07.02.2014 The integration of the Rroma as a pan-European task

On the occasion of the visit of the Romanian President in Berlin, Von Borstel and Lachmann address the roles of the individual EU countries in the integration of Rroma. Von Borstel/Lachmann quote the federal office of labour which estimates that about 180,000 Rumanians and Bulgarians will migrate to Germany, from which a quarter is reported to have University degrees. For what period of time this forecast is done is not stated. After this relatively differentiated preface, the article quickly becomes very one-sided. The authors only speak of the salient, visible Rroma and extrapolate them to the norm: “Even at that time [2013] they were drawn to the district of Neukölln, the melting pot of Berlin with residents from 160 countries. And quickly through organised begging some Roma became an integral part of the cityscape: Women with small children begging in front of churches, larger children harassing tourists, young people making noise on old instruments in the subway, or annoying drivers as “window cleaners” at major intersections. Every now and then a man from the clan comes and collects the begged money.” Some time later, the Romanian president Băsescu is quoted indicating that these very visible Rroma are a minority of the minority. But the statement is immediately followed by the next stereotype: the migrating Rroma are said to be the ones that Romania failed to integrate. Immigrants are sweepingly made into problem cases. Rroma willing to integrate do not exist, the article suggests. The European Union social affairs minister László Andor is quoted saying that the debate about immigration must be more rational and less emotional. The Rroma Contact Point strongly agrees with that.

The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) presents the visit of president Traian Băsescu in Berlin in an extremely biased fashion: it only emphasizes the negative aspects and is openly racist towards Rroma: “More and more Roma migrate from the two South-Eastern European countries to Austria, Germany or France and thereby cause a whole series of problems; from social welfare to crime. Cities like Dortmund or Duisburg and the district of Neukölln have seen thousands of Roma arrive. Side effects such as begging, crime and the neglect of entire districts are the consequence.” Such generalising, unreflecting, and xenophobic reporting can only be described as stupid. The comment column of the article is also permeated by racist arguments.