Daily Archives: May 14, 2014

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

14.05.2014 Racist statements of Eric Zemmour have consequences

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Several French newspapers report the verbal attacks of journalist Eric Zemmour against criminal gangs of Rroma, Chechens, Maghrebians and Africans. He accuses the members of these groups to plunder, to steal, and to rape in France. Zemmour further argued that multi-ethnic societies have a higher potential for violence than ethnically homogeneous communities such as Japan, which he sees as better protected against mass immigration due to natural borders. The council of associations of the French Black (Le Cran) condemned Zemmour’s remarks as racist mania, calling for his immediate dismissal: “Le Cran is totally baffled by the violence of this xenophobic madness”, stated the association, which added “if you listen to Éric Zemmour, you get the impression that the current France is immersed in a kind of medieval nightmare, destroyed by alien hordes that are inevitably thieves and criminals.” “I urge RTL to consider the severity of Zemmour’s statements”, who “indirectly calls for a policy of ethnic cleaning”, the president of Le Cran, Louis-Georges Tin, announced.” Le Cran has also filed a complaint against Zemmour at the audiovisual council of France (compare Nabet 2014, Le Nouvel Observateur 2014, Le Point 2014). Metro News (2014) points out that Zemmour has repeatedly attracted attention due to radical views. In a television program, he asked for face controls by the police and urged the abolition of abortions in favour of political and economic empowerment of France. In another program, he favoured discrimination as an ability to choose and therefore as a liberal tool.

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

14.05.2014 “Ghetto blasting: Hungarian city pays “emigration bonus” to Roma”

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Pester Lloyd (2014) reports on a new type of Rroma policy in Miskolc, in Hungary. According to the new decision, the residents of the local Rroma ghetto are induced to move away from the city into social housing in the periphery with a bonus of 1.5 to 2 million forints: “Condition [for the emigration bonus]: the receivers are not supposed to sell the newly acquired residence for five years. How they plan to deal with the case of people, who, for whatever reason, decide to return to Miskolc, something that cannot be forbidden, the city council remains silent about. Emigration bonuses by mayors have been seen in previous years, they caused a kind of bonus tourism and had additionally the effect of increasing conflicts due to the influx of strangers to local communities that previously had a lower proportion of Roma. Representatives of NGOs and Roma associations protested fiercely against the decision of the Fidesz-dominated city council. In the boardroom of the town hall, posters were displayed with the slogans “Don’t vote for deportation!” and “There will always be poor people!” The new policy of the Hungarian city of Miskolc recalls the attempts of former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to force immigrants to return their home countries by the distribution of a return bonus. What is needed in fact, are no expulsion and marginalization policies, aimed at ethnic homogenization, but active efforts for a successful integration of the Rroma.

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

14.05.2014 Eviction of Rroma camps in Roncq

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Lefebvre (2014) reports on the eviction of two illegal Rroma camps in France in Roncq. A group of about forty people were quartered in a former school. They had to leave their accommodation at the insistence of the police. On the location, a building project will start. For lack of alternatives, the evicted will stay in the street for the near future, within sight of the former school. The vehicles and caravans that some residents had available were confiscated by the police. The eviction took place in the early morning. The second camp that was cleared consisted of makeshift assembled barracks that were destroyed by excavators after the eviction. The approximately fifty people from both camps had found shelter at the current location after the eviction of settlements in Lille Sud, Croix and Roubaix. A negative event overshadowed the current location: at the exit of the camp, a car driver overran a small Rroma girl who died. A few days later, a funeral march with the participation of Rroma and residents took place: “The forty persons, among them twenty children and infants, found themselves without a roof and means of transportation on the road, next to the former school. Some members from associations came to help them every day and found them severely at loss to find them a new home for the umpteenth time. “There are three infants, five children are less than three years old. We have no means of locomotion, all will sleep in the street until the authorities meet their obligations”, said Louis Minne, one of the breadwinners of the family Lingurar. At around five o’clock in the afternoon, the Roma start to pitch up the first tents, under the gaze of the still present police.” The evacuation of the camp of Roncq is typical of the continuing expulsion-policy towards immigrant Rroma. On several occasions it was pointed out that the systematic expulsion obstructs a long-term integration and deteriorates the hygienic and sanitary conditions of those affected. Consequently, the reactions to the evictions turned out very differently. While some welcomed the drastic measures by the mayor of Tourcoing, representatives of the French Human Rights League had harsh words against the expulsion of the Rroma and denounced the action as an act of demagoguery (compare Rebischung 2014).

Greece News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

14.05.2014 Ethnic profiling involved in Rroma child removal Ireland

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The soon to be published special report by the Irish Obudswoman for children, Emily Logan, identifies ethnic profiling in the context of the child removals in October of last year. In response to case of the blond Rroma-girl Maria in Greece who taken into care, in Ireland, two child removals also took place. These were based on racist criteria: The children who were removed were light-skinned and blonde and had dark-skinned, dark-haired parents. That this is genetically possible, though not frequent, was completely neglected. The Rroma parents were rather subordinated to a general suspicion of child trafficking, which is another racial prejudice. DNA tests confirmed the legitimate parenthood of the children taken away. The Irish justice minister admitted the issues in the child removals, but portrayed the circumstances of the removals in a rather belittling fashion: “On occasions people . . . adapt stereotypical images of individuals from minority communities [and] don’t always behave in a manner that’s appropriate,” Mr Shatter said. “Indeed on occasions [they] will jump to conclusions that the basic factual background does not warrant, had they been dealing with individuals who were perhaps born in Ireland and whose families had been in Ireland going back many generations,” he said” (compare Duncan 2014, Irish Examiner 2014, Irish Independent 2014, Newstalk 2014, O’Doherty 2014).

News Switzerland

14.05.2014 Call for more political commitment for Rroma and Yeniche in Switzerland

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Several articles report on the claims of Rroma and Yeniche for more recognition of their concerns. However, the focus of the reporting is clearly on the demands of the Yeniche for more camping spot and permanent stands. The Rroma problems, who have mainly to do with racial prejudice, are only discussed in passing. On the occasion of the International Rroma day of April the 8th, a coalition of various organizations – including the Roma Jam Session Collective, the Yeniche organization „schäft qwandt”, the Randgenossenschaft der Landstrasse, the Society for Threatened People, Amnesty International, Caritas Zurich and Miret Switzerland – turned to federal councillor Alain Berset, demanded more commitment of the federal government and asked for a better implementation of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities. The federal government has now made a first move towards the organizations. The director of the federal office of culture, Isabelle Chassot, will listen to the concerns of the coalition in a joint meeting. However, it should not go unmentioned that the stated organizations represent only a portion of the minorities. Other organizations represent different political views and have different conceptions of an adequate representation and promotion of the Rroma and Yeniche. The two communities share a story of exclusion and persecution, but have individual migration histories, languages and customs (compare Burri 2014, Renz, Fabian/ Schmid, Simone 2014 I/II).

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