Introduction: Policy, Inclusion, and Education Rights of Roma Children: Challenges and Successes in the EU and North America

Abstract

The year 2015 concluded the Decade of Roma Inclusion-an unprecedented international cooperation among governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs aimed at eliminating discrimination against the Roma. At the end of this decade, two crucial questions arise: First, how can we evaluate the best practices and current challenges of integrating Roma at all levels of education, in both Europe and North America? Second, how can we measure the effectiveness of the European Union's (EU) Roma Framework, the initiative intended to combat social exclusion among this minority group?Examining the EU initiatives aiming at Roma inclusion as an issue common to most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries presents possibilities for conversation across the continents. Similar challenges face the education systems in the EU, USA, and Canada in terms of meaningful inclusion of children from minority ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds at all education levels. Thus far, Roma students in North America have not been identified as a group requiring special attention or accommodation. There are about one million Roma in North America and their number is slowly growing (Hancock, 2013); however, with the exception of concentrated efforts aimed at the anticipated influx of Roma from the Czech Republic and Hungary, the Roma who have come to Canada from other countries remain unrecognized and invisible. The Roma Experience program, created by the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Roma Community Centre in 2000, is an example of how Roma and non-Roma students can learn to tackle racism and prejudice, and understand what many Roma and other children of non-mainstream cultures endure. However, despite all of the efforts made by the education authorities in Ontario, Steven Harper's Conservative federal government introduced a refugee law that discriminated against Roma in Canada, and they were deported to the Eastern and Central European countries from where they had fled. The possibility of collaboration among scholars in the EU, USA, and Canada on the inclusion of Roma populations is demonstrated in this special issue.A large number of EU-wide initiatives under the umbrella of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Declaration were focused on education, including the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) (European Commission, 2012). Along with indicators like employment, healthcare, and poverty reduction, quality education is a fundamental measure of social inclusion. However, as Ryder in this issue argues, not only did educational measures fail to provide a "silver bullet" to facilitate the inclusion of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller (RGT)