Monthly Archives: April 2014

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30.04.2014 “Merkel: Fair chances for Sinti and Roma”

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The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, argues in her latest podcast for a better integration of Rroma in Germany. This better integration is planned to take place through education, public relations work and increased contacts between ethnic Germans and Rroma. Moreover, one should decidedly take action against right-wing extremism in Germany. The chancellor stated: “The fight against right-wing extremism, racism, is part of our daily work. And there are also the necessary legal paragraphs, but they are, I think, not sufficient by themselves. We need a social climate in which everyone knows that racism and nationalism and other extreme movements, right-wing extremism, are prohibited and that civil courage must be shown when we face something like that in everyday life” (Video-Podcast der Bundeskanzlerin #11/2014). The interviewer, Marian Luca, counters that the latest study by Amnesty International shows that in many European countries the majority population accepts discrimination against the minority tacitly. The chancellor replied: “These hints by Amnesty International need not only be taken seriously, but also be pursued them. There are disadvantages and prejudices against Roma and Sinti; to deny this would mean that we do not face reality. This also exists in Germany. Therefore, the task for me is also to get to know each other better, so that one can do away with these prejudices, that one gets to know the biographies of many Sinti and Roma and sees how successfully they get involved in our society.” Another point of criticism is the lack of usage of available funding for integration by European member states. Merkel wants to improve this through specific discussions with government representatives. For this purpose, she will meet with representatives of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma next Monday. It is to be hoped that this will not just remain a lip service, but that concrete measures to improve the integration of the Rroma will be taken (compare Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2014).

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30.04.2014 Discriminatory views about Rroma in Romanian politics

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Bird/Candea (2014) inform about institutionalized racism in Romanian politics. Discriminatory attitudes towards members of the Rroma minority are common in all political parties of the country, they state. As a starting point they take a racist joke of the social democrat Dan Tudorache, who is said to have written during a winter storm earlier this year, that it was so cold that he had seen a “gypsy” with his hands in his own pockets. Rroma activist Ciprian Necula condemned Tudorache’s statement in the media, but was in turn confronted with a lot of negative comments. Rroma politician Damian Draghici announced on the occasion of the incident that Romanian politicians showed no skills or awareness about discriminatory statements: “When you are five years old and you put your hand on the oven, you know it burns,” he says, making a comparison, “but if you have never put your hand on the oven until you’re 30 years old – you will get burned at 30. […] What is necessary, he argues, is to educate such people about what discrimination means.” Bird/Candea see the situation more realistically than Draghici. They state that it is immaterial whether behind discriminatory remarks one finds naivety or bad intentions. What is crucial is the marginalization and degradation of the minority in the political and social everyday life, as the National Council Against Racism confirms. The pejorative attitudes towards Rroma are taught to the ethnic Romanians from an early childhood and repeated regularly, the authors state: “Prejudice is recycled from generation to generation and ingrained in Romanian children at an early age. In Romanian playgrounds it is common to hear elders tell their children they should behave or “the gypsies will come and kidnap you” and, if they have paint or mud on their face or hands, that the infant is “dirty like a gypsy.”” The segregation of the Rroma in the schools, in the labour market and in the residential districts of Romania continues to be present, Bird/Candea confirm. It is time to finally end this. This includes the better education of the general population, which allows to reduce prejudices which are based on ignorance.

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30.04.2014 Civil courage against discrimination in Serbia

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Ernst (2014) reports two experiences of discrimination by Serbian Rroma. In both described cases, one the refusal of entry into a McDonalds store, the other the expulsion of a cleaning lady from a bank, the moral courage of those affected had an impact on the outcome of theses injustices. In the first case, the woman who wanted to buy sandwiches in the fast food store for three Rroma children in Novi Sad complained to the local ombudswomen. She in turn sued McDonalds and won. In the second case, the cleaning lady turned to the media: The store manager, who had expelled Mrs Uskokovic from the bank, was put in the pillory of the media. Ernst sees the two incidents as examples of the importance of civil courage against socially tolerated discrimination. Only through the commitment of each and every person, can the exclusion of minorities be ended in the long term: “These are two unpleasant stories that confirm what is known or suspected about Roma discrimination in the Balkans (Mrs Uskokovic, the street cleaner from Nis, has a dark complexion, but it is unclear whether she refers to herself as Roma). Therefore, they is nothing news. […] But what is crucial: citizens as Maja Rogic and Lidija Uskokovic give rise to hope  – because they do not put up with everything.”

