Daily Archives: October 24, 2014

Albania Germany Kosovo News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

24.10.2014 URA-2: controversial return assistance project in the Kosovo

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Baeck (2014) reports on the German return assistance project URA-2 in the Kosovo. The controversial aid program is supposed to help deported families or voluntarily returnees from Germany with their reintegration. According to Baeck however, the aid project doesn’t not fulfil this task. The program is more a political representation project, than that real integration assistance is being provided, Baeck criticizes: ““Ura” – means “bridge” in Albanian and is a project for “returnees” in the Kosovo, which Lower Saxony finances since 2009 with six other provinces and the federal government. Just recently, Lower Saxony decided to extend it until 2015. […] During a visit in February, the door to the URA-2-building is closed. […] People should actually queue here: anywhere in Prishtina, one encounters deportees, who wear rags and live in the worst conditions, in shacks or demolished houses. This morning, there is no one to be seen of all these people in the URA-2 building. […] URA 2 seems to be more effective in Germany. By default, during asylum procedures in Lower Saxony, the authorities refer to the assistances that are listed on leaflets. The project serves as a mean to overturn in advance possible reasons that could hinder a deportation – for example health reasons.” Baeck sees the return assistance project as an excuse to have arguments for the deportation of immigrants back to the Kosovo. The Rroma constitute the largest group of those affected. All the promises that are made in the information brochure of URA-2, are not adhered to, Baeck criticizes: “In the brochures of URA 2, one can read of “support with administrative procedures” and “psychological support”, of grants for rent, medicine, school supplies, or the initial furnishing of an apartment. To promote the integration into the labour market, one time training costs can be paid, up to 170 Euros, when starting a business even several thousand Euros. Who is returning from Germany “voluntarily”, receives more than “repatriated persons.”” Rroma are not politically persecuted in Kosovo. However, that does not mean that they are not there affected by severe poverty and a wide variety discriminations. This is given too little consideration when deporting people back. – Before the war, 100’000 to 300’000 well integrated Rroma lived in the Kosovo. Today, according to estimates of the Rroma Foundation, there are around 40’000.

  • Baeck, Jean-Philipp (2014) Niedersachsens Trojaner in Prishtina. In: Die Tageszeitung (TAZ) online vom 17.10.2014. http://www.taz.de/!147939/
Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

24.10.2014 Uncertain situation for immigrant Rroma in Enneptal continues

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Gruber (2014) reports on the ongoing ambiguous situation for the Rroma immigrants in Enneptal. Most of the approximately 100 Rroma, many of them children, moved after the expulsion from Duisburg to the city. Since, they had to handle several chicanes of the new owner: he tried to evade them again shortly after their arrival in the municipality, what turned out to be illegal. The immediate future of the Rroma families is therefore still unclear. After all, all children are enrolled in local schools and the families are actively supported in their integration efforts by the association future-oriented assistance (ZOF). The latest challenge is not functioning heaters, which, in regard to the dawning winter, poses a serious problem: “Now the families with many small children and infants are threatened to live in homes without heating – and the cold months are just around the corner. There are different sources regarding how many people are affected. The city and the social workers from the association future-oriented assistance (ZOF) estimate 70 people, who still live in the tenements at the Hagener Strasse 138 a and 138 b. The Roma themselves speak of 60 people, divided into six families. The city Ennepetal is informed. It wants to talk to the landlord, with the aim that he performs his duties and ensures proper conditions in the apartments. […] The municipal commitment to improve the situation has also to be seen in context of a threat to the children’s welfare. Infants and young children in homes without a working heater can quickly become a case for the youth welfare services.” The association future-oriented assistance (ZOF) also wants to enable the best possible inclusion of the adults into the labour market; among others with language courses. – In Germany, according to estimates of the Rroma Foundation, there live 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma. The majority of them have lived in Germany for generations and are well integrated. They are completely negated in the one-sided media debate about “poverty of immigrants”, that are usually equated with poor Rroma from Southeast Europe.

France News Western Europe

24.10.2014 France one-sided notion of its Rroma population

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Ketels (2014) visited an informal Rroma settlement in the suburbs of Paris. There, she spoke with camp residents about their lives and the obstacles they face when trying to integrate into French society. A little later, she asked Paris passersby about their opinion towards the Rroma: the answers are negative throughout. The Rroma supposedly do not try to integrate. Kettels’s reportage shows vividly that the notion of Rroma among a large part of the French public is extremely biased and dominated by one-sided information. For one thing, it is repeatedly claimed in the public debate that Rroma do not want to integrate. In this perspective, it is completely negated that one cannot acquire good professional qualifications and language skills from one moment to the other, and that the Rroma are exposed to discriminations in their access to the labour market. But much more important is the fact that the 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma, who have been living in France for generations, belong to all social strata and are integrated, do not exist in the public perception. In the media and in the minds of many French people, Rroma are equated with the 15,000 to 20,000 Rroma living in the informal settlements. However, these Rroma, in relation to the 100,000 to 500,000 integrated Rroma, constitute only a minority of the minority. Since these visible Rroma have only recently migrated to France, they had no chance to build an existence yet. However, this does not mean that they do not want to integrate. Therefore, the public image of the Rroma in France does not do justice to the Rroma as a whole at all, but is permeated by massive misinformation, prejudices and misinterpretations.

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