Beggars can't be choosers? Representation of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in the Western Balkans

Across Western Balkans Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians (RAE) continue to face an alarming array of social problems, including ethnic discrimination, marginalisation, segregation, socio-economic inequality, and extremist violence. Unemployment, substandard housing and segregated education combined with lack of access to health services and reliance on social benefits exacerbate their dire situation. The structural exclusion they face has been deeply rooted in anti-Roma racism and continuous lack of effective integration policies. Their needs are often framed in ethnic terms, but the programmes developed to assist the socio-economic and political inclusion of this group have often failed to produce tangible improvements, sustaining socio-economic horizontal inequality rather than overcoming it. On the other hand, generalised non-ethnic minority policies have also proved insufficient to change their socio-economic conditions on the ground, precisely because such policies do not consider the specific combination of challenges that RAE face. One of the answers to this deadlocked situation focuses on the political representation of RAE as a path towards sustainable, bottom-up change. Yet, in the Western Balkans, Roma political representatives are not perceived as efficient agents working on behalf of their communities and are assessed negatively due to nepotism, patronage, and lack of trust towards the political class. The perception of local political actors and the system has been also shaped by the socio-economic problems the communities continue to face. Questioning this approach, the article focuses on the case of the Roma representation in three power-sharing countries in the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia where they are still the most vulnerable, discriminated, and excluded communities. The comparative analysis has been conducted against the backdrop of RAE position in other Western Balkan countries, where the lack of consociational mechanisms has resulted in different forms of representation, which allows us to adapt a more comprehensive perspective. In all three cases, the consociational systems created as part of the conflict management architecture visibly influenced the various levels of representation in the political sphere. Yet, while formally a mixture of ethnicity-based participatory mechanisms and minority rights tools should be working for their benefit, RAE still feel as second class citizens, instrumentalized by the majority for their political goals. In that sense, power-sharing designed primarily for other groups cannot accommodate their needs and change their situation. In fact, formally, their political inclusion looks better in Macedonia than in Bosnia, but in practical terms it does not translate into a better socio-economic or political position. Having said that, we explore whether the lack of effectiveness means that the pervasive climate of hatred and stigmatization overshadows the available governance mechanisms and therefore thwarts any change representation can bring.