Gypsies: thousands of families in a situation of vulnerability

The situation of vulnerability and inequality affecting the Roma population was alarming before the arrival of the crisis generated by Covid-19. With data from 2018, the Comparative study on the situation of the gypsy population in Spain in relation to employment and poverty.The report noted that poverty and exclusion affect more than 80 % of Roma people, and that 46 % are extremely poor. Among minors, the child poverty rate is 89 %, and 51 % are extremely poor. 

In relation to employment, the study revealed the low presence of the Roma population in the labor market, marked by precariousness and weak protection, with an unemployment rate that reaches 52 % (which is more than 3 times that of the general population, 14.5 %) and where Roma women suffer a clear disadvantage, with an employment rate that only reaches 16 %.

Only 53 % of employed persons are salaried (more than 80 % for the general population), while self-employed persons represent 47% (less than 20% for the general population). Such a high incidence of self-employment is due to the prevalence of street vending, which continues to be the main work activity for Roma. With regard to the educational situation, only 17 % of the Roma population over 16 years of age have completed secondary education or higher, and 6 out of 10 Roma children do not complete compulsory secondary education. 

Finally, in Spain there are still more than 9,000 Roma families living in substandard housing without the minimum conditions of habitability (around 40,000 people). Of those 9,000 households, 2,273 are shantytowns in settlements (around 11,000 people), according to the Study-Map on Housing and the Roma Population, 2015 (see gitanos.org).

This crisis is placing large sectors of the Spanish gypsy population in a situation of serious lack of protection with regard to the enjoyment of their fundamental rights. Covid-19 has affected numerous gypsy families in several Autonomous Communities in its first attacks. 

Unprotected

Although at first the priority was to inform and promote health measures for prevention and containment, after the declaration of the State of Alarm in the country, we are facing a new and more complex scenario in which new social risks are combined with the health situation and the previous situation of high vulnerability of the gypsy population.

A good part of the gypsy families rely on street vending as their basic source of income, already precarious in itself. The closure of the street markets and the impossibility of carrying out other activities, such as collecting scrap metal, selling fruit, or other activities that provided some daily income, has left many families in a situation of social emergency, without any income, and with serious difficulties in accessing the aid provided by the Government for the self-employed. 

On the other hand, and despite the generalized image that Roma families are recipients of social benefits, only 32 % of very poor Roma households receive them. Particularly worrying is the situation in settlements, areas where there is little health protection and little presence of social services and public resources, and where, in addition, the health situation of the people, due to the health risk of the environment, involves previous pathologies and, therefore, they are a high-risk population. But the most pressing issue at this time is the lack of food and basic necessities such as medicines and hygiene products. 

Despite the resources made available by the Government to alleviate the social emergency that many people are experiencing, and the recommendations to direct them to the most vulnerable families, for various reasons, the aid is not arriving quickly enough. And we are seeing how there is a lack of food and basic necessities in many Roma households, already in very precarious conditions and extreme poverty. 

This crisis may also lead to an even greater increase in the level of school failure among gypsy students, already marked by the digital divide and educational inequality at the outset, and which is now becoming clearly evident. The closure of schools and institutes, on the other hand, has given way to a system that is based primarily on digital resources. 

Many Roma families have neither the necessary equipment nor the skills to use it. 

An effective response

Faced with the coronavirus crisis, the staff of more than 800 workers of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano is mobilized (teleworking and with face-to-face activity in some offices) from more than 60 locations throughout Spain, committed to providing an effective response to those most in need. Our priority is to be close to the most vulnerable people. Moreover, in these critical times, it is essential to continue with social promotion. "We have changed our communication channels, but our priority is to be close to the most vulnerable people." 

Since the beginning of the crisis, we have worked in two directions: reorienting the work of our teams to support and assist by telephone or telematic means the people with whom we work regularly in our programs; and secondly, making political impact, transferring to public administrations at all levels (state, regional and local) the urgent needs of many Roma families and offering concrete proposals to alleviate the effects of this crisis. 

Among other actions, the main thing is to be with the gypsy community. We are in permanent contact with the people who participate in our programs throughout Spain, via telephone, whatsapp, email, social networks... to know their needs and guide the possible solutions; as well as to send them all the information related to the protection and prevention measures that the health authorities have disseminated since the beginning of this crisis. 

