Daily Archives: February 1, 2013

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.02.2013 Verdict Acknowledges Segregation of Rroma Children in Hungary

Published by:

According to the Hungarian minister responsible for the situation of the Rroma, there is no discrimination of Rroma in Hungary, neither is there a segregation of Rroma children in Hungarian schools. A verdict by a north-Hungarian court acknowledges now officially that the segregation of Rroma children is illegal. The verdict recognised that Rroma children are regularly positioned in lower classes than other children, discriminated during lunch hours, swimming lessons and public school events.

According to the Pester Lloyd, the discrimination of Rroma children is an established practice in Hungary, with a tradition of several decades. It often gets initiated by parents who don’t want their children to mix with Rroma children. This denial of good education keeps the unsatisfying situation of many Rroma in Hungary a status quo.

Source:

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.02.2013 Political Correctness and Minorities Names

Published by:

Kathrin Spoerr of “Die Welt” elaborates about the use of terms ascribed to minorities and the political correctness or incorrectness inherent in them. She takes the example of one of her daughters, who disguises herself in the kindergarten as Gypsy, for a project about different children from the world. The teacher of the catholic kindergarten gets problem with her supervisor, when designating the children as “Zigneuner”, which the supervisor sees as politically incorrect. For Spoerr, the use of the term itself isn’t the problem, but the intention of how it is used. When persons, children or adults, use terms for ethnic groups and use them in connection with pejorative, negative attributions, the term becomes a negative meaning. Spoerr therefore pleads for less political correctness and more intelligence and reflection, when talking about other people, no matter of what origin.

Source:

  • Spoerr, Kathrin (2013) Das darf man doch nicht sagen! In: Die Zeit vom 31.1.2013.
News Eastern Europe News Switzerland News Western Europe North Macedonia Serbia

01.02.2013 Accelerated Return of Rroma to Serbia and Macedonia

Published by:

The NZZ writes about the accelerated return of Rroma asylum seekers to Serbia and Macedonia, which is the result of a new policy of the national migration office (BfM), which implemented a so called 48-hours procedure for people from countries, which are declared safe of prosecution. This new policy may seem favorable from the viewpoint of the BfM, which sees the Serbian and Macedonian Rroma as economic migrants, which don’t have any “real” reason for migration to Switzerland. However, this viewpoint dismisses the ongoing, de facto discrimination of many Rroma in Serbia, which suffer from ongoing racism against them. The article by Andreas Ernst acknowledges, that the policy doesn’t recognize the ongoing problems of Rroma in Serbia, but the author doesn’t seem aware of the questionability of declaring a country safe of prosecution, but not considering the role of ethnic minorities like the Rroma. Ernst sees the topic as an economic issue and that Rroma should be better fostered in their home countries. The problem of de facto social discrimination doesn’t receive the attention it should. This becomes also evident, when reading the interview with Mario Gattiker, supervisor of the BfM. According to Gattiker, who takes the line with the official political assessment, there is no persecution of Rroma in the Balkans. The political categorization of Rroma as not being persecuted may be true when analyzing their situation through official evaluations. The range of what persecution really means and what Rroma people experience de facto, can not be covered by this official political assessment. One young Rroma man from Belgrad, for istance, told about his abuse through the Police of Belgrad in “Menschen bei Maischberger». He described the situation of Rroma in Serbia as one of strong discrimination.

The RCP wants to emphasize, that official political assessments of countries, declaring minorities free of discrimination, have to be consumed with prudence.

Sources:

  • ARD (2012) Feindbild Sinti und Roma: Sind wir zu intolerant? «Menschen bei Maischberger» vom 20.11.2012.
  • Ernst, Andreas (2013) Problem ist gelöst – ausser für die Roma. In: NZZ am Sonntag vom vom 27.01.2013.
  • Häuptli, Lukas (2013) Weniger Asylgesuche dank Schnellverfahren. In: NZZ am Sonntag vom vom 27.01.2013
Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

01.02.2013 The Expelled

Published by:

Journalist Bernhard Odehnal writes about a Rroma family in a village outside Budapest and the situation of Rroma in Hungary in general. After the call for the extinction of Rroma by the extremist publicist Zsolt Bayer, the topic of Rroma has gained increased attention by the media. However, according to Odehnal, poor Rroma families often don’t consume any official media and are not ware of the Bayer debate going on. Odehnal goes on to describe the hardships and discrimination most Rroma face in Hungary, with long time unemployment leading to apathy and resignation rather than revolution and upheaval.

He continues to explain how the Jobbik party systematically ethnicizes every criminal act done by a Rroma as inherent part of Rroma identity, declaring it as “gypsy criminality”. This mixing of ethnic identity and criminal activities is highly racist, as are attributions of journalists, who describe Rroma as of an aggressive, hostile nature.

Despite the empathetic focus of Odehnal article, the author reproduces stereotypes about the Rroma by stating that most Rroma live in Ghettos outside the villages and have excessive amounts of children. Additionally, he citties a Spanish infant educator, who sees Rroma women as “submissive and only wanting many children and Rroma men being openly sexist”. Also, when reading the article, when gets the impression, that according to Odehnal all of the 750’000 Hungarian Rroma live in the conditions he portrays in his article. He doesn’t talk about the invisible Rroma, which don’t live in Ghettos, the ones who live a life in the middle class and are not seen on the streets.

Aladár Horváth and Anikó Kiss (Pester Lloyd 2013) from the citizen’s movement of Hungary posted an official manifesto to the Orban government, asking to finally acknowledge that a humanitarian crisis is on the march, with one million people in Hungary, among them around a quarter of Rroma, living under precarious conditions, being close to starving and freezing to death. They criticize, that there is no public moral support for the situation of the Rroma, that the government doesn’t distance itself from extremist statements made against Rroma and that there are no social-critical articles in the official media.

Source:

rroma.org
en_GBEnglish (UK)
de_DEDeutsch fr_FRFrançais en_GBEnglish (UK)