Roma Survey 2021 - Roma in 10 European Countries

The Roma Survey 2021 makes part of a series of surveys carried out by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency that assess the progress towards Roma inclusion in selected Member States and accession countries. The policy background is the EU Roma Strategic Framework for equality inclusion and participation (announced in 2020) that sets out measurable quantitative targets (portfolio of indicators) to achieve by the Member States by 2030. The survey aims to provide data that can be used as a baseline for the EU Roma Framework’s headline and secondary indicators. It also provides information of how the situation developed since EU MIDIS II survey in 2016, to which it is comparable.
The Roma Survey 2021 collected information from 8461 respondents and additionally - for a selected number of variables - information on 20,212 persons living in a respondent’s household or in the infrastructure of their neighborhoods, settlements or camps. The countries surveyed were Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain as well as the EU accession countries North Macedonia and Serbia.
The same methodology was applied in all countries. Interviews were conducted face to face using a multi-stage stratified random sampling approach. All interviews were conducted through CAPI. The survey targeted individuals aged 16 or over who self-identified as having a Roma background (or any group subsumed under this umbrella term), who lived in private households and whose usual place of residence had been the survey country for at least six of the 12 months before the survey.
Respondents were asked a wide range of questions about their everyday life. The areas covered by the survey are the socio-economic situation including income, education, employment and health as well as respondents’ experiences of discrimination, harassment and violence, including any racially motivated incidents. The dataset includes also imputed variables for the aforementioned headline and secondary indicators.<br>Housing and living standard: length of living in the current accommodation; reasons for moving; number of rooms in the accommodation; housing tenure; facilities in the accommodation; available services in the neighbourhood; financial capacity to keep the house warm; kind of problems with the accommodation; inability to pay certain costs on time due to financial difficulties in the last 12 months; reasons if the household has been forced to leave the accommodation in the past five years; items possessed in the household; respondent would like to have on of those items but cannot afford it; ability of the household to afford certain expenses; frequency of food deprivation in the last month; material deprivation of child/ children (e.g. have some new clothes, have fruits and vegetables once a day, have books at home suitable for their age); ability of the respondent to afford certain expenses (e.g. participation in a leisure activity that costs money; possession of a bank account.

Unemployment: year when last job finished; name or title of last job; unemployment registration; currently looking for work; main reasons for not looking for work.

Work: name or title of main current job, kind of employment contract in main job.

Health: subjective assessment of own health condition; longstanding illness or health problem; extent of limitation in daily activities in the past six months; health insurance coverage; additional health insurance; need of medical examination or treatment in the past 12 months; unmet need for medical examination or treatment in past 12 months; main reason why the respondent did not have a medical examination or treatment;

Pregnancy (women only): ever given birth; age when giving birth for the first time; number of children born; number of children still alive.

Rights awareness: extent of feeling excluded from society; awareness of support organisations in the country; awareness of certain equality bodies in the country; awareness of anti-discrimination law in the country; how worried about experiencing harassment in public because of own Roma background (verbal insults or offensive comments, inappropriate staring, offensive gestures, a physical attack); avoidance of certain places for fear of being treated badly.

Experience of discrimination: at risk of discrimination in the past five years and in the past twelve months: ever looked for work, ever been in work, ever used any healthcare services, ever tried to rent or buy an apartment or a house, ever been in contact with anyone from school/ college/ university either as a parent/ guardian or as a student, ever been in contact with administrative offices or public services, ever tried to enter a nightclub, a bar, a restaurant or hotel, used public transport, been in a shop or tried to enter a shop; reasons for experiences of discrimination when looking for work in the country in the past five years and in the past twelve months (skin colour or racial origin, Roma background, religion or religious beliefs, age, sex/gender; disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, other, haven’t felt discriminated); reasons for discrimination in the past five years and in the past twelve months when in work, when used health care services, when tried to rent or buy an apartment or a house, when been in contact with anyone from school/ college/ university, when been in contact with administrative offices or public services, when tried to enter a night club, a bar, a restaurant or hotel, used public transport, been in a shop; frequency of discrimination in the past twelve months; discrimination was reported; person or institution to whom the incident was reported; reasons for not reporting discrimination; experiences of discriminatory job adverts that excluded or discourages applicants with a Roma background in the past five years; specific experiences of discrimination at work because of own Roma background in the past five years (tasks below qualification, denied promotion, not allowed to join a trade union, not allowed to take time off for a very important religious holiday/ service/ ceremony, fired, dismissed or laid off, not allowed to take time off for private reasons such as staying home with ill child.

