Category Archives: Bulgaria

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04.04.2014 Polemical defamation of the Rroma

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The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) in its latest article defames the Rroma as unwilling to integrate and as a burden for Western European welfare states. In addition, a corruption bias is ascribed to them: “On a ‘EU Roma Summit’ on April 4th in Brussels, a “relief and development program” for the South-East European gypsies is planned to be implemented. Since the EU-extension onto Eastern Europe, those migrate in hordes from Bulgaria and Romania to Central and Western Europe. Municipalities such as Duisburg or Dortmund are close to a socio-political collapse due to immigration of the Rroma and the associated neglect of entire districts. [ … ] Such financial assistance has already in the past “fuelled” the corruption channels and could be diverted into the registers of Roma clan-chiefs and corrupt administrators and politicians connected with them.” Unzensuriert.at operates totally uncritically with a highly distorted, politicized, and value-loaded image of the Rroma. Through that, it propagates racist stereotypes such as the notion of criminal Rroma clan-chiefs and culturally related anti-social behaviour. The fact that such alleged “facts” are the result of centuries-old prejudices, is totally neglected by the platform. The same is true for the right-wing populist website Politically Incorrect (2014), which also propagates against the alleged exploitation of Western Europe through the Rroma.

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02.04.2014 Criminalization of Rroma in Duisburg

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Cnotka (2014) reports on the official cancellation of Rroma registered in Duisburg. The administration of Duisburg is said to have deliberately deleted many Rroma from the local registry, particularly the ones residing in the disputed tenement “In den Peschen”. However, the persons concerned are still resident there. This procedure is said to consciously push the concerned Rroma outside the law and enable their arrest and deportation. This viewpoint is contradicted by the city of Duisburg, which denies any criminalization of immigrated people: “Rolf Karling from the association “citizens for citizens” says that the city takes the Roma all their rights by unsubscribing them from the registry: “you can arrest and deport the people now at any time.” This view was contradicted by the city of Duisburg […]: Bulgarians and Romanians can stay legally and without a special permit in Germany. Just because they are not reported in Germany, they can not be arrested or deported.” Eduard Pusic, from integration organization “Zof”, claims that the Rroma were deregistered under pressure from the owner of the tenement. Overall, one could see anyhow an exodus into the districts Meiderich and Homberg. The Rroma of the tenement “In den Peschen” were repeatedly in the focus of a heated debate about immigration from Eastern Europe during last year. Polemicists instrumentalised this house and its inhabitants as a negative example of a “culture war” between Germans and Southeast-European immigrants. The integrated, unobtrusive Rroma, which make up the majority, were again once more not heard. Sanches (2014) quotes interior minister Thomas de Maizière, who, regarding the immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, claims that an above-average number of people from those countries would abuse social benefits. He contradicts several statistics and findings that cannot detect any additional usage of social benefits by immigrants from this region. These alleged facts are in fact emotionally charged views on an alleged mass immigration into the German social welfare system.

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02.04.2014 Insidious racism in France

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Several French newspapers report on the latest publication of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNCDH). The commission concludes that racism in France is in overall decline, but that it has become more insidious, subtle and sneaky as a result. Christine Lazerges, the president of the commission, concludes: “In the long view, racism in France decreases, the time of the riots is long gone, but the racism that is propagated today is much more insidious and no longer limited to the extremist edges. It pervades all strata of society.  […] The scapegoats today are particularly Rroma, who are stigmatized, including from the government, and then the Arab Muslims.” Whether the time of racially motivated riots actually belongs to the past may be doubted. Marches of right-wing groups against ethnic minorities such as the Rroma regularly take place in several Eastern European countries. The results of a recent survey, mandated by the commission, makes clear that negative stereotypes towards the Rroma are persisting in the minds of many people. 85% of the thousand respondents said that they believed that Rroma often exploit children and 78 % that they live of theft and the black market. In addition, the suspicion towards anti-racism actors is said to be significant. The commission recommends to continuously foster the education of the population, because it has been shown that there is a clear link between educational alienation and racism. The commission’s authors acknowledge that the Rroma are a heterogeneous group and are not belonging to a homogeneous culture or a single religion. However, they mistakenly assume that the Rroma live in France only since the early 20th century (CNCDH 2014: 201). However, they appear in France in early chronicles since the beginning of the 15th century. Tassel (2014) emphasizes the particular context in which the book is published. On the weekend of March 30th, the right-wing nationalist National Front, which bases significant parts of its policies on xenophobia, achieved a new high in the electorate. In addition, a new Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has been inaugurated. He is notorious for his repressive policies towards the Rroma. The commission also emphasises the distinction between visible and invisible Rroma, a differentiation that has been fostered by the Rroma Foundation for quite some time: “Only a small minority of the Rroma define themselves in this way – between 15,000 and 20,000, who generally originate of a recent immigration from Bulgaria and Romania – live in a very large uncertainty, that means in the slums. The others are not “visible” and do not live in a state of extreme poverty. The vast majority consists of Gens du voyage, an estimated 350,000 people” (CNCDH 2014: 201-202). This view is contradicted by Tcherenkov/Laederich (2004: 4, 513), who make a clear distinction between travellers of European origin and Rroma. The latter are almost invariably not travelling and belong to the groups of the Manouche, Sinti, Gitans, Kaldersha, Lovara and Yugoslav Rroma (20 minutes 2014, La Croix 2014, CNCDH 2014, Tassel 2014, Vincent 2014).

