In the last decade, alongside the European Union enlargement process, the “Roma/Cigano issue” became central to European political debates. The inequalities that marked Ciganos across Europe were no longer confined to a set of countries, exposing the weakness of a Europe that although prosperous, has been unable to reduce the asymmetries between Ciganos and non-Ciganos for centuries. Even today, as a recent World Bank (2014) report shows, the disparities between a Cigano family and an average European family broadens every day and a great majority is at high risk of poverty. Ciganos, either individuals or families, are in a position of socio-economic vulnerability (FRA, 2012) resulting from a complex set of interrelated factors. Ciganos are affected by a self-perpetuating cycle of unequal opportunities, ethnic discrimination and stifled aspirations. The launch in 2012 of the National Ciganos Integration Strategies fostered new possibilities to improve the living conditions of Ciganos in Europe. In Portugal, estimates suggest that there are about 40000 to 60000 Ciganos citizens (ACIDI, 2013), a small population size when compared to other countries, namely, in Central Europe. Nevertheless, the living conditions experienced by Portuguese Ciganos are very similar to those lived by other Ciganos across Europe (ERRC/NÚMENA 2007; FRA 2012). Portugal is now implementing its National “Ciganos Communities” Integration Strategy, which is based on four fundamental aspects: education, employment, healthcare, and housing. This new political perspective is expected to bring important changes that might contribute to reduce the pressing inequalities between Ciganos and non-Ciganos. Disparities between Ciganos/Roma and non-Ciganos/Roma in key areas such as education, employment, healthcare and housing exist across the European countries. Even though results in terms of school success and the extension of schooling paths of Portuguese Ciganos/Roma students are still below expectations, we have been witnessing a gradual increase in the presence and continuity of Ciganos in schools. More than ever, in contrast with the situation lived by the past generations, the school is part of the life of Ciganos families and individuals, men and women, and is perceived as important, especially when it comes to the first level of education – 4 years of basic education (1st cycle). Families are also more attentive to the quality of the social environment and quality of education practiced in schools that their children attend and frequently express critical points of view about it. This presentation focuses on the perceptions of Ciganos families and students toward the schools which the/ or their descendants are attending (or attended) and is based in fieldwork conducted in neighbourhoods marked by a high presence of Ciganos, school ethnographies and semi-structured interviews with Ciganos persons, men and women, who live in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and Oporto. Some results show that gradually the school has become a place not of exclusion but the belonging and conviviality with the Others. This paper aims to present some results of a research about the impact of public policies on the education trajectories of Portuguese Ciganos, including men and women, individuals and families. This study encompasses a literature review, document analysis centred on public policies, programmes and projects and interviews with individual and institutional stakeholders. An ethnographic approach is used for the analysis of the several dimensions that reveal the reproduction of social and space inequalities regarding Portuguese Ciganos/Roma. In fact, ethnography has gained some importance in the social sciences, and not only in the anthropological field, conceived as a qualitative methodology of knowledge production which describes a particular social reality (Denzin et al. 2000). One of the key points of this method is the centrality of the field work, observation and intersubjectivity. In this research, the ethnographic approach was carried out in three selected areas of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Loures, Lisbon and Amadora) and took place between June and December 2014, followed by a period of sporadic visits to the field (s). The ethnographic work field began during the phase of exploratory mapping and selection of territories that we wanted to know in a more in-depth way, involving short journeys to the field in order to carry out exploratory interviews and to participate in activities organized by the institutions that were our field liaison. The collaboration with institutional actors during the exploratory phase, specifically technicians and leaders of local intervention some of which were Ciganos, was essential to the success of the work, since the period of time for this preliminary work was limited. As they knew the community well and had access to them, they introduced us to the local families and Gipsy people of these territories, facilitating the initial contact to the field and the identification of families that would be worthwhile knowing in accordance with the aims of the research project. Despite the many advantages of this strategic approach to the field, some constraints were identified regarding how our presence in these territories was experienced by the Ciganos. Since we were seen as being closely connected with the technicians that bridged our first contact with them, some Ciganos considered that we were mostly committed to our research agenda, while others stated that they had either no ability, or competence to reply. On the other hand, the fieldwork allowed us to better understand the relationship between the Ciganos and those who intervene in these territories at the institutional level, as well as to identify the needs and difficulties of the community more directly. The most challenging time in the field was faced when we extended the periods of observation of the everyday lives of the persons we met in these neighbourhoods. Some of the individuals raised questions about the reasons of our presence: “Why are you staying here? I’ve already answered to everything!”; “Look, they (technicians) are down there, why are you not there?”. They expressed these doubts especially when asked about issues regarding the school environment. Despite being introduced to each other several times, and after posing some questions, we were at times questioned whether we would be engaged in social work: “Listen, you’re not studying to be a social worker, are you? You’re not social worker, are you?”. Conducting ethnographic observation together with semi-structured interviews allowed us to collect several direct testimonies on the topics that interested us. However, if the relational informality that we built up allowed us to get insight into the everyday of Ciganos who were known to us, it soon created some hindrances, either in terms of the difficulty of scheduling the activities in the field, or in keeping the timetable of the pre-arranged interviews. References: ACIDI (2013), Estratégia Nacional para a Integração das Comunidades Ciganas (ENICC), Lisboa: ACIDI. / Denzin N.K., Lincoln Y.S. (eds.) (2000), Handbook of qualitative research, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. / ERRC/NÚMENA (2007), Os serviços sociais ao serviço da inclusão social: o caso dos ciganos, Lisboa: ERRC - European Roma Rights Centre e NÚMENA. / European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights – FRA (2012), The situation of Roma in 11 EU Member States Survey results at a glance, Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union, in http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/2099-FRA-2012-Roma-at-a-glance_EN.pdf./ Magano O. (2010), Tracejar vidas normais. Estudo qualitativo sobre a integração social de indivíduos de origem cigana na sociedade portuguesa, Tese de doutoramento em Sociologia, Lisboa: Universidade Aberta/DCSG. / Mendes M.M. (2012), Identidades, Racismo e Discriminação. Ciganos da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, Lisboa: Caleidoscópio. / World Bank (2014) in http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca/brief/roma~. Acknowledgments: The data was collecte in the context of a research project “Factores-Chave para o sucesso e continuidade dos percursos escolares dos ciganos: indivíduos, famílias e políticas públicas” (Key factors to the success and continuity of schooling of Ciganos: individuals, families, and public policies) financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology), ref. PTDC/IVC-PEC/4909/2012, developed in the context of a partnership between IES-IUL (ISCTE-IUL) and CEMRI, Universidade Aberta. This is a project that aims to advance in the sociological knowledge of the impact of social policies on the education of the Portuguese Ciganos, men and women, and its effects on individuals and the families. The project was developed simultaneously in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas, in some selected territories.

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