The Roma are Europe's largest minority ethnic group, yet too few Roma achieve a level of education that enables them to secure employment or positive life chances. Gaps in their attainment compared to other ethnic groups start to appear in the earliest years, with Roma participating in early education at half the rate of their peers. The European Commission has established expectations to increase participation rates, but change is painfully slow. Institutionalized discrimination and poverty underpin many structural factors, such as shortages of preschool places and unaffordable fees and costs, that are in a large part responsible for the low participation of Roma in early education. Yet multiple reports highlight cultural barriers as an additional significant challenge for Roma families, and recommend employing Roma as teaching assistants to bridge cultural differences. This article presents evidence from two qualitative studies that explore the impact of employing Roma in early childhood settings. The first, a survey conducted in the 21 European countries with the largest Roma populations, establishes current hiring trends and motivations for hiring Roma early childhood education staff, and estimates that at least 40,000 additional Roma staff are needed to ensure their proportionate representation in the workforce. The second uses case study methodology to capture learning from Serbia and the UK, where introducing Roma assistants is helping to bridge cultural barriers to Roma participation in early education. The article concludes with the observation that the social inclusion of Roma will also require interventions that start well before children enter formal education.

中文翻译：

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通过文化中介改善罗姆人对欧洲幼儿教育系统的参与

罗姆人是欧洲最大的少数民族，但很少有罗姆人达到能够确保就业或获得积极生活机会的教育水平。与其他族裔群体相比，他们在学业上的差距在最初几年就开始出现，罗姆人接受早期教育的比率是同龄人的一半。欧盟委员会已经建立了提高参与率的预期，但变化非常缓慢。制度化的歧视和贫困是许多结构性因素的基础，例如学前教育名额短缺和难以负担的费用和成本，这在很大程度上是罗姆人早期教育参与率低的原因。然而，多份报告强调文化障碍是罗姆家庭面临的另一个重大挑战，并建议聘请罗姆人作为助教来弥合文化差异。本文提供了两项定性研究的证据，这些研究探讨了在儿童早期环境中雇用罗姆人的影响。第一项是在罗姆人人口最多的 21 个欧洲国家进行的一项调查，确定了当前雇用罗姆人幼儿教育工作人员的趋势和动机，并估计至少需要 40,000 名额外的罗姆人工作人员以确保他们在劳动力中的比例代表. 第二个使用案例研究方法来捕捉来自塞尔维亚和英国的学习，在那里引入罗姆助理有助于弥合罗姆人参与早期教育的文化障碍。