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19.03.2014 The Rroma and the European free movement of persons

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Rosendorff (2014) reports on an informal Rroma camp in the Gutleutviertel of Frankfurt am Main. The 19 Romanian Rroma who lived so far on an industrial wasteland must vacate the location. The social security office will clarify whether the residents of the settlement have pursued social insurance work. If not, they are not entitled to social security benefits and are likely to be expelled, Rosendorff states. The 37-year-old Rrom Mirkea sees the asylum system as unfair. He criticizes: “My country is terribly corrupt, and I can not get a job there”, he says. “Why does Europe exist? We are all colleagues. I do not understand why so many German say ‘shit Romanians’. We have financed our food by collecting returnable bottles. We do not steal”, asserts Mirkea.” The deportation method described is in conflict with the free movement of workers within the European Union, to which Romania and Bulgaria belong since January 2014. Under this scheme, residents of member states are allowed to reside six months or longer in another EU-member state if they are actively looking for a job.

Die Linke (2014) criticizes in a recent statement the efforts of the government coalition to classify the countries Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as safe countries of origin. With this decision, asylum reasons such as discrimination and exclusion would no longer be recognized: “As long as even only one asylum seeker from these countries is recognized as requiring protection, there can be no acceleration of proceedings by law. In 2013, at least 64 Serbian and 43 Macedonian asylum seekers were recognized as refugees or were given protection from deportation on humanitarian grounds. In two thirds of these cases, recognition was granted only by the courts, because the measures taken under an emergency procedure by the federal office for migration and refugees were wrong.” Die Linke criticizes correctly that the discrimination against Rroma is insufficiently highlighted by such country analyses. When determining migration policies, economic and not socio-political considerations are central to decisions, which is done at the expense of minorities such as the Rroma.

Gedziorowski (2014) spoke with Joachim Brenner, director of the Förderverein Roma. Brenner criticizes the widespread reservations about the minority and the polemical discourse against immigrants that is not dominated by facts but suspicion and emotions: “The whole terminology of tide, currents and wave – this is scaremongering. We took notice that we have to do more in the social counselling, but we also have to work with more people who live in poor conditions. [ … ] The last demoscopic studies by sociological institutes show that the resentments have not diminished, but still are manifest. When looking for housing Sinti and Roma have major problems.” Brenner further criticizes that it is above all a lack of political will, which leads to the marginalization of poor people and minorities, and not the lack of financial resources, which are certainly present. This may be seen with reference to the housing project Kulturcampus Bockenheim, which encountered great resistance by the welfare department from the very beginning.

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07.03.2014 Paul-Marie Coûteaux relaunches the Rroma debate anew

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Le Monde (2014) reports on the opinions of Paul-Marie Coûteau. Coûteau belongs to the national-conservative and Eurosceptic party Souveraineté, indépendance et libertés (SIEL), which he founded himself. On his blog, he expresses the idea that Rroma should be put in specialy established camps. The article has the telling title “On the establishment of Rroma in Paris and the slow extinction of the national sense of honour”. Coûteau perceives the sight of impoverished Rroma in the streets of Paris as aesthetically disturbing: “Their presence is an unworthy sight for Paris and unworthy of France, unworthy of a great country, and a problem for the aesthetic order.” He stands for election for the electoral coalition Rassemblement Bleu Marine as mayor for the sixth district of Paris. Coûteau expresses himself negatively towards the free movement of persons with Romania and Bulgaria, against which he voted.

Coûteau’s perspective on the Rroma is as one-sided as the majority of the public debate, which focuses only on visible Rroma. It is also telling, that he states to be hurt in his national honour by the sight of Rroma. He therefore reveals himself as a proponent of a radical order-policy that puts aesthetic feelings before human dignity, which is totally absurd. SOS Racisme has announced that it will file a complaint against Coûteau because of his racist remarks (compare 20 minutes 2014, Libération 2014, Théveniaud 2014).

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28.02.2014 Die Zeit criticizes the victim discourse about Rroma

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In her article in Die Zeit, Lau (2014) criticizes the victim role to which Rroma activists are said to refer to constantly in Germany. In the debate about poverty migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, one mainly talks about the immigrants, but not with them. This also has to do with the focus of the activism of Romani Roses, who has been working for the rights of the Rroma in Germany for several decades. Rose focuses his policy on the recognition that Rroma were victims of the Nazi genocide, whereby other topics are to receiving less than enough attention: “Ironically, the central council and Romani Rose prevent elsewhere that the understanding between newly arrived Roma and the majority society improves. Since he can remember, Romani Rose fought for the recognition as victims of genocide, a fact repeatedly disputed by historians. […] Since they share neither religion nor written culture, there is actually only one link between the Sinti and Roma: the experience of persecution. And that is the reason why discrimination is the central topic in the political statements of their community, rather than strategies of advancement.” Lau’s article tries to find out why there is a lack of solution strategies in the current debate about immigrants from Southeast Europe. However, she is wrong when she accuses Rroma to stick to a victim status. This criticism was already expressed in the beginning of 2013 by another author: In his book Zigeuner – Begegnungen mit einem ungeliebten Volk, Rolf Bauerdick criticised the lack of self-initiative in improving the social integration of the Rroma. This criticism is one-sided and hides the mechanisms of exclusion. Although it is right that a successful integration involves two sides, promotion and self-initiative, the latter one can only happen if the necessary conditions are given. Otherwise, suppression remains the dominant factor.

Just the opposite is argued by the TAZ in its interview with the historian Patricia Pientka. Pientka researched the story of a Rroma detention camp in Berlin-Marzahn. The historian is shattered about how bad the persecution of the Rroma in Germany was researched so far, also concerning the Berlin-Marzahn detention camp. In 1936, Rroma were selected via by sociographic criteria for the camp: caravans, many children and certain profession groups were decisive for the internment as well as the living on welfare. In 1938, the pseudo-scientific criteria of the racial hygiene research unit under Robert Ritter were implemented. The continuity between the war and the post-war period is particularly shocking. Perpetrators from the Nazi era were appointed as experts in courts, where they could play down or even qualify the war horrors with false statements: “In Berlin and elsewhere, the police departments for “Gypsy questions” established at end of 1938 are of central importance. In Berlin, the head of the department was Leo Karsten. After the war, he was superintendent of the police of Ludwigshafen and throughout Germany was the appointed expert on compensation issues for Sinti and Roma. His testimony led, among other things, to the verdict that the senate didn’t recognize the Marzahn detention camp as a labour camp […]. One can definitely say that the racist persecution of Sinti and Roma in Nazi Germany hasn’t been critically analysed until today. We have a huge deficit. This is also reflected in the case with Roma from South Eastern Europe, for instance Serbia, who are absolutely not perceived as descendants of Holocaust victims – what they definitely are” (Memarnia 2014).

