The Roma minority by view of Vimperk's majority

Romanies are the most numerous ethnic minority in the Czech Republic. The Romany minority is very often connected with the problem of social exclusion. Excluded Romanies have got a lower level of education, high unemployment, high criminality, a worse state of health, a shorter average length of life, a low level of eating and housing. The majority socially dissociates themselvesfrom them. The bachelor´s thesis titled The Romany Minority in Vimperk from the Point of View of the Majority is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with social exclusion, describes Romanies, sub-ethnic groups of Romanies and their origin. It also describes the current situation of Romanies in the Czech Republic and in the town of Vimperk based on the data obtained from the Czech statistical office. The next chapters address selected social problems of Romanies and the related problem of discrimination. They namely focus on the topic of housing, unemployment, and education. Discrimination can usually be understood as differentiation or as a different approach to groups of people of certain age, gender, racial or ethnic origin; to people adhering to a specific culture and religion, or to groups which have got a specific disadvantage, alternatively a marginal social position; and who differ in this characteristic from other people. The last chapter deals with selected socially pathological phenomena concerning the Romany minority, such as criminality, gambling, drugs, and prostitution. The goal of this thesis is to chart the view of the majority inhabitants on the Romany minority in the town of Vimperk using the concept of social distance. Furthermore, its aim is to find out the cause of the negative view using quantitative research. The quantitative research was conducted through the method of questioning - the technique of standardized questionnaire. Two research questions have been determined for the purpose of thethesis: VO 1: What is the social distance of the majority against the Romany minority in Vimperk? VO 2: What are the sources of the negative view of the majority on the Romany minority in Vimperk? Following hypotheses were set based on the research questions: H1a: The social distance towards the Romany minority is growing with age. H1b: The social distance towards the Romany minority is higher in case of men than women. H1c: The social distance to the Romany minority is decreasing with higher education of the majority. H1d: The people who experienced a direct conflict with the Romanies evince higher rate of social distance compared to the people who have not experiences any direct conflict. The whole aggregate includes 133 majority inhabitants who live in the town of Vimperk from the age of 18 over 65 years of age. The obtained data have been processed through descriptive statistics in the programme Excel and set hypotheses have been evaluated statistically in the programme SPSS. The results have shown that the social distance of the majority inhabitants against the Romany minority in the town of Vimperk is not significantly influenced by gender, age, or education. The majority society dissociate themselves the most from the Romany minority in the relation of near kinship through marriage and a near friend, according to Bogardus´s scale of social distance. The Bogardus´s social distance scale is most often used to measure racism and other ethnic prejudice. It is a scale which consists of statements that are supposed to show what social distances feel the respondents among themselves and other groups. Among the most common problems connected to the Romany minority in the town of Vimperk is the disturbance of the peace at night, criminality, prostitution, drugs, and gambling. Other problems which appear in connection to the Romanies is unemployment, venereal diseases, maladjusted behaviour in the society, and polluting the town