5. Unemployment This leads me to my next point – the high unemployment rate among Roma. With 40% of Romani children never attending or not finishing elementary school and 50% having acquired only primary education , the chances of finding a good, stable job are very slim. They mostly find work in the agriculture, manufacturing, construction or the informal sector. In 2011 only 19.35% from all the Roma were employed, compared to nearly 80% in the 80s . After the political change in 1989 the country entered into a long and exhausting period of social and economic transition, which affected the whole economy. The majority of the Roma population lost their stable unqualified work in agriculture and manufacturing due to the shift of the economical …show more content…
Due to the uneven division of the labour, people from the minorities have higher risk to develop diseases of the respiratory system (tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis, silicosis, etc.) and musculoskeletal system. They also have more problems with early diagnosing, cancer, cardiovascular and lung diseases . One cause for that is cultural differences of the way Roma people define “being ill”. A lot of different chronic conditions, that don`t cause great suffering or inability to work are being largely ignored (Krumuva & Ilieva 2008, p.28). The elderly people consider their poor health as a natural part of life, due to their age, and don`t pay close attention to their condition and visit the doctor only if it gets way worse. A survey among Romani women shows that 81.2% have rotten teeth, 64.7% have teeth missing. A woman shares that a missing tooth is not a problem: “Oh, i`m absolutely healthy. I do not have any problems – it’s just the teeth but that is normal”. (Krumuva & Ilieva, 2008, p.25) The poor living conditions, infrastructure, sewerage and lack of running water in a lot of the Roma neighbourhoods are another reason for the high risk of hepatitis, gastro intestinal diseases and various infectious diseases (Pamporov, 2004,