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28.02.2014 Tilo Sarrazin propagates the alleged Rroma problem

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The highly controversial author Tilo Sarrazin, who sparked a debate about immigration and the safeguarding of German values with his 2010 book Deutschland schafft sich ab, rallies in a recent statement against the alleged taboo of the so-called Rroma problem. Sarrazin, as well as other conservative exponents, assume that Rroma do in fact pose a problem for the German social welfare system and the German society. He therewith strengthens the statements of xenophobic reductionists, who imply that Rroma lack the will to integrate and culturally tend to criminality. Sarrazin says: “Basically, the immigration from Bulgaria and Romania presents no other problems than the one from Lithuania and Poland. But there is a special topic and that is: Roma. But that is not clearly named and is one of the biggest taboos. […] Whether you say “Gypsies”, “Sinti and Roma”, “economic refugees” or “poverty tourists”, you have to tackle the problem at the source, which lead to widespread reservations, and not hide the problems through different names” (Focus 2014). Sarrazin therefore propagates the absurd idea that Rroma are harder to integrate than other ethnic groups, which is completely preposterous. The propagating of a Rroma problem spreads false notions of cultural alterity and incompatibility. The Rroma are just as willing to integrate as members of other ethnic groups. That the already well-integrated Sinti are completely negated in this debate is astonishing (compare Neues aus Braunschweig und Wolfsburg 2014, Ad-Hoc-News 2014).

A contrary position is taken by Vosskühler (2014). She questions the distinction between economically useful and un-useful immigrants with facts that are supported by statistics: „Romanians and Bulgarians are more commonly associated with social benefits than other EU foreigners“ – not true. „Romanians and Bulgarians abuse social welfare in a big way“ – not true. „All Romanians and Bulgarians who come to Germany are poverty immigrants.“ – Also not true.” What is needed are entrepreneurs, who are willing to integrate low-skilled migrants. The free movement of persons is not up for debate.

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14.02.2014 An unemotional perspective on immigrants from Southeast Europe

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Mappes-Niediek (2014) takes a dispassionate look at immigrants from South East Europe who are settling down in Germany. He tries to draw a differentiated picture of the reasons for their migration, which lies beyond simple generalizations. Poor Rroma from Southeast Europe don’t migrate to Western Europe or Germany with the aim to abuse the local social welfare system. They come with the aim to lead a life in dignity. Their own family and close friends provide a social safety network, on which one can rely on during hard times: “The poverty immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria don’t come here because of the social benefits in Germany, but because you can live a better life here. They come with their families and with close friends. [ … ] The poorest of the poor who live in Romania, mainly in rural areas, mostly don’t migrate at all.” Mappes-Niediek then turns against the widely held view that education is the key to solving most problems. Education only brings something, the author states, if Rroma are allowed to integrate into the economy and the economy offers enough available jobs. Otherwise, a university degree doesn’t helps to improve one’s situation: “Education is not the key, or at least not there where the poverty immigrants come from. Everywhere in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe the relationship between education and a good life is broken, and indeed for everyone, not only for the Roma. An entire generation has made the experience that education doesn’t help in anything. They have seen it with their parents. The father was an engineer, his mother a Russian teacher. Today, the mother goes to clean and the father is drinking […].” With these statements, Mappes-Niediek takes a pessimistic view at the stagnant economies of many countries of the former Eastern bloc. The denial of benefits and possibilities to integrate is said to create what many want to prevent: slums, problems, crime. Mappes-Niediek takes a dispassionate look at the debate about poverty immigrants from Eastern Europe. However, he also perpetuates ideas of mainly impoverished, marginalized Rroma, as they are spread by the mass media and therefore established and culturalised.

This view contrasts with the short article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which focuses on the work of the social worker Lucia Bleibel with immigrant Rroma. Bleibel grew up in Slovakia and speaks Rromanes and Romanian. On behalf of the Internationale Bund and the city of Hanau she takes care of the integration of marginalized Rroma in the Hessen town. Bleibel’s task is to remind the immigrants of the compulsory schooling, the German health care system and the compliance with general rules. The short text focuses entirely on the visible, impoverished Rroma and thereby keeps politicized notions of cultural alterity upright, despite or perhaps because of its emphatic perspective on the topic (Glaser-Lotz 2014).

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14.02.2014 Eight-year-old Rroma girl killed by a fire

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Numerous French newspapers report about an incident in a Rroma camp in Bobigny. For reasons not yet known, in that camp in question, an unexpected fire started. The informal accommodations were giving refuge to more and more Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma, who fled from forced evictions in the neighbourhood. At the time the fire started, the camp encompassed around 200 inhabitants. About one-fifth of the informal dwellings were destroyed. The camp itself had no access to running water, which would have allowed to extinguish the fire, although a demand had been filed to the city major months ago. The victim of the fire, an eight-year-old Rroma girl, had been enrolled in a primary school in Bobigny. Rroma camps in France are regularly affected by fires and other incidents. However, there is uncertainty about how the fires are started. Manuel Valls stresses that they are linked to the precarious safety conditions in many camps, what legitimizes his harsh eviction practices. Another possibility is that they are linked to politically motivated arson. During the year 2013, twenty-two Rroma camps were affected by incidents, according to the Ligue des droits de l’ Homme, which compromised about 2’000 people. The mayor of Bobigny, Catherine Peyge, pointed attention to the persisting, severe marginalization of the Rroma that has made this incident possible. In collaboration with Cécile Duflot, the minister for social housing, they are trying to find permanent accommodation for the Rroma affected by the fire (Le Parisien 2014, Le point in 2014, Le Nouvel Observateur in 2014, Libération 2014 BFMTV 2014) .

