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
198 Renata Weinerová Western Europe is represented by the so-called Roma middle class. The materials, however, do not specify in a more detailed way that in fact this is the former “socialist" Roma middle class which was, as a result of what happened after the year 1989, de facto pauperized to the level of the poorest groups. These are groups of literate but unqualified persons. There are indications that negative perceptions of Roma are worsening and that relations between Roma and non- Roma have been deteriorating during the past ten years. There are a number of possible explanations for this, including the declining social status of Roma, growing unemployment and increasing dependency on social benefits (Kužel 2002). Negative stereotypes are also reinforced by geographic separation, and the limited contact between Roma and non-Roma.8 A British expert on the issues of Roma in Central Europe, Will Guy, compares the current position of Slovak Roma to the former situation of black inhabitants of South Africa. He summarized his impressions from his last visit to Slovakia as follows: “The same settlements, poverty, segregation which I saw when I was in these settlements in late sixties. In fact the only substantial thing that has changed is the fact that today they do not even have the work they used to have under communism.”9 The Canadian social anthropologist David Z. Scheffel, who has been carrying out applied field research in the east- Slovak settlement of Svinia since 1993, described the social situation in the Roma settlement as follows: I I do not want to apply this to the whole Slovakia, circumstances are different, but the level of spite which exists at Svinia, that’s something one cannot imagine. Roma at Svinia represent for the locals kind of a subjugated nation. It is a nation consisting of people they consider to be half animals. And what shocked me there the most is the everyday relationship of these communities. Really, I call it apartheid. I cannot imagine a bigger apartheid than what exists right there. There are total barriers built up between two communities and there is almost no communication between them. The only communication which exists, is a negative commu-
