In Serbia, as in many other SouthEast and Central European countries the most marginalized and discriminated against minority are the Roma. Participating in education, employment, and politics can become extremely challenging for them, if not impossible (Ringold, Orenstein & Wilkens, 2005; McGarry, 2012). As social integration policies primarily focus on increasing enrollment, segregation of Roma children in special schools and units, predominantly Roma classes or schools with substandard curricula remain largely an unnoticed albeit serious and sustained barrier to accessing quality education. Nowadays the mechanisms, complex logistics and organizational structure needed to successfully desegregate educational settings or act preventively are more known than ever before (Roma Education Fund, 2015; Kovač Cerović & Orlandić-Lukšić, 2016). Nevertheless, according to recent research (Bojadjijeva, 2015; Rostas, 2012; Brown, Dwyer, Martin, Scullion, Turley, 2015) segregation did not disappear during the Decade, but may have even increased and its mechanisms might be recreated to address newly emerging marginalized groups such as migrant children. In this paper we explore data from five recent studies conducted in Serbia to understand the underlying psychological, social and educational structures of segregation. Serbia introduced nation-wide inclusive education in 2009 encompassing several measures for Roma integration as a priority for almost 10 years, however, many indicators show a shift in segregation patterns because of new policies, instead of their steady decline. While statistical data register decreases of Roma students in special schools, they still show overrepresentation in special classes, and an overuse of Individual Education Plans for Roma. Stories and letters of Roma Pedagogical Assistants narrate persuasively about discrimination, Roma NGOs’ assess the most frequent types of segregation in education as sitting in the back row and the main reasons for segregation stereotypes of school staff. High social distance was also found between Roma and non-Roma students. Additionally, recent data about education of migrant students in Serbia show an unfolding trend to include migrant students into schools with already high percentage of Roma students. These findings call for rethinking both desegregation and inclusive education policies and their viability in an education context burdened by discrimination that is not duly accounted for.

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