As many before him, Astier (2014) reports about the forced evictions of illegal Rroma settlements in France. At first, he stresses that France has one of the harshest policies towards this minority. Every year, thousands of Rroma are deported and illegal settlements evicted. However, Astier wrongly assumes that all Rroma in France are immigrants from Southeast Europe, mainly from Romania. The integrated, invisible Rroma representing the actual majority, he considers as being non-existent: “Like most of the estimated 20,000 ethnic Roma living in France, Alex comes from Romania. And like most, he has been expelled from one squalid camp to the next for years.“ Regarding the forced evictions, Astier emphasizes that the expulsions don’t change much of the effective situation, since constantly new illegal settlements are built. The reference to precarious security situations is often just an excuse for evictions: „One aim of such operations is to remove unsightly, unsafe, and unsanitary sites that have no water or electricity. However, Loret and others point out that the exercise is self-defeating. As soon as police tear down one camp, another is built nearby. […] „They live in increasingly precarious living conditions that prevent them for integrating locally,” says ethnologist Martin Olivera. „They are being maintained in a nomadic way of life they have not chosen.““

• Astier, Henri (2014) France’s unwanted Roma. In: BBC News online vom 13.2.2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25419423

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