Dionyz Sahi escaped the worst neighbourhood in Slovakia’s second city of Kosice and a lifetime of unemployment thanks to a programme set up by US Steel to hire members of the Roma minority. But his escape route from poverty is now closed as a result of the global economic crisis.

“We’re not in a hiring mode any more, we’re in a reduction mode,” says George Babcoke, president of US Steel Kosice, a subsidiary of the American company and the largest investor in the eastern part of Slovakia.