Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

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25.01.2015 Remembrance for the liberation of Auschwitz 70 years ago

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The “Förderverein Roma” organises a march on January 27th in Frankfurt to mark the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau (Frankfurter Neue Presse). In that camp, with the special Rroma camp in Birkenau, countless Rroma from several countries were killed. The official number is fairly low, as is the case with Jews, as people that were gassed straight away were not registered. However, many Rroma from Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other countries were murdered there.

The Bishop Conference of Germany, for that same commemoration of the liberation liberation of the camp, issued a lengthy statement acknowledging the murder of minorities and other in Auschwitz and appealing for tolerance and help towards others.

Kosovo News Eastern Europe

25.01.2015 Visionary leads a Rroma philharmonic Orchestra

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Ricardo Sahiti, born in 1961 in Kosovo dreamt of founding and directing a Rroma philharmonic orchestra. Arte just showed a movie about him and about the orchestra he managed to create and direct.

Visionär macht seinen Traum wahr. In Op.Online.de, 24.01.2015. http://www.op-online.de/lokales/nachrichten/rodgau/riccardo-sahiti-leitet-weltweit-einzige-roma-sinti-philharmonie-4667487.html

France News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

14.01.2015 Nicolas Dupont Aignan … Is ignorance an excuse?

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Interviewed by Metro News on January 5th, the Mayor of Champlan, Essone (France), Mr. Noicolas Dupon Aignan stated “Rroma should be in Romania”. This clearly show that his understanding of the subject   is limited if not non-existent. We do wish that people who obviously have little if any understanding would rather simply avoid the subject rather than blabber the same platitudes and stereotypes as have already been heard for ages.

Roma are not Romanian, although there are Romanian Rroma, and not all Rroma are uneducated migrants begging in the street… Please take note.

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

31.12.2014 Migrant Rroma Abuse Welfare

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Another Rrom is presented in the UK Press as abusing social welfare and building himself a “mansion” for 60 thousand pounds that he managed to get from the UK. Looking at the picture of the afore said mansion, one can doubt whether the story is actually true, as in Romania, houses of this type are certainly cheaper than this.

In addition, this article perpetuates a view that all Rroma are poor, are poverty migrants, and as such, abuse our “generous” western welfare. This is far from being the case, as even in the UK, there are many invisible and integrated Rroma who do not fit this pattern.

Last but not least, the use of “Roma Gypsy” clearly shows the lack of knowledge and intellect of the journalist who wrote these words.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Serbia

31.12.2014 Serbia as Safe Country: Gall goes …

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Südwest Presse reports on the visit of Reinhold Gall, Interior Minister and SPD party member to Serbia following the declaration of Serbia as being a safe country. According to Gall, following his visit, no refugee is being sent back into the “void” as stated by critiques of this move.

During his visit, he spoke to Osman Balic, the president of the Liga Roma, a Roma NGO in Serbia. According to Balic, Rroma would go to Germany for economical reasons and Gall concludes that there are no real reasons for political asylum for Rroma from that country.

We would like to remind him that this is a bit like travelling to the Southern United States prior to the session war, and stating that no, there are really no reasons why black would want to leave. While not that extreme in Serbia, there is an extreme segregation that has increased a lot due to the nationalism of the Milosevic years. And while one cannot say that all Rrom from Serbia should get asylum, there is not yet a real good reason to declare that all are safe there.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

31.12.2014 Bishop of Vac bemoans the situation of Rroma in Hungary

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In his Christmas mass, Miklós Beer, the bishop of Vác bemoaned the prejudices against Rroma in Hungary as well as their current situation. He even showed understanding for Rroma who steal to feed their children. His homely is remarkable as generally the Hungarian views on Rroma are more extreme. The entire text can be seen on YouTube and a very good summary is given in Hungarian Spectrum.

