Vol. 21 No. 2 (2022): Special Issue “Marginality on the Margins of Europe – The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Non-EU Countries in Eastern Europe”

Guest editors: Andreea Cârstocea (European Centre for Minority Issues) & Raul Cârstocea (Maynooth University / University of Leicester)

The articles included in this special issue are based on the data collected for the project ‘Marginality on the Margins of Europe – The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Non-EU Countries in Eastern Europe’, funded by the University of Leicester’s QR Global Challenges Research Fund (Research England) and developed by the University of Leicester in partnership with the European Centre for Minority Issues.

The primary aim of this project, as reflected in the following articles, was to assess the overall impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on Roma communities across seven non-EU countries in Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine. This special issue contributes to the knowledge concerning the impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on Roma communities in Eastern Europe by presenting original data and new perspectives on the fate of these communities in the first half of 2020. Our findings point towards a devastating impact in terms of income, access to education and public services, all made worse by the generalised scapegoating of Roma communities for allegedly spreading the virus.