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25.04.2014 The European Rroma-policy

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Bendavid (2014) reports a forced eviction of informal Rroma houses in Eforie, in south-eastern Romania. The residents are still deeply angered by the destruction of their homes by the local government in September 2013. As a substitute, they were offered container flats that most refused, because of the remote location and the tight space. The European Rroma Rights Centre filed a complaint against the eviction. The expulsion is taken by Bendavid as a starting point to reflect on the European policy towards Rroma. With the accession of Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia to the European community, the will as well as the political pressure for the integration of this minority has increased. Western European countries fear an influx of impoverished Rroma from Eastern Europe, a fear that has proved unfounded until now. Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, sees an important reason for the lack of effectiveness of the aid programs, in the widespread prejudice against the minority, which prevent politicians to take actions out of fear that they will not be elected again: “Ms. Reding, of the European Commission, said the problem may not be solved as long as local officials are terrified of a public backlash upon helping Roma. That means the EU ultimately may have to issue its own Europe-wide rules, she said. “I’ve been told directly by several mayors, ‘I am not a racist, but if I call a program ‘Housing for Roma’ or ‘Education for Roma,’ I will no longer be mayor,’” said Ivan Ivanov, director of the European Roma Information Office, a clearinghouse and advocacy group.” This insight is particularly relevant when one considers that the Rroma are repeatedly accused of being responsible for their own fate. The fact that poverty and lack of education are not a self-chosen way of life, but rather the result of exclusion, should be obvious to anyone. While some government officials strive for a better integration of the Rroma, others want to segregate them consistently and build walls around Rroma settlements. Thus, in Slovakia 400 mayors joined the movement Zobudme Sa! that wants to remove all Rroma settlements by the uncompromising application of health and safety regulations (compare Wall Street Journal 2014, Nair 2014).

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25.04.2014 “Jobbik Takes Aim at Roma”

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Bendavid (2014) reports on the new electoral success of the right-wing nationalist and anti-Rroma Jobbik party, in Hungary. The right faction received 21% of the expressed votes in the elections earlier this month. The party accuses Rroma of culturally related antisocial behaviour and crime, even if it recognizes that not all Rroma stand out negatively: “Few parties have attracted as much attention as Jobbik, due to its sophistication and its influence within Hungary. “Jobbik has a pretty decent structure; they’re not just a bunch of thugs,” said Cas Mudde, a University of Georgia professor who studies far-right parties. “They have highly qualified people with university degrees.” Jobbik’s appeal, its supporters say, rests on a range of promises, from cleaning up corruption to reforming the education system. Its leaders vigorously reject accusations of racism. But human-rights activists say Jobbik’s candidates regularly exploit anti-Roma prejudice. Jobbik “has made anti-Roma statements a pillar of its political strategy,” the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency said in a recent report. The Jobbik platform, for example, criticizes Roma who “wish only that society maintain them through the unconditional provision of state benefits.” Not all Roma are criminals, another Jobbik statement concedes, but it adds, “’Gypsy crime’ is real. It is a unique form of delinquency, different from the crimes of the majority in nature and force.” It is dangerous to relativise a doubtlessly racist dominated party programme because it admits that not all Rroma are criminals. Their demagoguery is no less serious nor less problematic because of that. A fraction, which bases its policy on the exclusion and defamation of an ethnic group, and comes to a full 21% percentage of voters, must give pause to even die-hard optimists. Unfortunately, history has shown all too clearly that between political defamation and physical destruction there is only a narrow line. Only a year ago, the Hungarian publicist Zsolt Bayer asked publicly for an extermination of the Rroma, without being sentenced to any penalty.

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25.04.2014 Daily Mail confirms stereotypes about Rroma

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In its latest post, the British tabloid Daily Mail supported racist stereotypes about criminal Rroma gangs who attack tourists in Paris. Allen (2014) provides information on a group of young Rroma – how he knows about the ethnicity of the perpetrators, is completely unknown – who wanted to raid a middle-aged man at a cash machine in the centre of Paris, and were filmed by a surveillance camera. Allen further reports on the internal police writing that last week triggered a flood of press articles. The letter called for the systematic eviction of all Rroma in the sixth arrondissement, which is illegal under French law. Allen comments about this: “Charity and human rights groups were furious last week when a leaked police memo called for the ‘systematic eviction’ of Roma from the centre of the city. […] A spokesman for Charity group Catholic Help described the note as a ‘scandal’, saying that it ‘stigmatised a poor community’ and amounted to ‘racial profiling’- something which is illegal in secular France. But other Paris officials argued that Roma are behind most of the crime in the city, involving themselves in everything from aggressive begging to muggings and burglaries. Gangs of young Roma, including women and children, can regularly be seen harassing tourists. Many of the Roma beggars who congregate around cash points and banks have very young children with them, including babies. Most of them live in large shanty towns on the outskirts of Paris, but more and more are setting up new camps in central parks and squares.” Journalists such as Peter Allen still share the opinion that they spread the truth about Rroma, because they assume that reality consists only of the visible facts. The fact that a large part of the Rroma is not criminal is completely ignored in this logic. The focus is solely on the deviant behavior that is associated with ethnicity. The fact that the ethnicity of the perpetrators is anything but clear becomes obvious in Allen’s own article. He proceeds on the assumption that all perpetrators are Rroma and naturalizes this suspicion to a journalistic fact. Thus ethnic prejudices are maintained based on suppositions that are anything but hard facts.

