas. This value as well as the other values for the group of families with individuals with special needs we accepted with caution because of the attempt to conceal individuals as we reported above. Since it wasn't possible to hypothesize that this concealment is evenly distributed in all the income groups, we carried out supplementary research for the group of FISN which "corrected" the above value: the percentage of individuals with income up to 70,000 in this group is 63% (a fact that suggests that the concealment is mainly by families with a lower income).

The economic poverty becomes worse because disability is not only an obstacle to earning a living for the individual but in addition it requires expenses which do not incur to families without disabled individuals. That is, families with disabled members are poorer than other families with the same family income.

Causes

It is a given that:

a) disability hinders wholly or at least partially the equal participation of the disabled in today's job market, depriving him of the ability to have an adequate income;

b) the existence within a family of a disabled person constitutes an obstacle to the rest of the family members in their professional work since their work has to accommodate the needs of the disabled member;

c) the existence of a disabled individual in a family encumbers the family with additional expenses which are a consequence of the special needs entailed by infirmity.

On the basis of the above data we must consider as causes of inadequate monthly family income the following:

a) the hostile work market for the disabled. That is, the lack of effective measures for the creation of obtainable jobs appropriate for individuals with special needs;

b) the lack of the necessary substructures to serve the disabled. This condition forces the other members of the family to become underemployed or not to accept better and more lucrative positions since these cannot be reconciled with the need to serve the disabled;

c) the lack of organised information services and mutual assistance networks aimed at lessening the special expenses resulting from the infirmity, in combination with the fact that state intervention in this area is underdeveloped.

Social and cultural dimension

Our research data with regard to the place and manner of entertainment, the way they spend their free time, and their participation in organisations and clubs, place the disabled of this district, and to some extent the members of their families as well, into a category of socially isolated and culturally deprived persons. It is a fact that disabled persons are tied down and isolated in their homes and therefore cannot communicate with others or participate in any political activities.

The members of the families of the disabled also experience social isolation and cultural deprivation in a manner analogous to the form of disability. Mothers who have given birth to handicapped children become especially isolated from their environment after the diagnosis of the infirmity, and it is not uncommon for them to become isolated from the other members of their own families as well, e.g., abandonment by their husband.

Causes

On the basis of the data that have been collected we must consider as causes of social isolation and cultural deprivation the following:

a) lack of accessibility to public buildings and to other meeting places for individuals who are physically handicapped;

b) lack of accessibility to and from the houses of the physically handicapped (which consequently does not allow them independent and unimpeded entrance and exit;

c) the stigmatisation of most forms of infirmity (which leads to the concealment by their families and the covering up of their problems by the political, social and cultural sectors of the district;

d) the lack of dialogue for the disabled and their needs (with the consequence of reinforcing the stigmatisation;

e) the lack of a communication network among the disabled and their families in order to address daily problems, as well as between the disabled and their families on one hand and the political, economic and social agencies on the other, in order to deal with the problems whose existence is due to lack of information. These problems are of a different nature, for example, the inability to access public buildings or the lack of auxiliary equipment for the disabled by Greek businessmen.

The dimension of health

The delimiting factors in matters of mobility for the physically handicapped and the concealment of other categories of disabled lead to fewer visits to the doctors which make initially simple health problems worsen and thus the "poor disabled" become "poor sick disabled" - a situation that becomes more complicated with the mechanisms of social isolation and cultural deprivation.

For certain types of disability (immobile people, paraplegics, etc.) everyday survival presupposes the existence of special conditions. These conditions require constant and systematic care, which in their turn presuppose knowledge, willingness and ability on the part of other members of the family; and it is costly. Lack of the necessary requirements for their lives leads to a further deterioration of their health.

The degree of certain forms of disability is many times the result of not recognising or accepting the disability by the family in time. Specifically, for babies and small children lack of early recognition and acceptance of the disability leads to worse forms of disability which could have been prevented, or, with regard to their acuteness, lessened.

Causes

The causes of the existence of this dimension of poverty are the same as those that lead to social isolation and cultural deprivation.

Romanies constitute a group with all the elements of a cultural and linguistic minority. They live in the three municipalities of the district either temporarily (as nomads who appear regularly in the area as a result of their professional activities) or as permanent residents, and this group comprises the overwhelming majority, 1,441 individuals; and they live in the district of Dendropotomos which is a district of the municipality of Menemeni. They constitute 38.2 % of the population.

The mere fact of their living in the Dendropotamos district constitutes by itself an indication of their poverty because of the conditions that prevail there. The conditions of their settlement are: proximity to the stream of Dendropotamos (which in combination with the fact that the ground level is low results in frequent floods and serious problems of dampness in their homes), the poor condition of the water supply, lack of a sewage system, the narrowness of the streets and the total lack of open, green spaces. In addition, the settlement faces serious problems of atmospheric pollution and pollution of the soil (high concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, etc.) because of its proximity to the largest chemical industries of Northern Greece.

