“Ah, but are you a gitano?” This is the question that Ángel Pérez often hears when he talks about his identity with his career companions in the Derecho. It’s “but” that says it all. Pérez does not fit the stereotype that many Spaniards have internalized about the Chinese population. “This does not constitute an act of discrimination,” he said, “but it only reflects ignorance.” “You are not the image of the gypsy who learned on television or through wild words, distortions and stigmas: that gypsies sing flamenco, roban or delinquen. You do not respond to this stereotype,” explains Pérez, 44, who studies Derecho at UNED. This ignorance is in the majority. In Spain, seven in ten people say they know little or nothing about the history or culture of young people, and one in three say they have little or no sympathy for young people. Here’s how to collect the report The social vision of the small town in Spainpresented and prepared by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) in collaboration with the company 40dB, based on a survey of 1,000 people from all over the country.
The study compares social perceptions with real data. Some are relatively adapted: 84% of those questioned know that young people are Spanish. However, they remain anchored in a stereotypical or, as Ana Segovia, journalist and director of the social impact department of the FSG, defines it, “folkloric”. “In such a symbolic year, where we celebrate the 600th anniversary of the arrival of the great pueblo in the Iberian Peninsula, the barometer shows that the majority does not know the history and culture of the great pueblo,” he says. “Historical persecutions and everything we contributed as an essential part of building this country are ignored.” Segovia insists on the need to break with the homogeneous image of young women. “In literature, mid-sized cinema continues to dominate a very traditional vision. There is a lack of recognition for diverse, enterprising and professional women.”
Antipathy – and, even more so, discrimination – caused the gypsy population to have no understanding of ideologies. The percentage of people reporting little or no sympathy is similar among those who identify on the right and on the right. “Anti-Gypsyism is transversal and extends to the entire majority society,” states the document. Segovia experiences this in everyday situations: “When I go to the supermarket and I notice that my dependent is following me, there is this presumption of guilt, as if being a girl means doing something illegal.”
The study collects other revealing data: 10.4% of the population feel somewhat or very uncomfortable with their colleagues; el 24%, with gypsy vehicles; and 29.2%, if your son or daughter had a young couple. “It’s a shameful figure,” says Pérez. But I understand that many of these people have never lived with gypsies. For her, when there is real coexistence, evil ceases. “The gitano pueblo also brought values such as hospitality, coexistence or fraternity. In the neighborhoods where this coexistence exists, the gypsy population cannot be enchanted.”
Despite this, 64% of those surveyed believe that the local population suffers from discrimination. The FSG asks in the survey the degree of sympathy felt by the population by different groups (from young people to the homeless or transsexuals) and the discrimination from which they feel they suffer: this is the second social group which arouses the least sympathy, just behind the Muslim population. And they are one of the only groups to perceive more discrimination than sympathy.
The gaps between perception and reality are particularly notable in the socio-economic domain. Seven people believe that the general population receives social benefits, while only those of each person receive the minimum subsistence income, depending on the date of foundation. Some 40.5% believe they do not make a living from their work, despite a level of activity similar to that of the general population, according to a comparative study by the FSG published in 2018.
This also happens when accessing the villa. Seven people interviewed believe that young people do not experience discrimination when buying a house, but 75% of them say they have experienced it. “The first time I wanted to rent a floor in Madrid, I had neither energy nor solvency,” says Segovia, 35, born in Cádiz. “But my last name or my appearance aroused suspicion. The problem was that I was a girl.”
A quarter of those surveyed believe that the majority of poor people live in villages. However, the real figure is 2.7%, according to the Estudio-Mapa sobre Vivienda y Población Gitana, published by the FSG in 2016. “Since the advent of democracy, there has been great progress in social rights,” says Segovia. “The majority of young people live on floors, in houses, in neighborhoods like all other citizens. But this homogeneous image remains very anchored.” However, structural inequalities remain a reality: 86% of the Chinese population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Furthermore, only 40.2% of those questioned believe that the majority are poor.
Education and stereotypes
In education, perceptions also clash with data. Even if the majority of those questioned consider that young children are not educated in compulsory cycles, the school task is practically total. The Breach Impieza appearing in ESO. Three out of four people believe that the majority do not complete it, and reality confirms this perception: 63% do not complete compulsory secondary education.
Four children interviewed attribute this academic failure to young families, believing that they do not give priority to education. However, only a fourth part was devoted to highlighting the deficiencies of the education system to compensate for the original inequalities which left young children.
Ángel Pérez sees several causes. “The family influences, but it is not the main reason for dropping out of school,” he specifies. Talk about ignorance that generates rejection from colleagues and low expectations from teachers. “Some teachers say we’re going to give up,” he said, recalling phrases such as: “You, like the coming year, you’re going to give up,” or “like the coming year has other priorities, etc..” “.
He and Segovia denounce the existence of segregated classes and schools, where young students are grouped together. “This limits coexistence and perpetuates exclusion,” Pérez says. Segovia said the Spanish education system “is not always ready to welcome and support diversity.” He complains that the history and culture of the pueblo gitano are studied in the classroom. “It is important for young children and children to feel part of the story, so that they can know the references. But it is also for non-Giant students to generate this coexistence”
The lack of references also weighs heavily. “As you advance in the education system, you collapse,” says Pérez, who obtained a bachelor’s degree and completed a higher education cycle in social integration. He now works as a volunteer coordinator at FSG. “At higher levels, you become an exotic,” he says. However, he defends the value of coexistence: “Having comrades helps to dismantle stereotypes. It is an opportunity to repair the damage.”
Even if stereotypes persist, many young people still have to deal with being surprised by others. Just like Pérez, Ana Segovia also hears: “Guau, but you don’t look like a girl.” “No, I gusta,” he said firmly. “It sounds like a joke, but in reality it’s a crime. Because it’s part of a unique idea of what it means to be gypsy. And it’s also discrimination.”
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