Specific experiences of discrimination: when trying to rent or buy an apartment or a house in the past 5 years (prevented from renting an apartment / house because of own Roma background by a private landlord and/or by officials working for public housing, prevented from buying an apartment / house by the owner or an estate agency, asked to pay a higher rent/ price/ deposit because of own Roma background, adverts for housing that excludes or discouraged applicants with a Roma background; parent or guardian of a child or children within national compulsory school age range; negative experiences of a child or children in school because of their Roma background in the past twelve months (someone made offensive or threatening comments, physical abuse (e.g. hitting, hair-pulling, kicking, etc.), being excluded (isolated) at playtime or from social events or circles of friends); experiences of being stopped, searched or questioned by police because of own Roma background in the past five years and in the past twelve months; context where the last experience with the police happened (car, motorbike, bicycle, public transport, on the street, as a pedestrian, other); last experience of being stopped related to ethnic or immigrant background; police requests during last experience of being stopped (asked questions, asked for identity papers, asked for driving license or vehicle documents, searched the respondent or the car/ vehicle, gave some advice or warned about behaviour, did an alcohol or drug test, fined the respondent, arrested the respondent or took him to a police station, took money or something in form of a bribe, other); degree of respect shown by police during last experience of being stopped, respondent reported disrespectful treatment by police.

Experiences of harassment: specific experiences of harassment in the past five years (offensive or threatening comments, violence, offensive gestures, offensive or threatening emails or text messages, offensive comments on the internet); specific experiences of harassment because of Roma background; frequency of specific experiences of harassment in the past twelve months; frequency of such incidents in the past twelve months because of Roma background, last incident of harassment related to ethnic or immigrant background among those mentioned; identity of perpetrator of last incident of harassment; ethnic background and sex of the perpetrator of last incident of harassment; sexual nature of last incident of harassment; place of last incident of harassment; reported last incident of harassment and person or institution to whom the incident was reported; reasons for not reporting the last incident of harassment; degree of satisfaction with handling of the complaint by the police.

Experiences of violence: experience of physical attacks in the past five years; specific experiences of violence because of Roma background; frequency of experiences of violence in the past twelve months for any reason; frequency of experiences of violence related to ethnic background in the past twelve months; identity of perpetrator of the last incident of violence; ethnic background and sex of the perpetrator of last incident of violence; sexual nature of last incident of violence; place of last incident of violence; reported last incident of violence and person or institution to whom the incident was reported; reasons for not reporting the last incident of hate-motivated violence; degree of satisfaction with handling of the complaint by the police; impact of the hate crime experience on health and well-being.

Migration plans: consideration to move to another country in the future; country to which might move in the future; reasons for wanting to live in another country.

Religion and language: religion; main language(s) spoken at home; self-assessment of proficiency in survey country’s national language (speaking, reading, writing).

Intergroup relations: friends with another ethnic minority background than the respondent; friends without a minority background; friends with a different religion; ethnic or immigrant background of residents of the neighbourhood; acceptance of neighbours with different backgrounds (comfort-scale: a person with a different religion, a person who is Roma, a person of another ethnic minority background, someone who doesn’t have an ethnic minority background, a disabled person, a gay, lesbian or bisexual person, a transgender person).

Trust and values: agreement with value statements on gender equality (Having a job is the best way for a woman to be an independent person, both the husband and wife should contribute to household income, men should take as much responsibility as women for the home and children, it is important that both girls and boys stay in education for the same length of time); trust in institutions (parliament, legal system, police, politicians, political parties, the European Parliament, the local (municipal)authorities in the place of living.

Active citizenship: actions with political connotations taken in the past twelve months (liked or followed a political campaign on the internet, signed a petition on paper or online, taken part in a public demonstration); vote in the last local (municipal) elections and in the national/general elections in the country; ever used the assistance of a health mediator when going to the doctor; assistance of a Roma teaching assistant at school for children in household.

Household income: types of income obtained by the household in the past twelve months; main source of income of the household; household combined net monthly income converted to Euros; goods obtained in exchange for work in the past twelve months; ability of household to make ends meet; belonging to other minority groups (a religious minority, a minority in terms of disability, of gender identity or gender expression, a minority in terms of sexual orientation or other group.

