Data collection was conducted in Hungary and Spain through ethnographical fieldwork. In Slovakia data collection was made online, which limited a foreseen deeper insight. In Hungary 62 interviews were conducted (38 Roma youth); in Spain 49 (30 Roma youth); and in Slovakia 35 (29 Roma youth). In all three sites, data collection was supported by local Roma people either as contracted research assistants or on a voluntary basis.
Data have partially been exploited, while further analysis is currently underway. Dissemination has been made in publications, conferences and workshops. In CPS Working Papers series, one paper was published on Career guidance inequalities in the Hungarian context (CPS WP 2020/5), and another one on Intercultural Mediation in the Spanish context (CPS WP 2021/9). The preivous was further developed and is going to be published in the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Training. Results, detailed below, have been presented in several national and international conferences, such as the ECER (European Conference on Educational Research); ESA’s annual conference (European Sociological Association); AIBR annual Conference (Asociación Iberoamericana de Antropólogos en Red); REPS annual conference (Red Española de Política Social); ASAEE annual conference (Asociación de Antropología del Estado Español).
The main findings of the above mentioned outputs are the following:
- Social background and membership of minority communities strongly condition the success of one’s educational trajectory, as well as one’s transition to the world of work
- The messy set of formal and informal guidance agents, services, and activities in Hungary tends to be contingent, discontinuous, segmented and non-specialized
- The present state of guidance provision is incapable of achieving its main intended functions and leaves Roma young people in a vulnerable situation in an exploitive labour market
- Nevertheless, Roma youth creatively substitute lacking services with alternative support mechanisms, occasionally leading to successful individual outcomes
The intercultural / sociocultural mediation programme and particularly the intercultural mediator’s performance with respect to the school-to-work transition requires a broader perspective.
- The observed intercultural mediation programme in the Spanish site defines its main point of intervention in the ethno-cultural idiosyncrasy of the target group, and it aims to mediate between mainstream and Roma cultures. From NGOST project’s analytical perspective, this thinking diverts attention from the structural mechanisms that underlie the development of socio-economic inequalities suffered by the Roma population, and particularly in the poor neighbourhoods of this city.
- The double dependence and, at the same time, double complicity that is characteristic of the operation of the intercultural mediation project manages to subtly channel the expectations and logics of the public administration towards the Roma community in order to foster their “social integration”.
- Mediation project represents a transfer of responsibility from the public administrations, and the majority society, for the management of the inherent inequalities of the economic system
- This “transfer of responsibility” and its professional and emotional costs are well symbolized by the mediator’s feeling that “there’s really nothing more” she can do.
- Similarly to mediation project, school promotion project, or subcommittee on absenteeism, and other consulted services, a lack of structural and crosscutting interpretation of the problem (absenteeism, dropout, low performance) is detected. There is a tendency to individualize (centrality of the family, and the student / young person herself) both in the detection / definition and in the solutions of the problems.
