Government programs offer assistance, but come up short on ideas, programs
Prague 2007: Common Ground
Several funds sponsored by the European Union support the long-term unemployed. Such programs are not just about paying money to individuals and families, but about helping people to improve their job skills or to overcome disabilities that have kept them out of the workplace. There is one special program for people from the Roma community.
Some companies take unfair advantage of government efforts to encourage hiring of the Roma. In the Czech Republic it’s not unusual for a business to fire a Roma employee after only one year so that it can hire another Roma and get the government benefit all over again.
It is impossible to find any hard numbers of Roma participants in these programs. Even the unemployment rate is just an estimate. The Czech unemployment office, like other institutions, is not allowed to monitor the Roma community as a separate group.
Many examples of supporting programs can be found on this webpage. Some of these programs were accepted and put into action, some of them not.
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