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25.04.2014 Call for a civil rights movement of the Rroma

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Umberto Guerra (2014), by the French Rroma organization Romeurope, takes stock of the history of France Rroma. He regrets that the Rroma, who have been living in France for centuries, are still not recognized by the public as part of French society. Instead, one discriminates them further. In the French public, the Rroma exist only in the form of visible immigrants from Eastern Europe. The Rroma who have been living integrated in France for generations, are not seen by the media. According to Guerra they are still victims of racism and discrimination: “There are also several hundred thousand Roma who are French citizens. We are the object of racism and discrimination. But our situation is better than that of our immigrant brothers and sisters whom the French state continues to exclude. Racism against Roma is fed by widespread stereotypes. According to the national commission into human rights 85 percent of French people think Roma exploit their children. The idea of French national identity also plays a role. The true French person is supposed to speak French not regional languages, for example, and to be settled rather than travelling. And the economic crisis has seen things get worse. That’s true of racism in general, but particularly anti-Roma racism.” Moreover, Viviane Reding criticized that the Rroma have repeatedly been used as scapegoats for social ills in the French election campaign, when politicians did not want to talk about more relevant topics. Guerra expresses his disappointment about the fact that the political parties and politicians, from the right as well as from the left, were not reliable in respecting the rights of the Rroma and to come to their defence. At the end, he calls for the concentration of the various civil rights movements and a special dedication to the betterment of the situation of the Rroma: “In the last few years new anti-racist movements have developed, including Roma movements. We are working towards a Festival of Gypsy Insurrection to celebrate the revolt of Roma people in the Birkenau Nazi concentration camp on 16 May 1944. People on the receiving end of racism have taken the initiative and created “specialised” movements against Islamophobia, anti-black racism, etc. These movements are at the stage of getting to know one another. To succeed in their just struggle they will need to coordinate. Roma organisations take part in these movements and we attempt to play a role in bringing them together.” By such a movement, it could perhaps at last be made clear to the majority population that the Rroma have been living among them for generations, invisible and integrated and that they should be allowed to display their identity publicly and proudly without being discriminated.

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23.04.2014“Ukrainian Roma Face Threats and Violence”

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Osipova/Ou (2014) report on threats and acts of violence against Ukrainian Rroma in Sloviansk, in the eastern Ukraine. Seven of about one hundred and fifty houses of Rroma families in Sloviansk were looted by armed men. A Rromni, Natasha Cheripovskaya, showed the journalists how the looting exactly took place. They were wearing masks and first shot at the windows, to spread fear. They asked for money and gold. Her family had to respond that they had neither gold nor money. The neighbours watched everything, also in a state of shock. Then the masked men ransacked the family’s flat. Cheripovskaya emphasizes that they had no problem with Russians or Ukrainians before the riots in the Ukraine. The young Rrom Pyotr Povolsky also expressed grave concerns over the events. They have many children here, he states. Out of fear they no longer sleep in the houses and no longer go into the city, although they have been living there since years. Minorities such as Rroma are regularly the victims in countries with political upheavals and the associated, unclear power relations.

