How helping professionals construct the problems of Roma families: contribution of general and specific stereotypes about parenting

Abstract

The Roma population in the Czech Republic has been characterised as suffering high unemployment, alienation from society, serious instability in incomes and an exposure to a high risk of criminalization. It must be remembered that this is only part of the story; a solid part of the community is well integrated into Czech society. However, a great deal of this Roma community in the Czech Republic is made up of arrivals from Slovakia, arriving only over the last twenty years. Social work professionals have noticed extremely insufficient levels of children’s rights and needs provision within the Roma community and at the same time have employed poor and ineffective strategies of intervention with Romani families. This article follows patterns of parental behaviour in Roma families considered to be at high risk of intervention by the authorities. The aim of this is to identify the values of good parenthood and the obligations connected to this as it is constructed by social workers. This is achieved through 17 interviews with specialist working with Roma families. What is shown is that their approaches towards family assessment are based on the traditional “Western” concept of parenting as well as negative stereotypes toward Roma families and Roma culture. The essential elements of specialists’ position are as follows: the conviction that parents are key responsible agents in the provision of child welfare and a conviction that Roma parents do not have required qualities and potential to stimulate child development. As such Roma parents are presented as ‘infantile’ or ‘invalid’ in their role as parents and are seen to live in a ‘moral vacuum’, thus justifying the swift removal of children from the family. As a result, a considerable part of social work professionals demonstrate they have reached a “deadlock” point regarding their views on the chances of involving the Roma community in the inclusion of their children. The pessimism that is predominant in their professional outlook means they are doing little to overcome the ghettoization of Roma in the Czech Republic.