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14.02.2014 The Rroma policy of the European Union and the free movement of persons

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Gutschker (2014) spoke with justice commissioner and vice-president of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, on the Rroma policy of the European Union. In the first part of the interview, the conversation focused around the question as to whether social benefits for non-working immigrants from EU-member states are legal or not. Right-wing politicians regularly accuse immigrant Rroma to unfairly burden the German social welfare system. Reding takes the position that the social benefits come to the good of immigrants with very low wages who are dependent on assistance. Nobody will receive social assistance just for the good of it, she states. For the interviewer, the debate on social benefits is in truth an argument about pan-European solidarity. For Viviane Reding however, the debate circles around questions of a liberal economic market, which allows the needed workforce to freely circulate. It is astonishing that even Reding holds the idea most of the so-called poverty immigrants are Rroma, although the ethnicity is not recorded in statistics. She sees the need to support these disadvantaged Rroma, so that the spiral of poverty can be broken. Concerning the social benefits received by EU-immigrants, Reding sees the numbers as strongly exaggerated. Only a very small part of the support payments go to immigrants from other EU countries. An amount three times as high is said to go to immigrants from third countries. Reding also wants that the EU countries better use their allocated social funds from the European Union and defuse municipal focal points. The restriction of the free movement of persons – as the Swiss electorate decided on the 9th of February – is said to be incompatible with the principle of a shared internal market: “You can not take advantage of the internal market with all the advantages for export and at the same time restrict the free movement of persons. In December, we had a meeting of EU interior ministers, and all agreed to the above – with the exception of the British. There was also agreement that the right to move freely does not establish a right to access the social systems. Rights are always associated with duties” (compare Epoch Times 2014, Spiegel 2014).  

Frigelj (2014) reports on the visit of EU-commissioner László Andor in Duisburg. Duisburg was almost constantly in the headlines during 2013. Again and again, newspapers reported – in a more or less populist fashion – on impoverished, criminal Rroma clans from Romania and Bulgaria, which are supposedly flooding into the city. László Andor tried to get an idea of the situation on the spot. He attended employment-assistance institutions, talked with immigrants, residents, social workers, and police officers. Andor acknowledged, the article states, that the city is dealing with a problem of poverty and Germany and its municipalities were entitled to money from the new “relief fund for the poorest” of the European Union. The article seems factual and objective, but indirectly spreads the idea that Rroma are almost exclusively poorly educated, marginalized people who escape poverty and discrimination in their home countries: “The highly qualified doctors and nurses are attracted mainly to southern Germany. To Duisburg and Dortmund, which have a high proportion of vacant dwellings and lower end real estate, where up to 90% unqualified immigrants with large families are drawn. From around 600 monthly newcomers, almost half are children.” That there are also many well-integrated Rroma in Germany is not mentioned.

 

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07.02.2014 „I Met Lucky People: The Story of the Romani Gypsies“ by Yaron Matras

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Matras is a linguist and advocates the rights of the Rroma. His new book “I Met Lucky People”, which was published on 6th of February. According to the reviewer Katharine Quarmby, the book presents a heterogeneous, non-political view on the Rroma, their social organization, their language, their traditions and identity. A non-political perspective is particularly desirable due to the polemical, un-objective debate about mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. However, the book is not confined to the presentation of alleged facts, but holds a mirror up in front of the readers and shows them how the widespread knowledge about the Rroma tells more about the authors than about Rroma themselves: “The book […] makes a strong argument for his contention, that the way we gadjes, or non-Roma people, talk and write about the Romani people reflects more about us than reflecting their reality. This reflection is not a pretty one.” Matras remind the persecution of the Rroma in Europe, and also in Great Britain, where the author is based. The chapter on the language Rromanes falls into the expertise of the author, as he is a linguist. Quarmby qualifies as particularly compelling Martras’ writing about the creation of myths and identities by the majority society. This topic has already been investigated in the German-speaking world by Klaus Michael Bogdal. Towards the end of the book review, the reviewer outs herself as also charged with prejudice, when she indicates that the immigrant Rroma, British Rroma and Irish Travellers are said to only meet in scrap yards. She doesn’t seem to have an awareness of non marginalized, invisible Rroma living in Great Britain. Finally, Quarmby points to the important question of whether it is appropriate that non-Rroma represent Rroma people and to what extent this is practice is challenged by Rroma. Matras is optimistic that Rroma activists, academics and writers are increasingly questioning this status quo (Quarmby 2014).

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07.02.2014 The integration of the Rroma as a pan-European task

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On the occasion of the visit of the Romanian President in Berlin, Von Borstel and Lachmann address the roles of the individual EU countries in the integration of Rroma. Von Borstel/Lachmann quote the federal office of labour which estimates that about 180,000 Rumanians and Bulgarians will migrate to Germany, from which a quarter is reported to have University degrees. For what period of time this forecast is done is not stated. After this relatively differentiated preface, the article quickly becomes very one-sided. The authors only speak of the salient, visible Rroma and extrapolate them to the norm: “Even at that time [2013] they were drawn to the district of Neukölln, the melting pot of Berlin with residents from 160 countries. And quickly through organised begging some Roma became an integral part of the cityscape: Women with small children begging in front of churches, larger children harassing tourists, young people making noise on old instruments in the subway, or annoying drivers as “window cleaners” at major intersections. Every now and then a man from the clan comes and collects the begged money.” Some time later, the Romanian president Băsescu is quoted indicating that these very visible Rroma are a minority of the minority. But the statement is immediately followed by the next stereotype: the migrating Rroma are said to be the ones that Romania failed to integrate. Immigrants are sweepingly made into problem cases. Rroma willing to integrate do not exist, the article suggests. The European Union social affairs minister László Andor is quoted saying that the debate about immigration must be more rational and less emotional. The Rroma Contact Point strongly agrees with that.