Aladar Horvath, a Rrom and an activist wrote a very good article entitled “Protest, Fight, or Flight” on the current prospects of the Rroma minority in Hungary. He denounces the forthcoming cuts of social benefits that will lead many Rroma, especially in the countryside into further poverty, hunger, and despair. This is a situation that no one in Western Europe seems to want to see, but is the reality for a large group of Hungarian Rroma.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

31.12.2014 Jobbik’s Vona claims not to deny the Holocaust

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In an interview with Hungary Today, Gabor Vona, the leader of the extreme rightist party “Jobbik” claims to be moderate, and not to be against Jews and Rroma. This interview goes against many other speeches where he or other people from his party advocated the eradication of all Rroma, requesting Jews to leave, and so on. In the interview, he belittles the impact of the guard, a paramilitary arm of Jobbik that marches through Rroma communities and even Jewish neighbourhoods with raised Nazi salute.

This interview doesn’t at all reflect the true nature of the party nor the actual policies they try to enforce, for example by removing Rroma from neighbourhoods, as in Nyiregyhaza.

Bosnia News Eastern Europe News Western Europe North Macedonia Serbia

05.12.2014 Administrative court of Münster: Serbia not a safe country of origin for Rroma

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Die Zeit (2014) reports on a recent judgment of the Münster administrative court. When assessing the application for asylum by a Serbian Rroma family, the court reached the verdict that Serbia does not constitute a safe country of origin for the Rroma minority. The judges justified their judgment, among others, by pointing out that unsuccessful asylum applicants can expect to be criminally prosecuted upon return. Thereby, the court also questions the new law, which declares Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina but also Serbia to safe countries of origin. Several administrative courts had agreed to the asylum applications of Romany families in the recent past: “The administrative court (AC) of Münster questions the constitutionality of the new asylum reform of the federal government. The judges granted an urgent application for asylum by a Serbian Roma family, and stopped their imminent deportation, said the AC. The court has thus set itself in conflict with the federal government, which declared the Balkan countries Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to safe countries of origin in November. The AC wants to clarify now in main proceedings, whether the law should be submitted to the federal constitutional court for review. When declaring a state to a safe country of origin, the legislators must make an overall assessment of the significance of political persecution conditions in the relevant country. Decisive are the criteria prescribed by the constitution. The legislator maybe did not sufficiently comply with this regarding the Serbian Roma and the negative Serbian emigration requirements. Moreover, the legislative history did not show that the decisions of administrative tribunals were taken into account. For instance, the administrative courts of Stuttgart and Münster upheld the urgent complaints of Serbian asylum seekers in a variety of cases.” Rroma are not politically persecuted in Serbia. However, that does not mean that they are not exposed to repeated discrimination in everyday life. Particularly the Rroma already economically marginalised. The assessment of the individual case should always be favoured against a reductionist assessment of the social situation in a country. Rroma have been provably integrated in Southeast Europe for centuries – as, Ottoman tax registers, among others, show ­ and form part of all strata of society and professions. However, since the Yugoslav wars and the strengthened nationalism, Rroma increasingly face discrimination. Furthermore, there is the mentioned law of the Serbian criminal code that threatens asylum applicants with criminal prosecution upon return (compare Prantl 2014).

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania Spain

05.12.2014 Halle: persistent aggressions towards Rroma

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Neues Deutschland (2014) reports on ongoing pogroms and incitement against Rroma in Halle. In the recent months, repeated assaults against Rroma occurred in the quarter of Silberhöhe. Moreover, xenophobic Facebook groups called for violence against the minority. Silberhöhe is a poor district, which is characterised by industrialised apartment blocks: “The attackers were between 10 and 13 years old. In mid-September, a young Roma woman and her two-year old son were attacked by adolescents in Silberhöhe, an industrialised building quarter in Halle. […] The instigators however, are adults. They operate Internet sites such as “hallemax.de”, where in hard tone and partly with multiple entries a day, one speaks about “alienation” and against Rroma. […] The focus of their aggression is a group of 40 families, belonging to the Roma minority, who immigrated from Romania and Spain – in the context of the EU-wide freedom of movement. From the beginning, the newcomers were faced with dislike, aggression and hatred. Especially the children reported bullying on the street or in the supermarket, the mobile victim counselling of Halle states. Later, a so-called “vigilante group” was founded, who was supposed to ensure “peace and order” with patrols in Silberhöhe.” In response to the xenophobic actions, a group against anti-Semitism was founded. The alliance “Hall against right-wing extremism” organised counter-demonstrations to the hostile actions against Rroma, in order to express their solidarity with the minority and to stand up against anti-Semitism. In addition, a meeting was organised to counter the prejudices against immigrants with facts and  knowledge. In Germany, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma, many of them for generations. They are integrated, go to work, speak German and send their children to school.