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23.04.2014 Rudolf Sarközi urges European commissioner for the Rroma

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On the occasion of the forthcoming European elections, Rudolf Sarközi, chairman of the Austrian National Minority Advisory Council of the Roma, calls for a separate ethnic groups commissioner for Rroma and other minorities in the European Union. This commissioner should urge the EU member states to respect the rights of minorities and prescribe sanctions if needed: “For Sarközi it is “high time” that a male or female commissioner for minorities with a focus on ethnic groups, Roma and Sinti, as well as refugees that escape from worldwide crisis areas to Europe, is put in place. […] Thereby, a “permanent, political and societal solution for Roma and Sinti in Europe” could be found, he said in a statement” (Vienna online 2014). In an extensive interview with mokant.at, Sarközi explains his views on the current situation of the Rroma in Austria. He states a clear decline in discrimination since the official recognition of the Rroma minority and the attack of Oberwart in 1995. The tragedy caused a caesura in the Austrian society and created an awareness of the discrimination against the minority. As far as the culture of the Rroma concerns, Sarközi denies uniform characteristics that all Rroma share: “Is there a separate, unified culture of the Roma? This does not exist. Not even among the Austrian Roma people. Why? We live in different nation-states. Most Sinti belong to Germany and were influenced by this culture. We have adopted the culture, which is predominantly present in the country or the region. To select the German example: In Berlin, the Sinti or Rrom will be as Prussian as the Prussian, and in Bavaria as Bavarian as the Bavarians!” (Winterfeld 2014). One has to contradict him in one point, however. He denies that there are overarching traditions. These exist, even if the various groups practice them differently. The most Rroma speak Rromanes, going back to Sanskrit, they share many traditions. The statement that the Rroma belong to different religions, Sarközi is absolutely right. He moreover stresses how important it is that the majority population makes offers of integration, to the Rroma as well as other minorities. For without such a willingness to accept other people in a society, a positive integration – and not an assimilation – is very difficult to achieve. Sarközi also emphasizes the importance of education for a successful integration of the Rroma. After all, education increases self-confidence and social recognition.

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23.04.2014 Le Progrès publishes racist article about delinquent Rroma

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Several French newspapers report on an article, published by the regional newspaper Le Progrès, which assigns different types of offenses to various nationalities, including the Rroma. These are named directly in connection with petty crimes, prostitution, scrap metal theft and burglary offenses. That the Rroma are not a nationality but an ethnic group, Annie Demontfaucon (2014), the author of the article, seems to have forgotten. In France, statistics based on national origin are allowed, but not those that capture ethnic membership. Therefore, Le Progrès makes itself liable to prosecution with the infographics, as the attorney of La Voix des Roms confirms. SOS Racisme will file suit against the newspaper for illegal, ethnic profiling of Rroma. The same will be done by Licra (Ligue internationalle contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme), which stated that even the mention of national identity in the context of crime is far from unproblematic. A third lawsuit will be filed by the Movement against Racism MRAP (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples). MRAP also raises the question of whether the sources of the article can be traced back to racist police statistics. But this question cannot be clearly answered: “For their sources, explains the chief editor, they simply contacted the offices of the police, the gendarmerie, and the customs authority, who communicated them the general trends, based on their observations and the arrests. The general trends therefore, but no official figures” (Metro News 2014). Christophe Soullez, head of the national observation post for delinquency and criminal justice (ONDRP), decidedly questions the quality and origin of the sources. While the ONDRP itself publishes statistics based on national affiliation, these only list perpetrators sentenced by the court and not conjectures on the membership of the actors. A link between ethnicity and crimes committed is clearly racist and illegal, he states. La Voix des Roms filed a complaint against an illegal, ethnic file a few years ago, with the name “Minorités Ethniques Non Sédentaires (MENS). Not surprisingly, on the side of the Front National, one praised the article of Le Progrès. Florian Philippot, vice-president of the National Front, announced that he thanked the newspaper that they showed the negative effects of immigration. The fact that this is a deeply biased and racist interpretation of the facts, the conservative nationalist politician cares little about (compare Conxicoeur 2014, Metronews 2014, Le Figaro 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Le Huffington Post 2014).

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23.04.2014 Free movement of workers: access to the labour market remains difficult

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Pastural (2014) reports – on the occasion of the European free movement of workers with Romania and Bulgaria since January 2014 – about possible improvements in the access of Rroma to the French labour market. However, this is not the case. The access to the labour market for the low-skilled Rroma workers remains very difficult: “Full of experience as a result of working in agriculture or construction in Greece and Italy, Ionut Nica waited impatiently for the end of the transitional arrangements, towards the access of Romanian nationals to the labour market of the Schengen area. Since January 2014, Ionut has the right to work. “There was a tremendous hope on the part of Mr. Nica, who expected this splendid date of the month of January as if it would change his whole life”, laments Florence Marrand, social worker at the medical-social establishment of the Conseil général of Puy-de-Dôme, who advises Ionut Nica regularly for a little over one year. “Today, he is deeply disappointed. Certainly, he was able to enrol at the job centre, he could enrol at the work-assistant mission, he was able to answers vacancies. But nothing has changed specifically, absolutely nothing…“ It is to hope that Pastural is wrong with his portrayal of two individual cases, and the inclusion of immigrant Rroma into the labour market will enhance. At the latest, when the effects of the economic crisis are finally gone. One problem is, according to Pastural, the lack of resources to improve ones qualifications, and thus the appeal for the labour market.

