CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Michailovskis, Gopalas |
|---|---|
| Title | Assessment of the Lack of Lithuanian Roma Cultural representation: National Integration Plans (2000-2020) |
| Summary | If one visited Lithuania as a tourist interested in the life of national minorities in the country, one would hardly find any comprehensive cultural display to represent the Roma community's cultural life and its heritage in Lithuania. Currently there are 2,115 Roma people living in the state, predominantly in capital Vilnius (see table 1). 96 percent of the Roma live below the at-risk-of-poverty line, and 61 percent experiencing severe material deprivation. Such circumstances often have an impact for the Roma to purse higher education and drop the school at a young age. Beside the aforementioned social difficulties of the Roma their culture undergoes constant marginality and is excluded from national canon. Korenizatsiya , the Lenin's policy that promoted ethnic diversity within USSR was later exchanged for forced Russification by Stalin. Thus, from 1930 the Roma were not allowed to pursue mobilization activities rather they were seen as proletarians. Lithuania became a part of USSR in 1940 and the developed approach of Russification hindered the Roma cultural expression in the country further on. However, nowadays, unlike other apparent national minority representations through established cultural institutions in Lithuania such as Russian Drama Theatre , Lithuanian Tartar Household Museum in , Ivan Luckevičius Belarussian Museum , Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum, the Roma culture is invisible in this arena. The European Commission (EC) in the evaluation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) up to 2020 claims that among other achievements such as education, housing etc., Lithuania's progress in protecting Roma culture and history, organizing conferences and other events, and publishing books on the Roma Holocaust has noticeably improved. Yet, when reflecting upon the evaluation by EC, I argue that Lithuanian state has not achieved sufficient improvement in regard to the Roma culture since it is perpetually excluded from the diverse arena of comprehensive cultural representation. Not only institutional properties that would represent the culture are absent, but due to the ineffective implementation of the first national Roma integration plan in Lithuania, there is a vicious cycle of general unawareness regarding the uniqueness of the Roma ethnicity and its heritage. In regard to my own positionality as a researcher, I am a member of Lithuania’s Roma community and see that Roma culture is neglected, put in social margins and gradually falling into oblivion. The lack of collective representation also affects individual identities that seek the sense of belonging and self-recognition. This thesis therefore addresses the urgent need to preserve the Roma culture that might otherwise be lost forever. Even though the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities recognizes cultural diversity as ‘a source and a factor, not of division, but of enrichment for each society’, the Roma culture in Lithuania remains marginal and neglected. Based on scholarly research that examines the Roma inclusion in post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe such as Sambati, Págány, Cooper, Marushiakova, Popov, and Doubek this study investigates the Roma integration plans in Lithuania from 2000 until 2020. Also, it is an innovative research because in established literature there is lack of analysis about Lithuanian Roma culture and its development. In this regard the aim of this research is to analyze the Roma cultural representation and its visibility within the country and in such a way to contribute to a wider context of scholarly research with Lithuanian Roma case. Also, it aims to identify the main gaps that hinder the cultural development of the Roma. Furthermore, it aims to find ways towards growing and maturing mutual sense of cultural diversity and comprehensive inclusion. Moreover, it contributes to the approach of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) that claims “there is no social inclusion without cultural inclusion,” as was introduced by dr. Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka in conference of the Cultural Diplomacy in the EU 2018. In order to achieve a detailed analysis in this research I have divided it into six sections. The first one briefly describes the current Roma ethnical groups prevailing in the region and analyses the first integration plan of 2000-2004 of the Lithuanian Roma. This section analyses the first attempt by the state to integrate the Roma and it shows the lack of expertise and involvement of the Roma. The second section is about the second integration plan that occurred after a four-year pause, thereby demonstrating the unimplemented obligations and deficiency of the Roma cultural exploration. The third section investigates the third plan that from that time was recalled as National Roma Integration Strategy based on the European NRIS in 2011 up to 2020 framework. However, it afresh reveals the incompetence of the state that barely contributed to the creation of the cultural representation of the Lithuanian Roma. Later I study the fourth NRIS and its accomplishments that were notable but not inclusive. The fifth section is important because it brings positive examples from other post-socialist countries. In the conclusion I define the situation of cultural representation of the Roma in country and briefly provide recommendations on potential improvements. |
| Supervisor | Lucija Balikić |
| Department | Romani Studies Ps |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/michailovskis_gopala.pdf |
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