France Italy News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

05.12.2014 Increasing xenophobia and Rroma-hostility in Italy

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Sigona (2014) reports on increasing xenophobia and Rroma-hostility in Italy. The author is concerned about how Rroma have frequently become the target of xenophobic attacks in the last few months and years. To counteract this increasingly xenophobic climate, the president of the Tuscany region, Enrico Rossi, set an example with a photo – showing him together with a group of Rroma: “In the photo, Rossi stands flanked by a family of men, women and children. It’s a Sunday afternoon in Florence. “Let me introduce my neighbours” reads the description posted on Facebook. His neighbours are Romanian Roma. […] The picture was taken just a few weeks after Matteo Salvini, the new leader of the anti-immigration, anti-EU Northern League, paid a controversial visit to a Roma camp in Bologna to see how “tax money was spent”. Salvini has made regular verbal attacks on Roma and migrants, a core part of his party’s attempt to rebrand itself as Italy’s answer to the French Front National. The steady rise in his approval rating would suggest that it’s working.” As in France is, the public focus in Italy lies on a marginalised minority of Rroma, who live in informal settlements and are presented in a most biased way. Right-wing nationalist parties present the minority as scapegoats for problems that have their origin in society as a whole. The majority of the estimated 90,000 to 110,000 Rroma that have been living integrated in Italy since generations are largely hidden.

France Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

05.12.2014 Prosecutor of Paris: criminal court not competent to judge Manuel Valls

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Libération (2014) reports on a recent decision of the Paris prosecutor. The investigation covers statements by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in which he claimed that Rroma had the inclination to stay in Romania or to return there, and they had a very different lifestyle than the French, which was inevitably in confrontation with the French one. The Paris prosecutor’s office now judged on December the second that the criminal court was not competent to judge the statements made by Manuel Valls. The criminal chamber will pronounce its verdict in this regard on December the 19th. However, the plaintiff against Valls, the organisation “La Voix des Roms”, wants that his statements are not judged independently of his function as the then Interior Minister, but are recognised as demagoguery: “For the lawyer of Manuel Valls, Mr. Georges Holleaux, the statements of his client are adjacent to “his ministerial competence”. In his view, the facts thus reverse the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only institution empowered to judge members of the government, for deeds which they have committed in the function of their office. Moreover, he pointed out that that Mrap (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples) had filed a lawsuit against Manuel Valls at the the Court of Justice of the Republic in September 2013, which was dropped it without further consequences.” Manuel Valls is not an isolated case with his racist remarks against the Rroma. In recent years, numerous French mayors and politicians have gained public attention with racist remarks about Rroma. Some were sentenced to mild fines, others were completely acquitted, referring to the freedom of expression. In the French public, Rroma are equated with 15,000 to 20,000 Rroma who live in illegal settlements. The 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma who are integrated in France since generations, are continuously ignored. The Rroma are also repeatedly exploited by various parties for political purposes and blamed for social ills that have their origins in society as a whole, and not in a single minority. Unfortunately, this scapegoat policy finds approval among a shocking number of people (compare L’Yonne Républicaine 2014).