The poor housing conditions are evident not only from the low quality of the houses and the surrounding space but also by the size of the homes: 8.4% of the Romany population (10.3% of the total inhabitants of the district) has 3.9 square metres of housing per individual. (The quantitative data which are being used in this chapter, especially with regard to housing, have been taken from the census of the municipality of Menemeni which was conducted in 1988.)

The mother tongue of the Romanies is Romany while Greek is spoken as a second language - the quality of their Greek varying considerably from person to person. 48.7% of the Romanies are illiterate and 15.1% have only a basic knowledge of reading and writing (the corresponding figures for the population of the area are 9.5% and 10.8%). 67.8% of school-age children attend primary school which is compulsory, but only approximately 50% attend classes regularly. As a result of the premature employment of the young boys and the very early marriage of the girls very few have finished Gymnasium (i.e., nine years of study) and extremely few have attended or are attending Lyceum.

The Romanies present higher percentages of law-breaking; e.g., 313 court cases for young offenders in Thessaloniki during 1986-1990 involved 32 underage Romanies (31 boys and one girl). Among the unlawful acts committed, 69% were cases of theft, 12% traffic violations and 10% property damage. There is great discrepancy in the penalties imposed on the Romanies and the rest of the Greeks. Incarceration into various institutions was imposed on 9% and jail sentences on 22% of the cases (compared with 2.5% and 15% not involving Romanies), while the lighter sentence of reprimand was never imposed on the Romanies in comparison with 27% of non-Romany cases.

54% of working Romanies declared that they are vendors and 32.5% that they are workers (the corresponding percentages for the rest of the inhabitants of the same district are 19.4% and 47.5%), while 9.7% have characterised themselves as artisans or businessmen.

Only a few Romanies receive any kind of allowance (6.9% receive family allowance) or pension (1.9%). 13.1% are insured with professional insurance organisations while 69.2% are covered by social welfare and 17.6% have no insurance.

AMONG ROMANIES -THE PLACE OF ROMANIES IN SOCIETY

The economic dimension

We do not have data relevant to the level of income of the Romanies (since as of this date the examination has not been completed). On the basis on indirect data, however, housing, quantity of consumer goods, etc., and information gathered through interviews, it appears justified to claim that the greater number of Romanies belong to the poorer groups of the district all the time or at least periodically. This has as a consequence the difficulty of direct intervention for the change in the housing conditions which exemplify most clearly their poverty.

Causes

The Romanies are internal immigrants, most of whom do not live in one place for very long, who do not have property and therefore no other income beyond what they earn from their work.

Their income is not steady because their work permits (54% of Romanies are vendors) are given to them only for one year and they are not automatically renewed . This policy by the authorities results in many of the families not having a steady income and they are forced to borrow or, if they continue to work illegally, to pay fines.

Income is not steady also for those who are employed in seasonal work, mainly the gathering of fruit in various parts of Greece. In addition to the negative consequences which this fluctuation has on their income the Romanies lose many days seeking work on the basis of the experiences of the previous year, i.e., there is no organisation and planning in their pursuit of employment.

According to the above, lack of steady income is the result of their attachment only to certain jobs whose normal and productive exercise is hindered either by the authorities or by their own lack of organisation. Their attachment to these few jobs for the great majority of the Romanies is the result of special family tradition but also of their inability to perform any other occupation because of the high level of illiteracy.

The social and cultural dimension

The Romanies are a group that experiences extreme social isolation. Their participation in associations, political organisations, athletic clubs, etc., is almost non-existent (with the exception of their participation in the Association of the Gypsies of Dendropotomos which participates in POVERTY 3 and “ROM -Cultural and Athletic Association of the Roma” formed by POVERTY 3). Non-existent are also social relationships with individuals who do not belong to the Romany group. Our interviews have shown that this situation is regarded as a serious negative experience that the Romanies would very much like to change, thus enriching their lives.

Causes

The causes for social isolation must be sought in the existence of prejudices in the wider community and the corresponding behaviour in daily life toward Gypsies. These prejudices are "verified" as to their content and the negative behaviour becomes "self-evident" for the "right to exist" by the real or imaginary peculiarities of the Romanies as these are perceived by the wider community.

The dimension of health

The Romanies have health problems to a greater degree than other members of this district, which leads them further into poverty, e.g., only 69.1% of the Romany children (compared with 93% of other children of the district) have had the necessary and compulsory immunisation vaccinations; 4.5 % of the Romanies (compared with 2.6% of the others) have some form of physical handicap, and 6.4% (compared with 2.4% of others) suffer from some serious chronic nervous disorder. We are mentioning only those cases that are being treated.

Causes

The main cause is the poor state of their houses, particularly the dampness and the lack of adequate hygienic facilities. In addition there is a lack of information regarding the importance of vaccination for young children.

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