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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