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23.04.2014 EU-minister Birgitta Ohlsson calls for more political commitment for the Rroma

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Herrnböck (2014) spoke with the Swedish EU-minister Birgitta Ohlsson about the commitment of the European Union on the Rroma integration. In the interview, Ohlsson criticizes in particular the role of Romania who is not willing to actively participate in a European Rroma task force. There is a lack of political will and administrative capacity to use EU funds effectively, she states. Ohllson wants to deploy a task force for the better integration of Rroma in Romania, even without the consent of the Romanian government: “I do not want to give up this idea, I have seen too many miserable Roma camps in different countries. It is unworthy to a modern society that children must seek their food in the garbage. […] I think it’s a litmus test for states how they treat minorities. The Union was built to never again allow a crime like the Holocaust. European politicians should oppose much stronger against intolerance and intimidation.” The main criticism of Ohlsson and other EU politicians is the lacking retrieval and use of EU-funds in Romania for the integration of the Rroma.

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18.04.2014 Pully – Canton Vaud: racist police control of Rroma

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Favre (2014) reports an unauthorized police control of four Rroma families on a private estate in Pully, in the canton of Vaud. The owner of an apartment building had provided parts of his house to four immigrant Rroma families, upon a request of the organization Opre Rrom. Because neighbours complained about begging, the police conducted identity checks with the families. But since they conducted the control on the private property of Mr. Norbert Guillod, the owner of the house without having a permit for the action, the police made themselves liable to prosecution: “Norbert Guillod had responded to a request of the organization Opre Rrom. “Otherwise, these people would be on the street. That would have been a real shame: the children are enrolled in school and work well”, explains Norbert Guillod, who will host them until the end of the school year. […] “They have intervened because of several complaints of the neighbourhood, who were disturbed by the fact that these Roma were begging. At least it is forbidden to this extent”, replies Dan-Henri Weber, their commander. He also presents a different version of the facts, claiming that the people were controlled on the street, because they corresponded to the descriptions by the angered neighbours. They are said to have subsequently prompted the police themselves to follow them to their apartment, to look for their identity cards. This report is disputed by the parties concerned, which state that the police had knocked on their door.” The Lausanne lawyer, Jean-Michel Dolivo, points out that the police could list any offense following their control. The action was thus clearly discriminatory.

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18.04.2014 “Gypsies On Benefits And Proud” confirmes racist stereotypes

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The English television program Gypsies On Benefits And Proud, which reports on migrant Rroma in England, shamelessly confirms racist stereotypes about workshy, asocial Rroma, by unscrupulously abusing the good faith of the interviewees. The populist program aims to show how easy it allegedly is for Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma migrants to travel to England and to abuse the local welfare system. That these are extreme individual cases is deliberately concealed, as well as the fact that the portrayed Rroma lived in poorest conditions and under discrimination in their home villages: “Gipsies have revealed how they are claiming thousands of pounds every month in benefits after moving to Britain and milking the generous state benefit system. The admissions were made in a damning new Channel 5 documentary, which follows the lives of Roma gipsies in Britain. […] The documentary, which will air April 11, also features Ion Lazar, 36, who came to the Britain with five other immigrants when the work restrictions on Romanians were lifted in January. He admits he is just planning to stash his benefits to take home to his family in Romania. ‘I need maybe forty thousand from benefits…. four zero thousand pounds for my family and I think this money I can make in one years maybe two,’ he said.” The program Gypsies on Benefits And Proud deliberately discredits an entire ethnic group with its undifferentiated reporting by establishing a clear link between ethnicity and social abuse. It thus makes itself indictable for racist defamation. Politically loaded views are presented as if they were scientific facts. By this, they also abuse the good faith of television viewers who expect the media to present truth, and encourage fascist views and opinions, as one can read in the comment section of the articles. These fascist comments should provide ample food for thought for the creators of the TV show and the journalists as they reproduce the viewpoints of the program without thinking. They thereby implicitely advocate what is no less than an intellectual genocide of the Rroma (compare Britton 2014, Channel 5 2014, Dassanayake 2014, Lincolnshire Echo 2014, McGarry 2014).

