Sufficiently well informed and seriously concerned? European Union policy responses to marginalisation, structural racism, and institutionalised exclusion in early childhood

Abstract

Throughout the European Union, children from marginalised communities experience an appalling reality of poverty, exclusion, discrimination, and racism. Growing up in poverty and social exclusion shapes the reality of the lived experience for an increasing number of children in one of the wealthiest regions of the world. In the UK, a member of the G7, a significant number of children suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and cold (Lansley & Mack, 2015) while the government has abandoned child poverty reduction targets; in Croatia, a recent accession to the EU, "it is normal that Roma children are mostly sick, with diarrhoea, bronchitis, vomiting" according to a recently published report (Šikić-Mićanović, Ivatts, Vojak, & Geiger-Zeman, 2015, p. 42). Rather than examining the situation in specific countries, in this paper I undertake a critical inquiry into policy approaches and responses to inequality at the level of the European Union-including the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies-with a specific focus on early childhood education, care, and development. However, while the policies put in place by the European Union have to be welcomed, they represent only one aspect of a complex and often contradictory picture. Perspectives from professionals and activists working "on the ground" are necessary to complement the official picture; they will be presented and discussed in order to identify systemic challenges. I conclude by making the case for a radical systemic turn in EU early childhood policies and for learning with and from experiences in so-called developing countries as a way forward to address these challenges.