The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) presents the visit of president Traian Băsescu in Berlin in an extremely biased fashion: it only emphasizes the negative aspects and is openly racist towards Rroma: “More and more Roma migrate from the two South-Eastern European countries to Austria, Germany or France and thereby cause a whole series of problems; from social welfare to crime. Cities like Dortmund or Duisburg and the district of Neukölln have seen thousands of Roma arrive. Side effects such as begging, crime and the neglect of entire districts are the consequence.” Such generalising, unreflecting, and xenophobic reporting can only be described as stupid. The comment column of the article is also permeated by racist arguments.

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07.02.2014 The Tagesspiegel fuels the idea of a “Rroma problem”

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After the debate on immigration from Romania and Bulgaria to Germany has now run for over a year, a few journalists like Christoph von Marschall still argue that because of political correctness, the debate doesn’t address the topic of potentially dangerous Rroma immigrant. What he identifies as too much political correctness is in fact a one-sided focus on the members of an ethnic minority. To ethnicize immigration doesn’t solve anything. Where he obtained the information that the immigrant population described by him is in fact primarily consisting of Rroma is not discussed. The ethnic membership is not covered by the immigration statistics for ethical reasons. Instead, Von Marschall relies on his supposedly profound knowledge as Rroma expert and spreads absurd and false ideas of travelling, mostly illiterate Rroma and the cultural incompatibility of Rroma and ethnic Germans:  “In the overwhelming majority – in other EU countries it is openly spoken about – these migrants are Roma. [ … ] Focal points, where this migration creates tensions with citizens and communities also exist in Berlin: in Neukölln, in Wedding, in parts of Schöneberg and Reinickendorf. What else is to expect when so different cultures clash? Roma have avoided for centuries the powers of regional authorities as a “traveling nation”; they developed their own solidarity and acquisition systems best suited to their way of life, long before there was an EU, guaranteeing freedom of movement. In Germany they now face modern administration for the sedentary. [ … ] Many Roma are illiterate. [ … ] Roma need modified integration concepts. They do not accept the usual help for the homeless, because their families can not be separated by gender.“

Von Marschall exercises epistemic violence on the Rroma by spreading false information about them. More insight into his own ignorance would not hurt him. Many Rroma can read and write, most Rroma are sedentary and strive to achieve successful integration, if one allows them to. Among the immigrants there are also many ethnic Romanians and Bulgarians. There can be no talk of cultural incompatibility. The supposed incompatibility is ascribed them entirely by Von Marschall with his massive prejudices. Fortunately, his article also imbued with the insight that successful integration requires the cooperation of all parties involved and should not be dominated by fear and prejudice. That after all, is to his credit.

Von Marschall, Christoph (2014) Bei der Zuwanderung werden Probleme geleugnet. In: Der Tagesspiegel online vom 6.2.2014. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/migration-von-roma-aus-bulgarien-und-rumaenien-bei-der-zuwanderung-werden-probleme-geleugnet/9441234.html

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31.01.2014 Immigration debate in Germany

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Wragge (2014) raises the question why the debate about the supposed mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria ever evolved. There are plenty of reasons to refute the arguments of the proponents of mass migration as the experiences with the free migration policy with Poland and the Czech Republic show. Also, the EU law protects Germany against excessive payments from the social security system. Wragge sees the origin of the debate in polemical statements by conservative politicians and in the dissemination of distorted images through the media: “An attempt to explain the existence of this debate leads to the images that we have of Bulgarians and Romanians. If one speaks of the predicted 80,000-200,000 newcomers – do we see only low-income families in Duisburg’s “problem houses” in front of us, or also the engineers, doctors and nurses who come to us? Around these images there is a raging “semantic battle” in the media […].”  Furthermore, the responsibilities of the EU and the German government are repeatedly mixed in the debate and a false image the various actors is spread. Wragge identifies the debate as permeated by fears and taboos, such as naming problems as the immigration of Rroma by their name. He is, however, clearly wrong if he means that the immigration debate is a problem with the Rroma. The Rroma are exploited and instrumentalised by politicians and journalists for their purposes. They create a distorted, negative caricature of the Rroma, what makes them the real aggressors in the debate.

The district Reinickendorf in Berlin has been allocated 130,000 Euros for the years 2014 and 2015 to support immigrant Rroma in their integration process (Schindler 2014). The integration assistance is supposed to encompass language courses and the teaching of general social competences. The awarded funding is surprising in the sense that the ethnicity of immigrants is not identified. The figures are based on estimates and speak of 900 to 1000 immigrant Rroma in Reinickendorf. Schindler reproduces a one-sided image of needy, uneducated Rroma, which has been spread the media for over a year.

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31.01.2014 Rroma Holocaust commemoration

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The 27th of January is the official day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in Germany. On the 27th of January 1945, the Red Army liberated the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The state chairman of the Hessian Sinti and Roma, Adam Strauss, warned in his speech of the importance of civil courage and the danger of spreading false information about Rroma. He further noted a continuity of prejudice against this minority, which persists and is jointly responsible for the genocide. The Deputy Prime Minister of Hesse, Al-Wazir, pointed on the danger of intellectual arson and the way it is fuelled by ill-considered remarks: “He directly pointed to the current debate on poverty refugees from Romania and Bulgaria, who come to Germany. Al-Wazir called it “important that we do not build new walls due to reckless words.”  Prudence and respect are important “to us Germans in this debate.” On the same day Bouffier, in a newspaper interview, took a similar view of the debate on poverty migrants. It is important “to use appropriate words to designate the facts”, he stated” (von Bebenburg 2014).

