Filiași

Filiaşi city is located in the north-western part of Dolj County, at the border with Gorj County. It governs the villages of Fratoştiţa, Răcarii de Sus, Uscaci, and Branişte. It is situated 37 km away from Craiova. It has a population of 16,215 people of whom 675 are self-identified Roma (2011 Census) and 1500-2000 hetero-identified Roma (unofficial sources).

There are Roma communities in Rudarie, the Dezrobirii and Stadium areas (Filiaşi) and in Fratoştiţa village (the Rudari community). The three communities analyzed are located either in the city (very close to the centre), on the outskirts of the city (Rudari) or far away out of the city (Fratoştiţa). The community is compact, for example the Dezrobirii neighbourhood and Stadium area, with associated pathways; the Rudari community from Fratoştiţa is separated by Ţânţăreni only by railway. The Roma from the community speak both Romany and Romanian. The Rudari are the ones who do not speak Romany, and they do not assume their ethnic identity.

Education

There are three schools in the city of Filiaşi serving the Roma communities and two in Fratoştiţa. At the school Romi I-IV in the two grades there are 50-60 children, all of them Roma; in the Secondary School (primary and lower secondary school) from Fratoştiţa there are 30 children (undeclared as Roma) representing 12 % of the number of students and at Rudari Structure (Primary school) there are 25 children (not identified as Roma) representing 100% of the number of students. About 80-100 children attend Romany language classes. Preschool children have access to four kindergartens: three in Filiaşi and one in Fratoştiţa (it includes 25 Roma children, but they are not declared as belonging to this ethnic group). Three mediators are active in the community. There were no recorded ethnic conflicts in the school.

Many children speak only Romany at home, and some of the children speak Italian and French, as an effect of the process of international migration with their parents. The level of school education of Roma adults is low, most of them having eight years of schooling. In the Baptist Roma community, parents have a better level of education.

Although the distribution in schools is made alphabetically, school mediators mentioned issues of school segregation. They have showed cases of Romanians who declared themselves as Roma in order to access the special seats from high-school (instead, the Roma did not occupy any of the 8 seats available, because they did not self-identify as Roma). Due to the lack of financial resources, the students may not have access to university education and become dependent on job vacancies offered at community level by local entrepreneurs.

Health

There has been a health mediator for 5 years, but the transition of the job funding from the Public Health Department to the local City Hall has led to the impossibility of keeping the position.

Housing

A percentage of 10-15% of homes lack decent housing conditions, especially those situated in Rudărie and those from the outskirts of Dezrobirii Alley. At the same time, there is a contrast between the homes of those who go abroad and those who remain in the country. The access roads to the Roma community are paved and those within the community are either cobbled or roads. The community has access only to the electricity network and running water. There is no access to local public / private transport.

The Roma in Fratoştiţa have few employment opportunities, and they usually work as day agricultural labourers. There are no entrepreneurial initiatives, although Roma are very good traders and deal with the commerce of agricultural, second-hand products, animals and activities of day labourers in construction and agriculture. Authorities consider that the problem of income sources is not a problem that only the Roma from Filiasi have, but one which is faced by all city residents. The Roma community has no expert on Roma issues because positions have been blocked, and no formal or informal active organizations.

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