When the Bulgarian Ministry of Education announced the launch of a scholarship programme for 700 Romani high school students (individual awards totalling $32, monthly) in October, ethnic Bulgarian parents protested across the country.
National television programmes reported the scholarships as an "unjust measure that discriminates against non-Roma", and a Bulgarian MP from a progressive centrist party questioned whether this "ethnic-based privilege" should be considered unconstitutional.
Considering that only nine percent of Roma complete secondary education and that one-third of the Bulgarian Romani population live in absolute poverty (PDF), it is hard to see how Roma in Bulgaria could be labelled as privileged, in any context. Yet, the argument persuaded many people to protest against the proposed scholarship programme. [...]
A recent article by Leonid Bershidsky in Bloomberg presents the issue differently. "Eastern European national governments … have no idea how to integrate the Roma," he writes, going on to quote the Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev, who says this failure contributes to "Eastern Europe's compassion deficit" towards Muslims and refugees. [...]
When Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic continue to place Romani children in segregated schools, one can have doubts about the sincerity of Eastern European countries' willingness to provide better opportunities for their Romani citizens.
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