Migration and Immigration: The Slovakian Roma in Sheffield Dr - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Migration and Immigration: The Slovakian Roma in Sheffield

Dr Mark Payne mark.payne@sheffield.ac.uk

Aims of the presentation

• To consider:

– Immigration to the UK in general – The Roma from Slovakia – School level impacts:

• Case study of

Freeport School

The Roma as part of the wider immigration story

• The Slovakian Roma can be viewed as a distinct group in

Sheffield.

• However, I argue that the Slovakian Roma should be viewed

as part of the wider migration ‘story’ of recent years.

• In many ways, the issue of migrants and migration to the

UK has overshadowed and overtaken the Slovakian Roma, at least when seen nationally.

• Locally, there are issues focused on the Roma in Page Hall,

Sheffield.

• The Slovakian Roma are not seen, necessarily, as part of the

traditional and historical UK “Gypsy Roma and Traveller” (GRT) Demographic

Immigration to the UK:

Types of immigration

• Temporary migration

– E.g. students, tourists, family visitors, business

• Asylum seekers and Refugees

– Those fleeing warzones or persecution in their countries of origin.

• Asylum seeker has ‘lodged an application’ for protection from a host country.

They may be detained at the port of entry or granted temporary admission to the UK (the Slovakian Roma until 2004)

• Refugee status is granted by the UK home office an allows an individual to

remain in the UK for 5 years

• Permanent migration

– Visas required for countries outside of EU European Union (EU) citizens may travel freely to look for work and then settle more permanently

• e.g. Slovakian Roma
• Undocumented Migrants

– Some arrivals known to destroy their papers on arrival to a target country

Migrants in Calais

Where do the migrants come from?

• Ethiopia

– Conflict with Eritrea,

• Eritrea

– Compulsory military conscription

• Sudan

– Tensions with South Sudan; Darfur

• South Sudan

– Tensions with Sudan

• Pakistan

– Weak democracy; fragile economy

• Afghanistan

– Ongoing conflict; war

Migration summary

• Some 232 million international migrants are living in the

world today.

• Since 1990, the number of international migrants in the

global North increased by around 53 million (65%)

• During the 1990s, the global migrant stock grew at an

average of about 2 million migrants per year.

• During the decade 2000-10, the growth in the migrant

stock accelerated to about 4.6 million migrants annually

• (Figures from UN/OECD)

The Slovakian Roma in Sheffield

How many Slovakian Roma reside in Sheffield?

• In terms of Sheffield:
• 1244 Slovak speakers (none ‘Romani Language’) (Office for National

Statistics, 2011)

• A figure of 1320 Slovakian Roma in Sheffield (Brown, Scullion, & Martin,

2013)

• One Roma research respondent estimates at least 2000 Roma living in

Sheffield (February 2014)

• In terms of the Page Hall area:
• It is about ‘900 families’ (Source: key respondent interview, 2014)
• Based on a neighbourhood count of Roma pupils of primary and secondary

school age, there were 1843 Roma pupils in Sheffield on 7/4/14 of which 891 lived in the Page Hall region.

• One local school has 20% Roma from a school population of 800 (Key

Respondent)

Sheffield Page Hall

The changing face of Sheffield: Page Hall

School impacts

• Of the three local authorities, the largest increase in Roma

pupil numbers was seen in Sheffield.

• Five years ago, there were approximately 100 Roma pupils in

its schools. The latest figures from the local authority indicate that there were around 2,100 Roma pupils, representing fewer than 3% of the city’s total school population of 79,150.

• Most are from Slovakia and have settled largely in the

Burngreave ward.

• Few spoke any English when they arrived at school in England.
• By 2014, one Sheffield secondary school had 174 Roma pupils

(21% of its roll) compared with 36 pupils (4%) in 2009

– (Ofsted, 2014)

School impacts: Freeport

Investigation of the impacts – Through ongoing research with University of Sheffield (mainly in MFL/EAL to date, to be rolled

• ut across the school)

Overarching research question:

– How can a school foster the integration of a large number of NTE Roma children?

Qualitative data collected:

– interviews, class observations, field-notes, photos

The School

– Diverse catchment including established Pakistani heritage community. – Unprecedented rise in numbers

• f Roma
• E.g. 16 children on Monday

6/1/2014

– Roma pupils presenting challenges in terms of behaviour, language and integrating with other students.

