For Roma in France, Education Is an Elusive Path to Integration<br />Slavi said that When I first started coming here, I didn’t really know what school was,<br />Pressed on the matter of evictions impairing the children’s ability to attend school, she replied<br />that "no one has the right to settle on land that does not belong to them." Alexandre Le Cleve, a legal expert who specializes in the rights of foreigners, said families and the state bore equal responsibility for ensuring a child’s education.<br />When Mr. Loret and his associates — a network of concerned citizens, political activists<br />and union members — began efforts to register children for school in the town of Champs-sur-Marne, the children were denied access.<br />" she said. that If all the school directors had registered the children in their district, without asking the mayor<br />for permission, saying ‘Excuse me, they are in my school district, I am taking them,’ we wouldn’t have this problem,<br />The following school year, Champs-sur-Marne required Roma children to pay roughly $13 a meal for access to the<br />school cafeteria, a price high above the $1.20 ordinarily charged to children from low-income families.<br />" she said. that Before we had housing, my sisters and I couldn’t attend school,<br />France said that I was only able to study when I had access to stable housing,<br />After escaping homelessness thanks to the support of a schoolteacher<br />and her parents’ tireless efforts to secure housing, she went on to finish high school and university before earning a law degree at the Sorbonne.<br />Loret said that The teachers told us they rediscovered a sense of purpose in their work,
