THE INTEGRATION OF ROMA MINORITY IN ALBANIAN SOCIETY THROUGH EDUCATION

Abstract

In Albania today, the challenge is being integrated in EU, and one of the main conditions is the integration of minorities in the society. The main aim of this article is analyzing the correlation between the education of roma minority people in Albania on one hand, and the way this education effects their life and their integration in the society on the other hand. Properly education can realize that Roma people have a normal life, have a job and be paid properly for his work, be active in society, while maintain and cultivate their own culture. The most important issue today, in the age of globalization, is to get a way, for making different people ( of different ethnic, race, believes etc.) live together as equal. This should be the scope of education of minorities in Albania as in the whole world. So the most important question raised in this study is how we should transform education in the way he would be able to make this purpose come true. A brief summary of related literature review and some empirical results are provided. Data collected from a qualitative research which sample consists of depth interviews of Roma people who have studied and have a certain level of education. The results indicate that there is no correlation between success in school and financial and social success, concerning this minority. Very few of those who have completed their studies have found appropriate employment. While they attend their studies, they may lose some of the skills that are actually gained from their families, finding themselves double marginalized in the society. This paper attempts to assess if education of roma people helps them being integrated in the society, what is going wrong in education of minorities in Albania, who are the practices of best interventions at school level in favor of Roma children, what we should change and how these changes can help giving minorities a better life and access in society.