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18.04.2014 Central Council demands apology because of racist investigations

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma demands an apology from the government of Baden-Württemberg due to racist investigations in connection with the murders of the National Socialist underground (NSU), and the establishment of an investigation committee because of intra-police racism. On the occasion of the trial against Nazi perpetrators who had committed several racist murders, the chairman of the Central Council, Romani Rose, demanded a concession from the government: “Rose said on Wednesday in Munich, that especially in the case of the murdered Heilbronn police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, there has been a “general suspicion” against Sinti and Roma. He expected at least an apology by the state government of Stuttgart and an assurance that such events never happen again. “It is constitutionally inacceptable to put an entire ethnic group under suspicion”, said Rose” (Focus online 2014). “In July 2009, three detectives travelled to Serbia and surveyed a Roma man. […] The psychologists pointed out that man was “a typical representative of his ethnicity.” That means, lying was an essential part of his socialization. The man “obviously grew up in a world of lies and deception since his earliest childhood.” The racist remarks about the witness, and the Roma in general, were adopted by the state police without a distancing statement into the investigation files” (Tagesspiegel 2014). The case against the NSU-murderers is therefore indirectly also a lawsuit against institutional racism in the German police (compare Die Welt 2014, Stuttgarter Zeitung 2014, Südwestpresse 2014).

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16.04.2014 Wrong experts and the European integration of the Rroma

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day of April the 8th, Dus (2014) discusses the efforts of the European Union to integrate Rroma. The conclusion in the latest report from Amnesty International is bleak in this regard: the rights of the minority are under- respected, and their advancement is deliberately sabotaged. Romania is said to have applied only a fraction of the total funding to support Rroma. Policy makers accuse the Rroma of deliberately not wanting to integrate. Dus further speaks on the dispute between Eastern and Western European politicians: Western European politicians accuse their colleagues of shifting repeatedly the integration of this minority to Western Europe, although a pan-European commitment is inevitably necessary. In addition, there is a increasing popularity of right-wing nationalist slogans and worldviews, which are particularly hurtful to minorities such as Rroma.

A total arrogance is the subsequent testimony of the political scientist and historian Pavel Kandel, head of the centre for ethno-political and inter-state conflicts at the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The reason for the hostile attitude consists mainly in the fact that they do not work and for the most part do not want to work. This is  immanent to the Rroma generally. There are of course examples that testify to the contrary, but they primarily refer to the sedentary Roma. These are by and large not numerous.” Kandel loses all credibility as a scientist with this highly polemical statement. To allege the Rroma of a general unwillingness to work is highly racist. He therefore totally dismisses the actual reasons for the lacking integration of the Rroma: exclusion, defamation and persecution of the minority, who have a history of hundreds of years. However, Kandel’s racism doesn’t end here. He claims that the Rroma intentionally burden the Western European welfare system, use illegal methods to enrich themselves, migrate in mass movements to the West, and are culturally incompatible with the Western European societies: “With the accession of the countries of Eastern Europe [ … ] to the European Union, they [the Rroma ] were offered the opportunity for unimpeded movement to where the standard of living is higher and where a complex system of social aid exists. And even if they do not take advantage of these opportunities, there are many more possibilities for increasing their standard of living by using their standard methods in the rich European countries. From this follows their mass migration into the West. In addition, it results in the harsh reactions of the population and the authorities in the West. It is a collision of two ways of life that have very little in common. First, the Roma themselves create problems. Secondly, unauthorized pogroms in relation to the Roma have to be ascribed to themselves. The alternatives are to take them in either protection or to chase them out. To chase them out is easier.” With these supposedly scientific, but in truth completely absurd generalizations and accusations, Kandel makes himself guilty of demagogy against the Rroma. He reproduces almost all the negative stereotypes that exist about the minority. Hundred thousands of Rroma live in Western Europe and are fully integrated, work and coexist with the majority population without problems. The statement that the “chasing out” of the Rroma is easier than to take them into protection is a request for exclusion, pogroms and violence against the minority, which is clearly a fascist statement that is punishable. The statements of the cited historian Nadezhda Demetr are also undifferentiated, although she indicates the necessity of education for the integration of Rroma. Demetr states: “But the situation turned against them. Because the Roma are illiterate in their mass. 80 percent cannot read or write at all. And they cannot find their way in a new world. [ … ] Special programs for the adaptation of the Roma to normal life are required, of which in Europe exist enough by the way. Why these programs do not work, is a special issue.” This article is a prime example of experts who misuse their authority shamelessly, to speak truth about a phenomenon. Instead of intelligent, sophisticated analyses, they provide polemic, biased knowledge that openly discredits and insults the Rroma. They also do damage to the credibility of the social and historical sciences, by discrediting any scientific standards of objectivity and critical analysis.

