Türkiyede'ki Roman Nüfusun Yoksullukla Baş Etme Staratejilerine Demografik Bir Bakış

Abstract

The project proposal aims to reveal the demographic integration and differentiation levels of the Romani population, whose size is estimated to be between 1 million 200 thousand and 2 million 300 thousand, with the Turkish population, to determine the factors that create these levels, and to determine the policy priorities and strategies to ensure their integration. Compared to few studies revealing the demographic integration and differentiation of this population in Türkiye, there are many demographic studies conducted in Southern, Central and Eastern European countries where the Roma population is densely populated. Demographic characteristics of the Romani population are found to be quite different from the general population; where high fertility, high infant and child mortality and early marriages are quite common. Academic studies on the Roma population —disadvantaged in the fields of education, health, employment, housing and social assistance in Türkiye— are limited to small-scale quantitative studies that are far from holistic, disconnected from each other and has non-representative feature or qualitative studies based on interviews with individuals having similar qualifications. Based on this shortcoming, within this project, data was collected through face-to-face interviews in a CAPI setting, in 1.547 households and 1.265 women aged 15-49 in these households from a sample frame representing the Romani population living in Türkiye. These data was compared with data from TDHS-2018 and Population Registration System (NKS) for Türkiye, and the demographic integration and differentiation levels of the Romani population were revealed, and policy priorities were determined. Considering that the social status of the Roma living in Türkiye is defined as the lowest and that this community has serious problems in terms of education, employment, health, shelter and housing, social assistance and social services, strategies to be developed for this community should be from a sample survey, representative of this community. For this reason, the second article of the action plan of the Roma Strategy Document emphasizes the necessity of conducting research on the Roma population in Türkiye. In this context, the research questions created based on the Demographic Transition Theory that this project answers were as follows: 1) What is the demographic integration level of the Roma population with the Turkish population and what are the factors affecting it? (2) What is the demographic differentiation level of the Roma population with the Turkish population and what are the factors affecting it? (3) Is there a change in the demographic characteristics of the Romani population? If so, in which demographic characteristics and in which direction does this change occur? 4) Based on the level of demographic integration/ differentiation of the Roma population, which policy priorities and strategies can be developed in the fields of education, health, employment, housing and shelter and social assistance and social services, or how can the developed strategies be transformed/improved in order to achieve demographic integration? Thus, it is expected that the data generated within the scope of the project on the demographic integration and differentiation levels of the Roma population will contribute to the creation and development of policy priorities or strategies related to the measures in the Roma Strategy Document and the 11th Development Plan. The results of the study show that the demographic characteristics of the Roma population in Türkiye are compatible with the demographic characteristics that Türkiye had at the beginning of the 1990s; demographic differentiation is resistant as a coping strategy; demographic integration occurs only gradually.The Roma population, which is quite disadvantaged in terms of household composition, family structure, age structure, employment status, education level and school attendance, child labor, child marriages, fertility level, infant mortality level and maternal and child health, needs holistic policies and strategies that can eliminate these disadvantaged situations.