Volume 20, Issue 4-5, December 2016
ANALYSIS OF MIGRATION TRENDS AND FUNCTIONS OF AREAS INHABITED BY ROMA: EXAMPLE OF MEĐIMURJE COUNTY (CROATIA) AND THE SETTLEMENT OF KURŠANEC
Authors: Slaven Kliček, Jelena Lončar
Abstract: Međimurje County stands out as a developed and densely populated county of Central Croatia. Demographic and socio-economic developmental trends of Međimurje indicate the referred-to status: age structure, birth rates, population activity rates and share of jobs are signifcantly higher than the Croatian average. At the same time, Međimurje is home to one of the largest Croatian Roma communities, ethnically homogeneous and spatially isolated, whose predominantly unfavourable geographical features make the opposite developmental pole of previously described developed areas inhabited by the majority population. Development indicators at county level have omitted concrete living conditions of Roma. They inhabit the rural periphery characterized by social and spatial segregation, unemployment and existence on the margins of society and settlements. This paper provides an analysis of housing, economic and social functions of areas inhabited by Roma, as well as migratory trends and main functional orientation of these areas in Međimurje County. In so, the settlement of Kuršanec will be emphasized as a representative example of areas inhabited by Roma in Međimurje County.
Keywords: Roma, Međimurje, Roma settlements, migrations, functional orientation
Article info: 227–241
Received: April 20, 2016 | Revised: September 9, 2016 | Accepted: November 7, 2016