COVID-19: situations experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic or coronavirus pandemic outbreak (income decreased, kept working but less hours than before, temporarily lost job and returned to same job after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, permanently lost job, had to work despite being concerned about contracting COVID-19 when at work, could not get a medical examination or treatment when really needed, not allowed to leave the area or the dwelling of living even for work or shopping because of a lockdown (quarantine measures), increased tensions between household members, increased prejudice, intolerance or violence because of being a Roma); children´s school was closed; school organized distance learning during the COVID-19; child had difficulties accessing distance learning.

Demography: number of persons living in the household; age of respondent and household members; age (grouped); sex, employment situation; form of employment; country of birth; year of immigration; work in the last four weeks; highest level of completed education; years spent in education; current attendance of school or vocational training; main reason for not continuing school; relationship with respondent; current marital status; age at first marriage.
Information on children: regular attendance of childcare, current school attendance; attendance of special school; reasons for not going to school; number of Roma classmates; number of Roma schoolmates; child labour in the last four weeks; nature of child labour; compensation of child labour.
Information on respondent’s parents: biological mother is still alive; age of biological mother; biological father is still alive; age of biological father.

Additionally coded: country of interview; interview number; interview duration in seconds; respondent / other household member; personal ID; household ID; degree of urbanization; type of dwelling; share of Roma who felt discriminated against in the past 12 months because of being Roma; at risk of poverty; children aged less than 18 years who are at risk of poverty; share of people living in household in severe material deprivation; children aged less than18 years living in household with severe material deprivation; share of people who felt discriminated against (in any area) in the past 12 months and reported the last incident of discrimination because of being Roma; share of children in the age between 3 years and compulsory school who attend early childhood education; share of people aged 20-24 with completed at least upper secondary education; share of children; share of children between 6 to 15 years attending schools where all or most of schoolmates are Roma as reported bey the respondent; share of people who self-declared their main activity status as paid work (20-64 years; share of young people with current main activity in neither employment, education nor training; share of people living in housing deprivation; share of people living in overcrowded household; share of people living in households without tap water inside the dwelling; experienced hate-motivated harassment (overall 5 acts) because of being Roma in the twelve months before the survey; experienced violence related to being Roma in the past twelve months; at least one person in the household has gone to bed hungry in the past month because there was not enough money for food; Roma aged 0 to 17 years living in a household where at least one person has gone to bed hungry in the past month because there was not enough money for food; people living in household that is able to make ends meet with (great) difficulties; Roma respondents aged 16 and over who do not have a bank account; Roma aged 16 and over who did not report the most recent incident or harassment because of being Roma (of all people who experienced harassment); share of Roma respondents who declared that they have not reported the last incident of physical attack which they experienced in the past five years because of being Roma; share of people aged 16 and over who had heard of at least one equality body; share of persons who tend to trust the police; share or persons who tend to trust the judicial system; share of Roma children of compulsory age (5-18 who attend education; early levers from education and training; discrimination in the past 12 months because of being Roma when being in contact with anyone from school/college/university either as a parent/ guardian or as a student; share of persons aged 30-34 who have completed tertiary education; prevalence of offensive or threatening comments to children in person (due to their being Roma) while in school in the past twelve months; discrimination in the past twelve months because of being Roma when at work and when looking at work; share of persons assessing their health in genera las very good or good; share of Roma aged 16 and over with medical insurance coverage; discrimination in the past twelve months because of being Roma when using health care services; share of Roma living in households having neither toilet, nor shower, nor bathroom inside the dwelling; share of Roma living in a household that in the past five years has ever been forced to leave the accommodation or halting site – eviction; share of people aged 16 and over who have felt discriminated against due to their being Roma in the past five years when looking for housing; share of people living in a local area with pollution, grime or other environmental problems; weight; age groups; age groups children before the age of 16; age groups employment age 20-64 years; household with and without children; household with or without children, household type, work intensity in categories (percentage of household members in working age in paid work); married before the age of 18; share of Roma in the neighbourhood.

Interviewer rating: respondent received a financial (or other) incentive for participating in the interview; respondent’s command of country language; language of in which the interview was conducted; respondent’s cooperation; respondent’s understanding of questions; reasons for misunderstandings; respondent’s interest in the topic; respondent’s honesty; place of interview; number of people present during the interview; people present during the interview; influence of the other people present during the interview; parts of the questionnaire with presence or participation of other people; presence of another interviewer or mediator; use of the Romani glossary; characteristics of the neighbourhood.