We bring the available resources closer to you. We disseminate essential and reliable information from the authorities and help Roma people in need to access available resources (food aid, hygiene products, etc.). 

No one is left behind. We advocate local, regional and state governments to urgently take into account the needs of the most vulnerable population.

Job orientation is offered. Our counselors throughout Spain are informing about the new procedures and online procedures for the self-employed, unemployed and workers, people affected by ERTE, etc., and individual and group online training is being provided. Especially in this crisis, we are informing street vendors so that they can take advantage of the resources that have been put in place to alleviate the effects of the socio-economic crisis, and we are also making proposals to the Government so that they are not left out, such as the moratorium on the payment of debts to the Social Security.    

In addition, we continue to combat discrimination, anti-Roma hate speech and hoaxes, and to raise awareness in society through social networks and all our online communication channels. 

Survey of 11,000 Roma people

In order to quickly and systematically find out the situation of the households of the people participating in our programs, our teams conducted telephone interviews with almost 11,000 participants in our programs in 68 cities in 14 Autonomous Communities during the week of March 30 to April 3. 58 % of the surveys were conducted with women and 42 % with men. 15 % of the people surveyed were under 16 years of age (participants in our education or childcare programs), 46% were participants between 16 and 30 years of age, 21% between 30 and 40 years of age and 18% were over 40 years of age (adults are mainly participants in our employment programs or programs to combat poverty and exclusion). This is a valuable report because it is a good X-ray of the general situation of the Roma population at this time.

Main results

The main conclusion is that there is a low incidence of Covid-19 in Roma households (infections, deaths), but that the most pressing situation and the one that most worries families is that of to cover basic needs and food. This has never happened to Roma people before; confinement has an immediate effect on the livelihood of a large part of these Roma families, who live very much on a day-to-day basis and subsist on precarious, often irregular and unprotected activities. Moreover, contrary to what is sometimes thought, only one third of families in extreme poverty receive benefits such as minimum income.

Regarding access to basic needs, it should be noted that more than 40 % of respondents are having problems accessing food. Families are receiving help mainly from the extended family or the neighborhood (more than 40 %), followed by social entities or parishes (more than 30 %) and then by the local administration (city councils).

Social Emergency Fund

In addition to continuing with the social promotion work that we traditionally carry out, we have exceptionally launched the Social Emergency Fund. #TogetherWithGypsyFamilies to be able to respond to this social emergency by meeting the most urgent needs of thousands of Roma families.

The donations received by the Fund from individuals, companies and organizations are being transformed into vouchers for food and basic necessities such as medicines or hygiene products for the families who need them most. To make this possible, at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano we are reaching agreements with supermarkets to materialize this aid into cards that families can use to purchase food and basic necessities and channeling donations of equipment received from companies for those families most affected by the digital divide. 

Fundación Secretariado Gitano teams in 14 Autonomous Communities are already in contact with thousands of these families to detect their main needs and offer them the support they urgently require. The aid is distributed at the local level in the various offices that the Fundación Secretariado Gitano has in Spain. When it comes to handing out the aid, the following is being provided priority to the most disadvantaged families, i.e., those households with lower incomes and a greater number of dependent children.

Proposals to public authorities

Since the beginning of the crisis, our proposal to the administrations has been to act urgently, activating municipal social services to implement quickly and flexibly the Government's Recommendations for the most vulnerable settlements and neighborhoods, and to coordinate emergency aid and food delivery in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. In each of the cities where the Fundación Secretariado Gitano works, we have strengthened the dialogue with local, regional and state administrations to streamline processes and make ourselves available to channel and assist in the distribution of aid. 

In addition, we have requested emergency financial assistance for street vendors. The measures approved by the Government for the self-employed help to alleviate the situation of street vendors in part, but the criteria for their application exclude a number of people due to the requirement of being up to date with Social Security payments. For this reason, we ask that in these times of need, the criteria for receiving this aid be made more flexible. 

But more structurally, we have called for, and we welcome its approval, the implementation of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV), which guarantees sufficient income for the most vulnerable households. 

We believe that this mechanism can be the best tool to eradicate, as a priority, extreme poverty and reduce poverty.