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16.04.2014 Rroma: “Education as the key to success”

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Müller (2014) takes a critical look at the relevance of education in Romanian Rroma families. The importance of education is give to little attention in many Rroma families, the young Rromni Andreea from Buzau, in South-eastern Romania states. Poverty obliges Rroma children to help their families from a young age within the household and at work: “My community thinks that you cannot take up any prestige profession such as teacher or doctor as Roma anyway. They cannot imagine that you can reach a good position with education. They have come to terms with being the outsiders in society. – Only one third of Roma children in Romania graduate, according to estimates by NGOs. The vast majority remains without a chance, because the children are living in poor neighbourhoods, where they have to help at home, instead of going to school.” The problem lies not only in the lack of awareness about the importance of education, but also in the strong discrimination against Rroma in the labour market as wells as in the education system. Thus, many Rroma get assigned to unskilled labour despite having graduated, because they are marked as “unreliable and slow” due to racial prejudice. Therefore, education alone cannot stop the exclusion of and discrimination against the Rroma, but it is an important first step towards greater self-determination and recognition.

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16.04.2014 Manual Valls has to go back to court

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The new Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, must again appear in front of the court. The Rroma organization La Voix des Rroms accuses him of incitement to “discrimination, hatred, and violence” against Rroma. The lawsuit relates to statements that Valls made on the March 14th and on September 24th, 2013 in presence of the French press. He accused Rroma immigrants in France of wilfully not wanting to integrate and stated that there is widespread, intra-ethnic crime amongst them: “The inhabitants of the camps do not want to integrate into our country, for cultural reasons or because they are at the mercy of begging or prostitution networks. […] They have an extremely different lifestyle than we do and are obviously enough on a confrontation course: we all know, the proximity of these camps causes begging and theft and therefore delinquency. […] The Rroma have a tendency to return to Romania and Bulgaria.” Fassin wonders why the lawsuit against Valls has not received any media attention. He explains this lack of interest on the one hand with a focus on his political profile that is characterized by seriousness and rigor, and on the other hand, with the verdict of the French court of December 13th, 2013. This first lawsuit against Valls, filed by the French movement against racism (MRAP), was rejected with the explanation that Valls’ statements were not a minister’s instructions, but personal opinions of the politician: “[the minister] is in the exercise of his function when he is issuing instructions […] but not when he interacts with the media to express his opinion. […] The French Republic does not recognize the concept of race. [He] could only be in the exercise of his functions, if he recommended a different treatment of persons, based on their origin.” Fassin discredits this justification of the French court as absurd. It means that de facto a minister can never possibly speak on behalf of the government in matters relating to racism, but only ever on his own. Thus one allows Manual Valls and other policy makers to enjoy the privilege of fools, while it is denied to the rest of the population, whereby Fassin is absolutely right (Fassin 2014).

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16.04.2014 6th arrondissement: turmoil around a racist police letter against Rroma

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Several French newspapers report on an internal letter from the police of the 6th arrondissement in Paris. The note by a police officer orders the police of the  arrondissement to locate all Rroma living in the streets and to expel them: “From now on and until new directives to the staff of the 6th arrondissement are given, all Rroma families living in the streets have to be located day and night and systematically expelled” (Le Monde 2014). One senior police officer, interviewed by Le Parisien, expressed to be snubbed by “violent and illegal” nature of the text. The letter is illegal because it is explicitly forbidden in France to mark people based on their ethnicity and to make them the targets of interventions. The mayor of 6th arrondissement, Pierre Lecoq, was not surprised by the tone of the letter and announced that he did not want to see Rroma families with small children in the streets. The number of Rroma families in the area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has tripled in the last two months, Lecoq stated. He also perpetuates the racist notion of child-trafficking gangs that deliberately educate Rroma children to beg and steal. Jean-Pierre Colombies, delegate of the national police syndicate, said that he regretted the fact that police officers have to implement instructions from the police headquarters, which are directed by ruling politicians. The expulsion of Rroma from one place to another doesn’t solve anything, he added. The Paris police prefecture in turn communicated that the proposed approach directly derives from the directives of Pierre Lecoq, who demanded decisive actions against the Rroma. Gérard Taieb, attorney for personal rights, discredits Lecoq’s argument as pure hypocrisy. Taieb stated that it was not about the protection of the children. By expelling the families from the streets, the minors and infants are not helped in any way. The detection and expulsion of a group of people based on their ethnic affiliation was clearly illegal. This view was assented by the new interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, in his public statement.