In his text, Hagemann (2014), addresses the discrimination of Rroma by German teachers during and after the Second World War. NSDAP compliant teachers wrote students from ethnic minorities “characteristics of their race” into their testimonials and managed to obtain their deportation. During the memorial service in Menden, the secondary school students read frighteningly many names of young children. They were infants who were born after 1940 and were nonetheless deported in March 1943. It is particularly shocking that many of the teachers were allowed to teach after the war had ended and were supported by public institutions such as the Catholic Church: “The students called the names of the teachers who were allowed to educate the children of Menden in the post-war years. They criticized the Catholic Church, which did not protect these Catholics, the archbishops, who did not respond to petitions, although the brutal extermination of the Sinti and Roma was described in them in dramatic terms. […] One student described the terrible conditions that were faced by the Catholic Gypsies of Menden in Auschwitz, where they were branded as “asocial” with a black triangle on the clothing: they faced typhoid and diarrhoea, abuse and rape. Those who survived, were led into the gas chamber.”

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31.01.2014 The Rroma identity as a taboo

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Bollmann/Kloepfer (2014) draws an analogy between being gay and belonging to the Rroma ethnic group. Whereas the taboo around homosexuality has nearly disappeared and gays and lesbians are predominantly socially accepted, the Rroma still face great reservations: In the current debate, some authors only use the words Romanians and Bulgarians, although they are talking about the Rroma. Bollmann and Kloepfer do not state that this method is not only correlated with political correctness but with the prevention of further prejudices. It is repeatedly pointed out by Rroma representatives that ethnicity is usually mentioned within a negative context and thus discredits the Rroma and maintains a pejorative image of them. On the other hand, the authors are right when they state the maintenance of prejudices, who are caused by a negation of the subject: “The mechanism of concealment worked earlier with gays and lesbians as perfidious as it is today with the Roma. He who doesn’t call things for what they are plays – consciously or unconsciously – with hints and prejudices. The wider public then perceives only those exponents of the minority that correspond to the popular stereotype and thus appear as “fancy”. These are the “poverty refugees”, the “immigrants into the social system” who pile up garbage – or with benevolence the musician who sings “Gypsy Songs”. The successful lawyer from a Roma family remains as invisible as until recently the gay leaders in general. “I didn’t want to be a Roma, I was ashamed” said a lawyer from Essen last year to a journalist.” But the apparent taboo about Rroma should not obscure the fact that it is most appropriate to use great caution when applying ethnic terms and ascriptions. Imprudent statements free from any taboos can equally contribute to the spread of prejudice as a too politically correct handling of a subject. Not the ethnicity is crucial, but the identification of a problem and the recognition of poverty. If Bollmann and Kloepfer think they need to identify poor Rroma as Rroma in order to help them, they have misunderstood something significantly: “A particular Roma strategy is not required here”, the German government propagated just recently.” Here the federal government is perfectly right. The debate on immigration is not a debate about Rroma, but one that exploits and politicizes the Rroma for their purposes.

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24.01.2014 The invisible Rroma of the United States

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Strochlic (2013) discusses the role of the Rroma in the United States on the basis of the reactions of American Rroma to the case of the blond Rroma girl Maria. Maria was taken by the Greek authorities in the fall of 2013. As it turned out, she is from a Bulgarian Rroma family. The blonde girl sparked a debate about persistent racism and prejudice against the Rroma. In the U.S., the Rroma are clearly better integrated than in Europe. But most of them keep their identity a secret because they fear discrimination and exclusion. The integration of the Rroma in the U.S. therefore primarily works by secrecy and an absence of history: „In the U.S., they’re scattered: coming from a multitude of countries, speaking many dialects, practicing disparate traditions, and observing various levels of traditionalism. But few Americans realise that there are Roma living in their midst […] Undocumented by the U.S. Census, American Roma may keep their heritage under wraps, but when it does emerge, they’ve faced discrimination from friends, landlords, waiters, classmates, strangers, cops, store clerks, and professors. Many were raised with warnings not to tell others of their ethnic identity, and so they remain a hidden ingredient in America’s melting pot.” As their European relatives, the American Rroma fight with massive prejudices that persist in the minds of many people. The negative stereotypes are confirmed by most media and are even increasing. Strochlic presents a chronology of American Rroma activists who fight against prejudice and exclusion. To remain silent and to accept the defamations is not the right way to go.

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24.01.2014 Hindu leader urges Pope to promote integration of the Rroma

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The statesman and head of the universal society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, calls Pope Franciscus to a more involved commitment to the Rroma. Zed was disappointed that the pope, in his speech of January 13th, didn’t mention the issue of Rroma with a single word. The continuing exclusion of Rroma is one of the most burning problems of Europe: „Zed further said that alarming condition of Roma people was a social blight for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly faced social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, etc“ (Baltic Review 2014, Zed 2014). The origin of the Rroma is found in India. But it would be wrong to call India their homeland. Rroma are a transnational minority without an own nation-state.

