Kosice Roman Gabor and Slavo Hada have come out of poverty. They only do simple building maintenance work for the waste disposal and recycling company Kosit in the eastern Slovakian city of Kosice, such as mowing the lawn or shoveling snow. But they have a permanent job, own a house outside of Kosice, live in stable families – and are therefore rather the exception in their community.
Gabor and Hada belong to the Roma minority, many of whom live in poor conditions in Slovakia and other countries in Eastern Europe.
According to statistics from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, only 33 percent of Roma in Slovakia had a paid job in 2021; 60 percent of the 16 to 24-year-olds were neither in work nor in an apprenticeship or trainee program.
This is an economic burden for the country. Slovakian researchers warn that the costs of the lack of integration are considerable. Despite this, the situation of the Roma is improving only slowly. This is reflected in the labor market.
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There is a labor shortage in Slovakia. Although this should ease somewhat due to the poor economic situation, it is ultimately a structural phenomenon.
Integration of the Roma is becoming increasingly difficult
The University of Bratislava does produce a lot of economists, complains Richard Biznar, the chief financial officer of Kosit, Gabor and Hada’s employer. However, there is a lack of employees who could be taught skills “on the job” and then worked their way up in manufacturing-related sectors. Supply and demand on the labor market do not match.
Kosit’s chief financial officer.
Social researcher Abel Ravasz sees a solution in “finally integrating the large Roma population,” says social researcher Abel Ravasz. “It’s high time for that.” The demands on employees are constantly increasing. That’s why integration is becoming more and more difficult the longer the country fails to do so.
The Roma and Sinti are considered to be the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Estimates of how many people belong to the population group vary widely. A few years ago, the Council of Europe assumed that there would be ten to twelve million people.
>> Read here: How Europe is fighting the shortage of skilled workers – and what Germany can learn from it
There are around 500,000 Roma in Slovakia, which is around nine percent of the population. In the years of communism before 1989 they were integrated into working life. Working was compulsory in the Eastern bloc. Although not every job made economic sense, such positions were held by both Slovaks and Roma.
minority
500
thousand
Roma live in Slovakia.
When the market economy was introduced in Slovakia at the beginning of the 1990s, the Roma were among the losers in this upheaval. Industrial firms cut thousands of jobs and the unemployment rate soared. The Roma were particularly affected, but the state did nothing.
A symbol of this failure is Lunik IX, a poorly developed prefab district in Kosice. In the 1970s, the state built it primarily for members of the army, police officers and Roma. After the turn, the soldiers and police forces moved away. The Roma stayed behind and a typical ghetto developed.
People live in oppressive poverty in run-down blocks of flats. There is progress. The waste is no longer piled up in front of the houses as it used to be, but is disposed of. Thanks to the initiatives of the residents and social workers. On the other hand, primitive huts have been built on the nearby motorway, in which Roma also live. They fetch the water in containers from a nearby pipe.
Originally, military personnel and police officers also lived in the housing estate.
(Photo: imago images/CTK Photo)
Progress in the world of work is just as tough as in the housing situation. For a long time, Slovakian companies made no move to recruit Roma as employees. They still solve the problem of labor shortages in other ways. Intermediaries procure workers for the companies in Ukraine, Serbia, Romania or Southeast Asia. “Agencies deliver exactly the number and type of employees that companies want,” says scientist Ravasz.
At the recycling and waste disposal company Kosit, around a quarter of the workforce comes from the Roma community.
It was only around ten years ago that individual company managers became aware of the untapped potential in the Roma communities. These were almost exclusively foreign companies that had come to Slovakia because of the low wages. US Steel, the household appliance manufacturer Whirlpool and the Italian garden tool manufacturer Stiga initiated programs to integrate Roma into the workforce and received awards for this.
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In the beginning, however, companies primarily hired Roma when there were seasonal peaks in the workload, such as in the summer at Stiga. Permanent full-time positions remained the exception.
In the meantime, however, certain companies emphasize when they employ Roma, says Ravasz. That gives them an open image. Others, on the other hand, continue to treat the issue discreetly because prejudice against the Roma persists. Company representatives almost always emphasize what a sensitive issue it is. They prefer to talk in general about their inclusive workforce strategy. On the other hand, they shy away from the word Roma, although it is precisely this population group that is at stake.
High turnover among Roma employees
The Kosit company is an exception. CFO Biznar can’t remember why his company started hiring Roma. “People found a job with us because it wasn’t possible elsewhere for various reasons,” he says. Of the approximately 800 employees, 200 come from the Roma community.
At the beginning, Gabor and Hada, like many others, had a seasonal job at Kosit. They have been employed for two years. They had previously worked for automotive suppliers. The pandemic hit the sector, leading to layoffs. Gabor and Hada were also affected. The work at Kosit is a bit dirtier than that at the car supplier, but less monotonous, says Gabor.
Our school system increases differences among children instead of reducing them. Social researcher Abel Ravasz
CFO Biznar says his company is “the first place for many Roma to come into contact with a corporate culture.” In the first 12 to 24 months, turnover among employees from the community is therefore above average. But then it goes back to normal.
However, even at Kosit, the Roma almost exclusively do manual work, and they are hardly represented in the office or in management. “The relatively low level of education hampers advancement to better-paying jobs,” says Biznar.
Many Roma are disadvantaged when they are children. One obstacle is the language. For example, many Roma children do not speak Slovak very well when they start school. They are therefore transferred to a special school and thus fall even further behind. Social researcher Ravasz takes a critical view of this: “Our school system increases the differences between the children instead of reducing them.” Many Roma do not manage to complete the nine years of compulsory schooling.
The minority is also disadvantaged in education.
(Photo: imago stock&people)
Veronika Fricova, manager at the Carpathian Foundation in Kosic, calls for “special care” for the children from the minority. However, the school system in Slovakia is not equipped for this.
The foundation pursues various priorities. One project is to prepare Roma women for the needs of the labor market. “Women face even greater obstacles than men here,” says Fricova.
In marginalized Roma communities, few women are in paid employment. Teenage pregnancies are common and many young women cannot control the number of children they have. “Marginalized people can only be helped with a comprehensive approach,” says Fricova.
Times are bad for that. The consequences of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation are hitting disadvantaged people particularly hard. In any case, data from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights indicate that Roma are having more difficulties finding employment again. Integration has become more difficult, writes the organization in a report published in October.
More: The immigration illusion – why more immigration won’t save us from labor shortages.