ECMI Initiates New Project Together with University of Leicester

The European Centre for Minority Issues and the University of Leicester have initiated the project ‘Marginality on the Margins of Europe – The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Non-EU Countries in Eastern Europe’.  

The aim of the project is to map the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Roma communities in a range of non-EU countries in Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine). To date, no reliable data is available, although there are reasons to suspect this minority group might be particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic and of the measures implemented to contain it.  

The project will collect data through a mixed methods approach, combining stakeholder interviews,  surveys within the respective Roma communities, and desk research in each of the countries covered by the project; the data collection is expected to be finalised by 31 July 2020, while the publication of the project results will take place by the end of the year. 

The project is funded by the University of Leicester’s QR Global Challenges Research Fund (Research England) and developed in partnership with the European Centre for Minority Issues. For any questions please write to ECMI coordinator of the project Dr Andreea Carstocea or Dr Raul Carstocea (rmc38@leicester.ac.uk) from the University of Leicester.