Freeport Ethnicity Breakdown February 2015

White British 49% Pakistani 11% Somali 5% Other 25% Roma 8% Other Eastern European 2%

Challenges with school integration

• Roma often lack experience of, or

appear not to value, formal mainstream education:

• Segregated schooling
• 3% of Czech/Slovak Population is Roma

but 35-50% of Special School pupils are Roma (Ivatts 2014)

• Increased Roma focus on vocational skills
• Little understanding of “traditional”

school hierarchies and expectations

• Roma often lack literacy skills, even

in their own language

• However, Roma pupils in the study

really enjoy school!

Other challenges with integration

Findings: Identity and Language

• Identity
• Self rejection of the Roma label
• Negative connotations
• Language
• Misallocation of translators
• E.g. Slovak translators
• Misunderstanding of linguistic

identity

• Varieties of Romani (Matras 2004)

Aspects of school policy

• Separate NTE (New to English)

facility for new arrivals

• Students attend regular

(immersion) classes after getting to grips with basic English

• English-only policy relaxed
• Unintended segregation:
• Top set: no Roma, some other EAL
• Middle set: few Roma, some other EAL
• Bottom set: mostly Roma and EAL

Diverse Languages and challenges

• “There is one [Roma] boy from Slovakia, one girl

from Afghanistan, a girl who is Somalian from Norway, and two Roma girls from the Czech Republic… and an English boy with low ability…”

English/EAL/MFL challenges

Whole school Literacy………………. …….Learning English

Mapping of super-diverse school traits (Vertovec 2007)

Superdiversity Freeport

• Marked rise in net immigration

Diversification of countries of origin

• Slovakia: Roma Slovaks/Slovaks. Pupils

from Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Czech Republic (Czech Roma) etc. Somalian pupil from Norway

• No specific historical, particularly

colonial links with Britain

• Slovakia, Czech Republic, Afghanistan

and Somalia no particular colonial links with Britain (some shared history)

• Widely differing statuses within

groups of the same ethnic or national

• rigin
• Slovak pupils may or may not: be

Roma; have been to mainstream or segregated schools, educated in the UK, have few literacy skills.

Further super-diversity characteristics

(Payne 2014)

Characteristic Manifestation

• Unpredictable intake
• Speed, numbers, languages, pupil

biographies

• Unpredictable pupil churn
• Unpredictable arrival, departure,

attendance

• Structural uncertainty
• School status:

comprehensive/academy

• Departmental uncertainty
• MFL, EAL, MFL-EAL merged
• Professional uncertainty
• MFL teachers as EAL teachers, new

language skills, English and phonics

• Adaptations and innovations
• Romani/Slovak/Czech staff; Czech

maths teacher, move from ‘English

• nly’ to ‘English+’

The Super-diverse School

“unstable but not arbitrary”

• Likely to be:
• Characterized by:

– Unpredictability-Uncertainty-Flexibility-Adaptability

• Inability to accurately forecast, plan, predict
• Ability to react, adapt, evolve
• Evidenced in:

– Pupil: biographies, languages, educational trajectories, literacy levels, attendances – Staff: roles, skills, languages – School: status, links, networks, support

Wider considerations

“we cannot return to a pre-super-diverse era” (Phillimore, 2014)

• See super-diversity as

unexceptional and increasing...

• ..But not for every school.
• Schooling for the globalized,

super-diverse world.

The Roma Language and Education Tool (RoLET)

Based on the TARGET Model (Traveller and Roma Gypsy Education Tool, Wilkin et al. 2010) Adapted for Roma Slovak pupils (Payne 2015)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all the pupils and staff of Freeport School who contributed their time to be interviewed and observed.

Selected References

• Blommaert, J. (2010) The Sociolinguistics of Globalization, Cambridge: CUP.
• Csepeli, G. & Simon, D. (2004): Construction of Roma identity in Eastern and Central Europe: perception and

self‐identification, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30:1, 129-150.

• European Roma Rights Center, E. T. (2007). Introduction. European Roma Rights Center-Research Papers,

(03), 07-14.

• Halwachs, D. W. (2005). Roma and Romani in Austria. Romani Studies,15(2), 145-173.
• Office for National Statistics. (2011). Polish People in the UK - Half a million Polish Residents.
• Ofsted (2014). Overcoming barriers: ensuring that Roma children are fully engaged and achieving in
• education. Manchester: Ofsted
• The Telegraph. (2013). Britain facing new eastern Europe immigration surge. Available at:
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11079107/Calais-crisis-Britain-is-no-soft-

touch-when-it-comes-to-illegal-immigration.html

• OECD-UNDESA (2013) World Migration in Figures. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/els/mig/World-

Migration-in-Figures.pdf

• Vertovec, S. (2007) Super-diversity and its implications, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30:6, 1024-1054
• Wilkin, A., Derrington, C. and Foster, B. (2009). Improving the Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller

Pupils: Literature Review. London: DCSF