07.11.2014 Jacques Toubon demands the enrolment of all children in schools to the mayors

De Germon (2014) reports on a recent statement of Jacques Toubon, the state responsible for the defence of rights. Toubon criticised in his statement the lack of commitment by numerous French mayors in ensuring the school enrolment of all children, especially the displaced Rroma children. Integration begins first of all with education, he stated. To deprive the children of it, would be a step in the wrong direction. The occasion for Toubon’s critique is the fate of the children from the former Rroma camp in Bobigny, which was evicted in late October. Almost all Rroma children had been enrolled before the eviction, but now only a small part goes to school: “The prefecture provided enormous resources, in order that this operation would become a “model” of its kind. But at the end of the holidays, the families, the organisations and the prefecture, at least agreed about one thing: that the result is very bad. Jacques Toubon, defender of rights, has commented on this expulsion on France Info at Tuesday. “One must remember that the institution of legal defence is at the origin of what 2012 was decided by the Minister of the Interior: that is, a circular on the circumstances in which one must evacuate the camps, and the circumstances in which, according to the social plan, one must accommodate and treat the evacuees.” Although several things were done in accordance with the circular in Bobigny, Jacques Toubon notes nonetheless that there is a point that still does not satisfy. That is the implementation of compulsory education. It is a subject about which the defender of rights was always firm.” The camp was very old and the majority of the children were enrolled in school. Since the evacuation, they are all without schooling. A situation that is unacceptable.” The uncompromising evictions are an expression of a failed social policy by the French state, which does not rely on integration and support, but on exclusion and expulsion. In addition, by the media focus on informal settlements the impression is created that there are only Rroma belonging to the lower class, who are poorly educated. However, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma live integrated and unobtrusively in French society. They belong to all social strata and are completely ignored by the French public. The Rroma who recently immigrated to France from Eastern Europe, and live in informal settlements – about 15,000 to 20,000 people – only account for a minority of the minority of all Rroma in France.