Social and Ethnic Distance Towards Romanies in Serbia
Social and Ethnic Distance Towards Romanies in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: The research results have almost entirely confirmed the proposed hypotheses, that is, the general hypothesis that the Romanies in the transition processes of Serbian society are still discriminated so that their social exclusion, segregation and (to a small degree) assimilation are evident. The obtained data unambiguously lead to the conclusion that the social, ethnic and racial distance towards the Romanies in Serbia is very large so that energetic measures have to be undertaken through educational, socioeconomic and political programs. The sample has comprised 13 nations, though only five of them have been statistically significant, namely, Serbs, Romanies, Muslims, Hungarians and Yugoslavs. Measured by the classical Bogardus's scale the results have, depending on the assumed social relation, showed an outstanding regularity, namely, those unwilling to get married to a Romany (depending on a given nation) amount to between 55% and 79,5%. Those who would not have a Romany as a friend amount to between 13% and 24%; Romanies would not be accepted as neighbors by between 16% and 59% of the examined. Finally, those who would not like to live with them in the same state amount to between 6% and 16%. The data from Bogardus's scale combined with the other sets of questions show an evident racial discrimination against the Romanies. The sexual intercourse would be rejected by about 50% of the examined; the direct blood transfusion would not be accepted by between 30% and 40% of the examined. It should also be mentioned that, in some cases, the Serbs express a greater distance towards Albanians and Muslims but this is far from being comforting since the other national minorities exhibit a high degree of distance towards the Romanies.

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