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24.01.2014 The Focus magazine propagates the mass exodus from Romania and Bulgaria

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Dometeit/Lehmkul (2014) report from Romania. Armed with dubious facts they argue that there indeed a mass migration to Western Europe and especially Germany is taking place. They portray poorly trained Rroma in western Romania who hardly earn a living and see their future opportunities in Western Europe. According to the authors, all Rroma that have a reasonably decent life have been abroad for a shorter or longer period of time: “When the labor markets in the EU open at the beginning of the year, everyone will go”, predicts Stefan and grins. “Then we will all meet like on a huge wedding party.” The big goal: North Rhine-Westphalia. Tens of thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians migrate annually. 30’000 people from the two countries came in 2012 (comparing to 18 500 people emigrating). 2013 there will be even more immigrants, the Ministry of Labour, Integration and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia predicts.” Dometeit/Lehmkul totally ignore that the statistics, as has already been discussed several times, count seasonal workers and therefore are massively exaggerated. That all Romanians and Bulgarians living in poverty will migrate to Germany is very unlikely, as the expansion of free migration to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland has already shown. Masses of immigrants didn’t show up. Dometeit/Lehmkuhl provide a highly one-sided picture of Rroma. Those who have become rich are immediately associated with illegal activities: “On the so-called rose park there are palaces Roma clans have built through business in Germany. Most of them are empty, the shutters are lowered. Two or three times a year the families come to celebrate. Then the Porsches and Ferraris show up. Two years ago, the police raided some of the villas at the request of the German prosecutor’s, based on suspicions of tax evasion, money laundering and human traffeking.” Such reporting is simplistic and patronizing. Dometeit/ Lehmkuhl completely ignore that there are well integrated, upright Rroma

This one-sided perspective is shared by the Schweizer Magazin (2014). The online newspaper favors polemical generalizations and simplifications: “Sinti and Roma, as well as other social welfare benefiters from Romania and Bulgaria – the two poorest countries in Europe – are ready to flood Germany and to enrich themselves with the social benefits. Only the economy may approve, since every immigrant from these poor countries depresses the wages and thus complicates the lives of all Europeans and only increases the profits of the companies.” To designate the Rroma people generally as social welfare benefiters is racist and stupid. Much more need not being said about this.

The Baltische Rundschau (2014) strengthens fears of a mass immigration from Eastern Europe. The article is openly racist and speaks of social parasites and brown rats who are supposedly coming from Serbia to plunder the German welfare state: “After the wave of Roma who migrate as official EU citizens from Romania and Bulgaria to the German welfare state, more and more Gypsies are now coming from Serbia. However, these do not use the “privileged” status as EU citizens to flood the labour market and welfare system, but make use of the German asylum law. In 2013, the asylum applications from Serbia increased by 40 percent, almost all asylum seekers are Roma.” The Rroma Contact Point has stated very often that the prognosis of a mass immigration to Western Europe is wrong. Moreover, not all immigrants automatically become welfare cases. A reduction of the west migration to the case of the Rroma is racist and ethnicizes poverty problems.

The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) is even more racist. It propagates the concept of a culture war and the collapse of the German welfare state. The pretentious statements are one-sided, distorted, highly selective interpretations of the real situation. The platform forecast an additional influx of 200,000 Romanians and Bulgaria to Germany for the current year: “The city of Duisburg is paying dearly for the unrestricted immigration of Roma clans. For the year 2014, the city administration predicts additional costs of at least 12 million Euro for the “integration” of immigrant Gypsies from Romania and Bulgaria. Meanwhile, some 10,000 Roma live in the Ruhr city. Entire neighborhoods such as Duisburg-Rheinhausen are firmly in the hands of the Gypsies. Germans, but also guest workers from Turkey and former Yugoslavia living here for many years, already feel as strangers.” With such polemical statements unzensuriert.at does intellectual arson and endangers social peace. Such xenophobic statements have nothing to do with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

A differentiated and liberal attitude towards the immigration debate is taken by Maike Freund (2013). She argues for complexity and rationalism concerning the predictions of a mass immigration: “Who goes through Neukölln in Berlin or the northern city of Dortmund, knows that such scenes or similar belong to the reality in Germany – but they are only one part of the truth. Because the numbers say: there are many highly educated immigrants, also from Romania and Bulgaria, and Germany relies on these professionals.”

Mappes-Niediek (2014) speaks of the conflicting reactions to the polemical predictions about the mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. Thus, ethnic Romanians and Bulgarians often separate themselves from the Rroma in response to the Western European criticism: “That’s not us, that’s the Roma: This is still the first reflex when some of the German and British debates over poverty migration spill into the Rumanian and Bulgarian public.” Mappes-Niediek criticizes that a poverty problem is turned into an ethnic problem by distinguishing between ethnic Romanians and the Rroma. After the collapse of the socialist system, the ethnic Romanians were given back the possessions of their ancestors, who had been collectivized. Since a large part of the Rroma had possessed nothing before socialism, they emerged as losers from the change of system: “Only the Roma got back nothing because their grandparents hadn’t possessed anything. They moved into the slums, from which the poverty immigrants of today emerge. This allows both the German and the Romanian public to keep the poverty problem a Roma problem – which it is not. If there were no Roma, there would not be any more jobs.” The migration debate is also dominated by a double standard: one hand, one likes to get the well-trained professionals for the German economy – especially doctors – on the other hand one wants to keep out the less well-off.

Antiziganism researcher Markus End criticizes the term “poverty migration” as being negatively charged and equated with Rroma in the public debate. The Rroma are discredited as being lazy and social parasites. End criticizes this depiction and reminds one of the integrated, invisible Rroma: “They were sweepingly referred to as lazy and welfare scroungers. It was said that they are noisy, produce garbage, and are prone to crime. People who follow the media regularly have learned that Roma are poverty immigrants. [ … ]. In the debate, Roma are represented as strangers, even though many have being living in Germany since generations. Also that there are educated and uneducated Rroma, rich and poor, is totally neglected in the debate. The term Roma is used almost synonymous with poverty, crime or waste.” Liberal journalists are also spreading antiziganist stereotypes, even though they welcome the immigration of skilled workers. A liberal journalist from Die Welt compares well-educated, ethnic Romanians and Bulgarians with criminal, antisocial Rroma, producing a value list of welcomed and unwelcomed immigrants. End comes to the conclusion that the coverage of the Rroma is the most biased of all minorities (Grunau 2014).

