Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Interaction, migration and change
From East to West: The Roma migration from Slovakia 197 their identity), a policy of integration (which meant replacing Roma identity with that of a “citizen of the Roma origin”), and a program of forced settlement and regulation of the population curve by sterilizing Roma women, which was realized especially in Slovakia. During the period under the communist regime, a new social stratification of Roma in Slovakia took place. Imrich Vašečka, in his study for IOM (International Organization for Migration) (Vašečka I. 2000), explains that the Roma population started to become integrated into the newly emerging socialist structure according to new rules. Isolated population of Roma settlements started to communicate with the outside world. These Roma who left Roma settlements, either voluntarily or under pressure, overcame the territorial and social isolation and took advantage of the new chances of the world of institutions and organizations opened to them. To put it simply, Roma started to be divided into urban Roma who enjoyed higher prestige and rural Roma enjoying lower prestige. The internal hierarchization of Roma according to family principles and local rules started to intermingle with new differentiations. The nuclear family more and more often became the basic organizational unit replacing the extended family and thus making their situation similar to the majority population. The Roma population started to be socially differentiated as a whole. It may be said that different strata came into existence: a small Roma intelligentsia, a middle class6, and a large, absolutely poor group of Slovak Roma living in often inhuman conditions prevailing in Roma settlements. A problem particular for Slovakia is the terrible housing conditions of many Roma who still live in the so-called "osady", exclusively Roma communities which resemble slums. An estimated one-quarter of Roma in Slovakia live in settlements, many of which are in the poorer eastern regions of the country.7 On the international level, the notion of a “Roma middle class” has become, to a considerable measure, misleading. In both governmental and non-governmental materials, it has been often stated that the core of the Roma emigration into