The new spokesman for the French government, Stéphane Le Foll, stated that there were clear guidelines and rules on how the police should behave in the event of such circumstances, regardless of internal proposals. Le Foll also denied estimates that there was an “invasion” of Rroma in 6th arrondissement. No increase in the number of Rroma had been recorded. Le Foll added that it must not be forgotten that there are actual slums and one should try to make the Rroma immigrants move back to their countries of origin. At this point, Le Foll must be contradicted, since this migration happens because of discrimination, poverty and lack of perspectives. Most immigrant Rroma want to integrate, have a job and lead a normal life. This intention is denied them repeatedly and decidedly, as one hear clearly in an interview with Louis de Matignon Gouyon on Europe 1 (20 minuntes 2014, Béguin 2014, Carez 2014, Europe1, Le Figaro in 2014, Le Monde in 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Politi 2014).  

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12.03.2014 Talking to each other instead of about each other: German visit in Bulgaria

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Plück (2014) reports about the visit of the German FDP deputies Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Joachim Stamp in Plovdiv, where 50,000 Rroma are living in mostly precarious conditions. Lambsdorff states that the aim of the visit is to talk with the people concerned and to thereby get rid of the one-sidedness in the debate on Rroma. Unfortunately, there isn’t really anything new to hear in Plück’s article: Bulgaria is said to be an economically weak country that is plagued by severe corruption. Because of nepotism, EU funding programs are very poorly implemented. The Rroma representative Anton Karagyozov meanwhile confirms stereotypical notions of clan structures, widespread crime and misery: “He reported plainly of the financial support for children whose fathers are dead or sitting in jail and whose mothers have left them in Stolipinovo to earn money with prostitution in Western Europe. He reports from the strict clan structures, such that a woman can be “stolen” by a man if she does not want to marry him. In plain language this means rape and a subsequent wedding.” Such stories may be useful for obtaining support funds. But they do not contribute at all to the successful integration of the Rroma. Rather, they nourish the clichéd notions that are mentioned again and again in the debate on “poverty immigrants”. Plück’s article does not change any of these misconceptions.

Merkelt (2014) meanwhile reports on a cultural event in Duisburg. In an old fire station, a Rrom sang “Gypsy Songs” for the visiting Gadje. Author Rolf Bauerdick read from his controversial book, trying to counteract cliché ideas in his own way, even though he inevitably confirms many stereotypes. As he only portrays already visible Rroma in his book, most of which live in economic misery, he does not really confront the public image with new ideas.

Scherfig (2014) complements the theme with a report on the integration project “Harzer Strasse” in Berlin-Neukölln. In 2011, the Aachen housing company bought three mostly inhabited by immigrant Rroma and massively overcrowded apartment buildings, and renovated them. The adult residents almost exclusively work and try to improve their language skills. The housing complex “Harzer Strasse” is considered a showcase project, as it demonstrates the possibility of successful integration, based on promotion and simultaneous demand: “Since the first of January 2014, the free movement of persons is valid for Romania and Bulgaria. [ … ] Critics fear the “immigration into the German social system.” […] However, almost all Roma in the Harzer Strasse have been working for several years and also pay into the social system. […] According to the federal employment agency, Bulgarians and Romanians only make up 0.7 percent of Hartz IV recipients.”

Another aspect of the immigration debate are immigrants from former Yugoslavia. Blasius (2014) reports on the sharp rise in the number of asylum procedures by immigrants from Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, many of them are said to be Rroma. Almost all applications for a permanent residency permit are rejected because the citizens of the former Yugoslavia are not recognised as political refugees: “Despite the often miserable living conditions, Roma are not recognized as political refugees from former Yugoslavia. Unlike Roma from the EU-countries Bulgaria and Romania, they have no permanent right to stay.” In response to this, Blasius states, many of the rejected just file new applications, as they are entitled to under the law. Therewith, the flood of applications can be explained. The German grand coalition meanwhile plans to classify Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia as safe countries of origin in order to enable accelerated deportations. The classification will be done at the expense of the immigrants who get no voice in the process, but de facto are affected by precarious conditions in their countries of origin. While the proponents of deportations rely on country analyses, which declare no or very minimal discrimination against minorities in countries like Serbia, the proponents of the asylum seekers state the exact opposite. Subjective experiences, which can rarely be proved with documents, are usually neglected in favour of official country analyses that assess the social situation in a country.

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