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24.01.2014 Rroma in Great Britain and the Schengen policies

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Clark (2013) criticises the Romanian government for its Rroma policies. From his standpoint, it is not appropriate that Romania criticizes the UK for its restrictive migration policy. Romania itself, he emphasizes, has large shortcomings in its policies concerning Rroma. The remark of the Romanian Rroma commissioner Damian Draghici that one should not be angry with Rroma beggars but rather be angry at bankers, Clark considers to be arrogant and as distracting from the abuses in Romania and Bulgaria itself: „Over the past decade municipal [Romanian] authorities have ethnically cleansed their city centres of Roma and relocated them to shanty towns on the fringes. In Cluj-Napoca, in a case which has aroused the interest of Amnesty International, 300 Roma people were moved to a site next to a landfill and chemical dump, where families have been made to share one room. […] The inevitable result is a westwards flow of Roma fleeing from discrimination and poverty. The EU’s open borders policy should be suspended until Romania and Bulgaria have improved living conditions for all their citizens.“ Clark fails to recognize in his analysis that there are no overnight solutions for the social ills in Eastern Europe. In addition, the integration of the Rroma is a pan-European task requiring a pan-state solution. Isolation is therefore clearly the wrong answer to social and political shortcomings.

The forced relocation of several Rroma families in Cluj-Napoca onto the site of a former chemical factory was judged illegal by the local court. The incumbent mayor was convicted  for having exceeded his authority in authorizing the relocation. The decision was welcomed by many organisations, such as the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) that had supported the action against the forced relocation (Ekklesia 2014).

An antithesis to Clark’s presentation is Kelley’s (2014) article in The Journal. It reminds about the prejudices, the Rroma genocide, the fear fostered by politicians and journalists: A flood of immigrants hasn’t come to Great Britain so far and the British voters have proven to be less anxious than some politicians and journalists prophesied: „A survey revealed 68% of Britons welcomed Eastern Europeans who work hard, pay taxes and speak English. And, according to Martin Keles, a spokesman for the Roma community in Newcastle, that is exactly what they intend to do. “We just want the opportunity to provide for our families,” he said.“ Kelley further emphasizes the strong institutionalized racism against Rroma in countries like the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. But not only in Eastern Europe, but in Europe as a whole, the Rroma have experienced a history of exclusion since their arrival in Western Europe in the 14th century. The human rights organization “A Living Tradition” conducted a survey among Rroma migrants on behalf of the council of Newcastle. It revealed that the Eastern European migrants are fleeing rampant racism in their home countries and appreciate the English educational institutions and the open society. Kelley’s article is a welcoming change to the many negative articles about Rroma and the European migration. His positive journalism helps to reduce prejudice and promotes the integration of the Rroma.

Knight (2014) from Gentlemen’s Quarterly takes an ambivalent position concerning the debate about immigration in Europe. On one hand, he propagates the idea of an impeding exodus of impoverished Rroma to Great Britain, on the other, he acknowledges their discrimination. He describes Rroma living in the streets of London, having to cope with very modest incomes. Again and again they are asked by the authorities not to beg and to no longer sleep on the streets. Knight sums up: „Courtesy of the ever-expanding European Union, the UK, and London, are finally waking up to one of Europe’s biggest embarrassments: that after the better part of a thousand years, our continent still does not know how to live at peace with its largest ethnic minority.“ Contrary to the generalising statements in the title, Knight recognizes that British society knows next to nothing about Rroma and that one cannot predict how many Rroma will come to the UK. The statistics on immigrants do not capture ethnicity. Knowledge about the Rroma remains dominated by many unknowns and wrong stereotypes. When Knight quotes a local resident of Bryanston Square, the landlady reproduces racist stereotypes and generalizations, even though her parents are said to be immigrants. She expresses the absurd image of culturally related crimes and otherness of the Rroma that they don’t want to integrate and deliberately choose a life in illegality. In the following paragraph Knight acknowledges that his presentation at the beginning of the article cannot hide is his derogatory attitude towards Rroma. He uncritically restates notions about organised begging, child prostitution, human trafficking and begging networks and qualifies the Rroma as having criminal habits: „Ever since, officers have wondered about the level of organisation within the group, and whether it is connected with more serious crimes, such as human trafficking or child prostitution. Hierarchical networks of beggars and street thieves – run by Gypsies, for Gypsies – have been on the rise in big European cities for the last decade: in Rome, in Milan, in Paris, in Madrid. London is a logical next target. Having spent day after day with the Gypsies this summer, I find they are never more than a few hours from their next visit from the police or their next arrest for begging.” His investigative journalism is biased and unreflective. He limits himself to what he could personally observe on the street and mixes it with crude culturalisations. The short trip to Romania is characterized by the common misery images that are often repeated in the coverage on Rroma: Large families crammed together in one two rooms and minor teenagers already being married and having kids. Knight quotes a Romanian historian, Viorel Achim, who no longer sees the future of the Romanian Rroma in training and the building of an educated, integrated middle class, but in emigration to Northern Europe. The therefore agrees with the predictions of conservative apologists, who warn of a mass migration to Western Europe. Knight cites a Rroma from Botosani: „You are going to be seeing a lot more of us in the future,“ says Manix. „We’re going to beg, do whatever we can. Anything to escape.“ Romanian Rroma commissioner Damian Draghici is particularly critical of NGOs who haven’t used the money entrusted to them. The next few paragraphs revolve around the prosperity gap between Eastern and Western Europe and whether this will result in strong migration movements. The fact that the opening of the border to other Schengen countries such as Poland and Hungary didn’t result in any mass migration is not assessed in any way. Knight communicates stereotypical notions of smuggler gangs and clan chiefs who tie off money for the adaptation to the new place and exploit poorer Rroma systematically: „You have to pay. You know from the outset. […] Everyone is controlled.“ At the end of the very long article, one impression dominates: A feeling of distrust from the journalist towards his informants, the Rroma.

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