Community, Identity, and Mobility of Eastern European Roma: A Systematic Review 2002-2022

Abstract

This paper is a systematic review of studies on the situation of Eastern European Roma. It examines themes of community, identity, and mobility published in the literature between 2002 and 2022 in the social science, law, and education fields. Studies were identified methodically by searching multidisciplinary electronic databases and hand searching. The studies found were imported into Mendeley, and titles and abstracts were screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. A list of search terms with SKOS descriptors (thesaurus) was generated to cover the relevant topics. A data extraction table was drawn up with a set of fields for each of the studies. Items included bibliographic information, study type, study characteristics, participant characteristics, variables, main findings, and limitations. The database searches yielded a total of 6577 records. After an individual hand-search review of the texts, a total of 14 studies were considered and included. We concluded that very little research has been done on the central themes of the study. In addition, there are no texts that look in depth at the issue of education as a tool for poverty reduction.