Indicator history

There is no evidence of majority driven segregation ("white flight" phenomenon). However, it does happen that non-Roma communities protest when the Roma move into their neighbourhood. In 2005, in the town of Szczecinek, protests erupted in the county office against the move of a Roma single mother with three children to a communal flat in another part of the town. In October 2008, 69 people signed a protest delivered to the chair of the city council in the town of Żary against plans to quarter Roma in social flats located on Szkolna Street. In early 2006, a conflict erupted between non-Roma and Roma residents of a social housing project on Roma Street in Puławy. A year prior, city officials housed Roma families and eight Polish families in a 78-flat building, as part of an integration programme. Four of the Polish families petitioned the city president to be moved, arguing that having the Roma as neighbours constituted an undue hardship. Some protests against establishing centres for refugees were also observed (among others in Łomża).

Source: Dorota Hall, Agnieszka Mikulska, Thematic Study. Housing Conditions of Roma and Travellers. Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Warsaw 2009.