ROMfest 09: The Issue of Roma youth in Slovenia and Europe - round table

On Sunday 15th February 2009 at 6 pm MMC Kibla organised a round table on the Issue of Roma youth in Slovenia and Europe within ROMfest 09.

The discussion was dedicated to the situation of Roma youth in the surroundings of Maribor. Roma girls and boys from Maribor and its surroundings had been invited to attend.
We discussed the cultural diversity in Slovenia and Europe. It was emphasised that Roma are the most European nation, their mobility in Europe being the greatest thus making them present in the total area of the European Union. We discussed the words like discrimination, racism, inequality, positive discrimination etc.
We talked about young people with fewer opportunities. Are Roma among them due to their economic drawbacks, social or cultural differences? The pool among the participants provided answers that facilitated the understanding of Roma issues. We tackled the challenges that Roma youth would encounter and discussed how to face them properly.
The topic that kept us occupied for some time was gender equality in Roma culture, which turned out to be the subject of hot debate among Roma themselves as well as other participants.
The Roma themselves see a positive future for their culture in Slovenia and Europe, including a potential great progress, mainly through integration, but not assimilation.
We agreed to jointly organise informal education in computer usage. The round table was followed by an informal gathering.

Round table organisation and execution: Štefan Simončič, Peter Tomaž Dobrila
Technical support: Jure Vekjet