(Andrew Ryder is part of the PAL research team and Marton Gostonyi is a PhD researcher and community organiser involved with Roma communities and the Aurora community centre. In the past Marton worked for the Autonoma Foundation, which is recognised as a lead agency in working on Roma economic inclusion)
The conversation took place at the Aurora community centre, in the 8th district of Budapest and laying in the heart of what is considered the Roma neighbourhood of the city. The Aurora is a community centre which hosts a number of community projects, including ones dedicated to raising Roma inclusion, the centre is at the forefront of what are termed the ‘ruin pubs’ which provide a vibrant hub for artistic and intellectual exploration and innovation in Budapest. Marton’s research focuses on the viability of credit unions within Roma communities and has a key focus on economic inclusion
Andrew noted that in the PAL literature review numerous references were made to the value of microcredit and wondered whether it could present a key component in Roma inclusion. Marton felt that there were some serious barriers, which included often the difficulty to penetrate the market with Roma microenterprise products which were often low level technical/skill products with low profit margins, a problem compounded by racism in the market which did not always want to purchase Roma made products. A key obstacle in developing more advanced businesses was the spatial isolation of some communities but also low levels of financial literacy and access to credit, especially that which might be lent on non-commercial terms. In addition, Roma were often bewildered and impeded in their quest to develop a business by the sheer bureaucracy of establishing a company given the educational gaps in their learning career. He felt that business and economic support needed to be more targeted and flexible with facilitators coming into Roma communities and working in a more fluid and organic way to give support.
Andrew noted the frequency of mediators was greater in schools, with less references in the literature to economic mediators. He noted though that there were some concerns over the effectiveness of mediators/facilitators on account of the narrow scope of some projects but also the tensions sparked by mediators being perceived as agents of the service.
Marton felt the effectiveness of such bridging initiatives could be enhanced if mediators/facilitators worked for more autonomous NGOs and this might help generate trust. He felt trust was the key factor in developing economic support but this could take years to nurture. Part of Marton’s research focuses on credit unions and he believes that such unions empower Roma giving them agency but also rudimentary organisational and financial skills which can be initial steps helping Roma towards setting up a business or establishing an NGO
Andrew felt a danger of not forming bridges between Roma settlements and the wider community was that communities could become isolated, a factor which could accentuate exclusion. Andrew felt in some cases isolated communities might develop bonding networks which were intense and looked to traditional coping mechanisms as no alternatives were presented which rested upon bridging social capital, developing strong links between the Roma and external agencies. Marton felt that some isolated communities had no choice but to work within the informal economy but contrary to stereotypes of the Roma being lazy and living on benefits, they had to work extremely hard in a range of informal, low paid and precarious jobs. The great majority would favour regular work but the opportunities were not there and the public works programme offered little scope for skills development and progression.
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