Poverty

This page shares the experience of poverty in Roma communities in our own words. It is part of the roma.scot platform, developed and maintained by Community Renewal Rom Romeha. Rom Romeha works on research, Roma policy for government, and training for organisations in Roma culture and inclusion.

We Are Not Defined by Poverty. Poverty Is What Exclusion Creates.

Poverty Is Not Who We Are

We want to be clear about something from the start. Poverty is not a Roma cultural characteristic. It is not something we carry with us from home or pass on to our children because of who we are. It is the predictable, measurable outcome of being excluded from the systems that everyone else uses to build a stable life.

When the doors to decent employment are closed, when housing is unsafe and expensive, when schools fail our children, when benefits are inaccessible because of language or immigration status, when discrimination follows us into every room we enter, poverty is what results. It is the end product of a system that has consistently not worked for us. That needs to be understood clearly before anything else can change.

What Poverty Looks Like in Govanhill

The Barriers That Keep Us Poor

Poverty in our community is not the result of one problem. It is the result of many problems that overlap and reinforce one another. We face barriers in employment that limit what we can earn. We face barriers in housing that leave us paying high rents for properties that are unsafe and overcrowded. We face barriers in education that reduce our children's future options. And we face barriers in accessing the benefits and entitlements that exist to support people in exactly our situation.

Benefits and entitlements we cannot always access

The Scottish Government has introduced supports such as the Scottish Child Payment, currently worth £27.15 per week per eligible child, specifically to address child poverty. For some of our families, this has made a real difference. But for too many, these payments are out of reach. The application processes assume digital access that we may not have. The guidance is not available in our languages. And for families whose immigration status is uncertain or unresolved, the barriers can be even more significant.

Legal and immigration status

Some Roma people in Scotland face specific legal and administrative barriers that go beyond what most people living here encounter. Families whose status under the EU Settlement Scheme is unresolved, or who have not yet navigated the complex requirements of that system, can find themselves cut off from work and benefits through no fault of their own. In the most severe situations, people who cannot or do not understand how to access the formal economy and cannot access benefits may have no alternative but to beg or to work in the grey economy. This is not a lifestyle choice. It is the end point of a system that has closed every other door.

How Poverty Connects to Everything Else

Poverty does not stay in the bank account. It reaches into every part of life.

When we cannot afford to heat our homes, our children's health suffers. When they share crowded rooms without quiet space to study, their education suffers. When we are exhausted from managing constant financial insecurity, our mental health suffers. When we cannot afford the transport or childcare that a new job would require, our employment options shrink. Poverty locks every other door.

The Roma people facing the deepest poverty in Govanhill are often those who arrived most recently, those with the least English, the most uncertain legal status, and the fewest connections to the services that might help. They are also the people who are hardest to reach, and who are most likely to be missed by services that were not designed for them.

What Strength Looks Like Under Pressure

We want to be honest about hardship, but we do not want to be defined by it. Roma communities have always found ways to support one another when formal systems have not reached us. Extended family networks share resources. Community members support each other with practical help, advice, and connection. Our mutual support is real, it is remarkable, and it should not be invisible.

But mutual support cannot substitute indefinitely for a welfare system that works, for fair wages, for safe and affordable housing, and for services that actually reach us. It keeps us going. It does not fix the structural problems that should have been fixed long before now.

The Picture Across Europe

What Needs to Change

We are not asking for charity. We are asking for systems that work for us in the same way they are supposed to work for everyone.

We need benefit entitlements explained and made accessible in our languages, with trusted support to navigate applications. We need immigration status issues resolved so that families are not left in legal limbo that bars them from work and support. We need employers and employment services to challenge the discrimination that keeps us in low-paid, precarious work. We need housing costs brought under control and landlords held to account. And we need the children in our community to be supported to stay in school, to achieve, and to have options.

Poverty in our community is not inevitable. It is the result of identifiable, addressable failures in policy, enforcement, and service design. It can be reduced. The question is whether the people with the power to change it will treat our children's poverty with the same urgency they would bring to any other community facing these figures.