Managing uncertainty. Research on the financial literacy of Roma families in six countries

The present volume is a synthesis of the field research carried out by the local partners in the Finally project. Finally is dedicated to the development and testing of a training programme in financial literacy specifically designed to suit Roma people’s educational needs. The initial research which we present here refers to Roma1 families’ actual financial management, a topic which allowed us to understand their lifestyles, to explore the implications of the overwhelming problem of poverty, and to get a picture of the social inclusion processes of these groups in a wider sense. In particular, consumption sheds light on a more symbolic aspect of money: they are linked to class, ethnicity, belonging and identity, while the economy of remittances talks about migration stories. This is why, when talking about managing money with the Roma, we touched many aspects of their life. Research of the Roma groups is still generally scarce and statistics are often unreliable. This is mostly for underrepresentation of the Roma in national samples, because of the stigma associated to this identity. Nonetheless, in the last years many efforts have been directed towards examining and communicating the harsh situation in which Europe’s largest minority lives, mostly attributable to structural inequalities and day by day discrimination (The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights – FRA – and UNDP 2012).