Country: Albania

Group: Roma

Date: 02/09/2022

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Hannah Goldman, Jacob Kebe, Hajer Rahee

Content Warnings: physical violence, racism, ethnocide, trafficking

Approximate Time Period: 1960-present

Roma are a community in Albania which has experienced substantial neglect and for which there are no reliable population estimates (Minority Rights Group, 2015). The Roma came to Albania around the fifteenth century, and have been living in Albania for about 600 years (Koinova, 2000; Minority Rights Group, 2015). The Roma frequently live in segregated neighborhoods and are not represented in the legislature (Koinova, 2000). In the 1960s, Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu attempted to ban Roma from entering Albanian towns (Koinova, 2000). In November 2006, The European Commission recently stated that the disparity between the social and economic situation of Roma and the rest of the population in Albania was increasing (Minority Rights Group, 2015). It is difficult for the Roma to access education and health services (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Roma have been the most severely affected group in terms of discrimination and educational levels in Albania (de Soto, Gedeshi, 2002). Currently, in April 2020, Roma activists protested discrimination that the Roma face for financial emergency assistance given by the government (Amnesty, 2020). This financial emergency assistance did not cover people working in the informal sector (Amnesty, 2020).

Data Quality: Data quality for the Roma discrimination is rated a 3/3 due to the quantity of unbiased, peer-reviewed sources.

Sources

  1. Amnesty International. (2020). Albania 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2022 from https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/albania/report-albania/.
  2. Chelsi, W.O. (2021). On Living And Moving With Zor: Exploring Racism, Embodiment, And Health In Albania. Medical Anthropology. Retrieved 30 January, 2022 from https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2020.1807539.
  3. de Soto, H and Gedeshi, I. (2002). Dimensions of Romani Poverty in Albania. European Roma Rights Centre. Retrieved 30 January 2022 from http://www.errc.org/roma-rights-journal/dimensions-of-romani-poverty-in-albania.
  4. Koinova, M. (2000). Roma of Albania. Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe – Southeast Europe. Retrieved 30, January 2022, from https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/46231/Koinova_RomaofAlbania.pdf?sequence=1.
  5. Minority Rights Group. (2015). Roma. Retrieved 30, January 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma/.