2. METHODOLOGY AND CONDUCT OF THE SURVEY This report presents essential data on households and persons at risk of remaining stateless. The report is based on the survey conducted for the needs of UNHCR by SeConS - development initiative group. The survey on a sample that included 1,987 households in 154 settlements with a high concentration of the RAE population in 77 municipalities throughout Serbia. The number of people living in the these households is 8,765. The overall objective of the study was to obtain reliable and representative data on different dimensions of statelessness of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Serbia. Specific objectives were to: 1. Determine the number of persons at risk of statelessness that are facing serious obstacles in obtaining personal documents; 2. Identify and graphically present the locations where such persons predominantly reside; 3. Assess socio-demographic characteristics of these persons; 4. Identify the causes for the lack of personal documents. Bearing this in mind, the survey was conducted by applying the quantitative methodology on a representative sample. The sample is representative of the RAE population who live in the so-called “Roma settlements”1. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire on a sample of 2,050 households in 77 municipalities throughout Serbia with high concentrations of the RAE population. A total of 154 villages in 77 municipalities were selected for the sample. The households in which polling was conducted were chosen randomly. Interviews were conducted with heads of households, as well as with one or more household members who did not have valid documents. After checking for logical consistency, the questionnaires from 1,987 households, in which a total of 8,765 people live, were kept for further analysis. Finally, it was found that 344 persons from 238 households in the sample lack at least one of the relevant valid documents, so that number of questionnaires for individuals was filled. 1 Since the plan was to repeat the survey based on the same methodology that had been applied in 2010, the same questionnaires were used as in the previous survey. They included basic questions about the composition of households and available personal documents, as well as some questions which were more focused on the factors that contribute to the potential lack of documentation, such as problems in obtaining different personal documents. RAE population being one of the most marginalized groups in Serbia, previous studies of this population have shown that there are certain problems in communication during the implementation of surveys that need to be taken into account. For the purposes of this study, SeConS organized a network of Roma interviewers who conducted the survey interviews in the field. For field work, 79 RAE interviewers were engaged. Interviewers were provided with support and controlled by ten supervisors who also worked in the field and ensured quality of the survey implementation. Before the onselt of the survey, three workshops were organized in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš, to provide detailed instructions to the supervisors and interviewers on the process of selection of the respondents and interviewing techiques, thus ensuring highquality results. In the end, this proved to be a very useful approach, because the availability of respondents and the quality of the obtained data were improved. Data collection was conducted between 29 September and 23 October 2015. After entering the data and checking for logical consistency, a database of households and individuals was set up, which served as a basis for further analysis. The problem of lack of personal documents is presented in this study through multiple dimensions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Possession of basic documents Reasons for non-possession of documents Attempts to obtain documents and the reasons for failure Access to rights and discrimination against persons at risk of statelessness Assistance in obtaining documents The RAE population living in the so-called “Roma settlements” was approximated by the RAE population that lived in the enumeration areas (EAs) with 18 or more RAE households according to the census of 2011. This definition has been taken over from MICS 5 (UNICEF, 2014: 266). According to the 2011 Census of Population in the Republic of Serbia, 70,077 Roma, Egyptians and Ashkali lived in these EAs, with 147,604 Roma and less than 4,000 Egyptians and Ashkali registered in the Census. 10 PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA PROGRESS REPORT 2010–2015 PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN SERBIA PROGRESS REPORT 2010–2015 11