Author(s): Kezban ÇELİK Yasemin YÜCE TAR
This study examines the life experience of Roma (Gypsy) citizens living in two neighborhoods in the provincial center of Samsun, Turkey. Overall Roma in general and the Roma living in Samsun remains unstudied area in historical studies. Presented study will be one of the first studies that historically lacking of knowledge about Samsun’s Roma. Through social rights, it is intended to ensure social equality on the one hand and enhance social participation by strengthening the position of citizens in State-citizen relations on the other. The distribution of these rights has been and is closely associated with such factors as rural-urban and male-female divides and definitions such as “esteemed vs. not-so-esteemed citizens”. Due to this unequal distribution of social rights and the deprivation of some populations of these rights, the gap from the “average” has rapidly widened. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study. A questionnaire was administered to 2,685 persons from 635 households in both neighborhoods and in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 persons. In assessing social rights, education, working life, and housing were considered, and it was found at the end of the study that Roma citizens, as one of the oldest settled groups in Samsun, were “deficient” in terms of their social rights. The gap between their status and what is seen as the “average” in housing, education, and employment is quite wide and these people experience social exclusion.
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