THE SITUATION FACING ETHNIC MINORITIESIN EACH COUNTRY (SPAIN)

Despite being Spain’s most important ethnic minority and the fact that their history goes back six centuries in our country, Roma comprises a cultural group that has not had an easy time with social integration and continues to be the group facing the greatest level of rejection from the Spanish society and one of the most excluded both socially and economically.

The Spanish Roma population is estimated at around 600,000 (out of a total of 40 million inhabitants). Roma are found throughout all of Spain although it is in Andalusia where the majority reside (close to 45%). The overwhelming majority live in cities within which large numbers of families tend to reside in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Although as a whole their members share a number of common characteristics allowing for mutual recognition, mention should be made of the heterogeneity and diversity that exists within the community.

Nowadays, Roma nomadism is more of a legend than a part of daily life. For the most part, Spanish Roma are a settled group with fixed residence; a population that, in many cases, has been sedentary for generations. Geographic mobility, however, especially towards urban centres, still remains an important element in the peculiar lifestyle of some Roma families.

The Roma population is very young. School-age children, adolescents and young people up to age 25 are the largest age groups. On the other hand, there is a proportional lack of senior citizens and retirees.

Some authors point out that life expectancy is generally lower than that of the non-Roma population. As for distribution by gender, there is a demographic dominance of males.

Another peculiarity of the Roma is the early age at which they marry which generally translates into a higher number of children per couple and higher fertility rates for women giving rise to greater demographic growth compared with the non-Roma population. Roma women generally begin to bear children in adolescence and continue to give birth into their mid to late thirties or even into their forties. This tendency is changing, however, and the age at which families are formed is being pushed back.

The Spanish Roma community is currently going through an important process of change and transformation in all aspects. Deep-seated changes and adaptations are taking place in their customs, lifestyles, family structures, demographics and social aspects.

It is said that Roma have changed more over the last 25 years than in the 500 preceding years although it is also true that the non-Roma have changed more over the last several decades than they have during the preceding centuries. Some Roma today can be compared, in certain aspects of their lives and their values, to the non-Roma of a few decades ago although many are perfectly integrated and live just as the rest of today’s non-Roma population.

Cultural change is inevitable and oftentimes welcomed by the Roma themselves. This socio-cultural change that many Roma are going through does not affect all Roma groups and population sectors at the same pace or in the same way. Some Roma are advancing and forming part of the broad sectors of the new middle classes in Spain while others remain marginalized and on the periphery of society in our country.

The new social context is affecting the construction of the Roma identity, rules, kinship, authority and beliefs. Some symbols disappear while others lose their relevance, certain rules become relative and some values are being questioned.

For these reasons it cannot be said that the Spanish Roma community is a homogeneous group because not all Roma find themselves in a situation of marginalisation or in a state of family destructuring which is sometimes believed to be the case. In Spain many Roma families in standard situations (proper housing, school enrolment from an early age, salaried work…) live side by side with the rest of society and at the same time there are also many families living in non-standard conditions (precarious housing, poor living standards and hygiene, poverty, long-term unemployment…).

Moreover, a greater or lesser degree of family structure is sometimes confused with belonging to a marginalized group under the presumption that the former is a consequence of the latter. Family destructuring (families divided due to separation or divorce, domestic violence, long-term imprisonment, abandonment, unstable spouses…) is a phenomenon found in all social, cultural and economic groups and in all social classes (not only the most impoverished), although situations of poverty and marginalisation are conditions that increase the risk of family break-up in light of the high degree of associated stress and victimisation that they imply.