Bulgaria Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

05.12.2014 “Roma does not equal poverty migration”

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Selke (2014) spoke with Prof. Max Matter, a Swiss folklorist, about his new publication “Nowhere Desired: Poverty migration from Central and Eastern Europe into the countries of the EU-15, with particular reference to members of the Roma minority”. In his book, Matter addresses the mixing of prejudices with ethnic ascriptions and political viewpoints. Many politicians and journalists used the term “poverty migration” as a synonym for the migration of poor Rroma to Western Europe. With the expansion of the free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria, one increasingly spoke about well educated Romanians and Bulgarians, who also migrate to Western Europe. However, opponents saw this argument as trivialising the real situation. In his publication, Matter tries to deconstruct reductionist ascriptions that portray Rroma as poor travelling beggars: Rroma are not a homogeneous mass, are mostly sedentary since centuries and have no kings. In addition, many other ethnic groups also migrate to Western Europe. The assertion of a “mass immigration into the German welfare system” is not supported by the facts: “According to the Institute for Employment Research, there are just over 500,000 people from Bulgaria and Romania in Germany. As I said, some have very good school and vocational qualifications. Many of them work. All of them counted together, they just constitute six per mil of the German population. Therefore, one can hardly speak of a mass immigration into the welfare system.” Matter also refers to the majority of well-integrated Rroma that have been living integrated in Western Europe since generation and speak the local languages. At a meeting of scientists and politicians on December the fist in Berlin, the majority of those present demanded a de-dramatization and objectification the debate on “poverty migration”: There is no widespread welfare fraud. The existing social problems are not the result of immigration, but problems already existing before. In addition, one should be cautious with the use of ethnic attributions (compare Bade 2014 MiGAZIN 2014).

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

28.11.2014 Award for Holocaust survivors Hugo Höllenreiner

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Trebbin (2014) reports on the award for the German Rroma-Holocaust survivor Hugo Höllenreiner. Höllenreiner is one of three thousand survivors who survived the “gypsy camp” of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Most of the approximately 30,000 prisoners, including many women and children, were killed. In the 1990s, Höllenreiner began to break his silence about this traumatic experience and henceforth committed himself as a contemporary witness. He has reported on the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz-Birkenau to thousands of German pupils: “How SS men launched sheep dogs on naked people before his eyes. How they drove people into the gas chambers. How he had to witness mass shootings and then had to help with filling in the graves with the bodies of the murdered. And how little Hugo was lying on the operating table of camp doctor Josef Mengele… […] 36 family members of the Höllenreiners perished in the Holocaust. Hugo’s parents and their six children survived with a lot of luck and great courage. However, his education after the war and the liberation was short-lived: the teachers put the “Gypsy boy” unceremoniously out the door. The discrimination continued. So Hugo Höllenreiner had to start his career with peddling.” For his commitment as a contemporary witness to the Holocaust, Höllenreiner has now been awarded with the medal “Munich shines”. West Germany did not recognise the genocide of the Rroma until 1982, when many of the survivors had already died. The Holocaust of the Rroma is often incorrectly referred to with the word “Porrajmos”. The term, which traces back to the verb “porravav”, meaning to “open wide”, is often used in the context of sexual activity and therefore is not appropriate to describe a genocide.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

28.11.2014 Debate on grave fee for Auschwitz victims

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RP Online (2014) addresses a debate on the graves of Auschwitz victims in Germany, among them many Rroma. Normally, graves are closed after a certain period of time if the lease is not extended. In the case of Holocaust survivors, German Rroma associations emphasise it is also about preserving history. Therefore, they fight against dismantling of the graves of Holocaust survivors, which then would pass into oblivion. In Krefeld, a descendant of a Rromni who survived the concentration camp, can no longer pay the grave fee due to financial issues. German Rroma associations decidedly fight against dismantling the resting place: “With a harsh protest, two organizations  – The NRW state association of German Sinti and Roma and the German association for information and advice for victims of Nazi persecution  – have been protesting against the fact that the city is not renouncing the fees for lease of the grave of a woman who was imprisoned in the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz. It is the grave of a Roma woman named Korpatsch. Her niece had paid for the grave for decades, but can no longer account for the costs for an extension. Jost Rebentisch of the federal association for victims of Nazi-prosecution accuses the city of historical amnesia. The city disregards the criticism: […] Because of legal reasons, it was not possible to formally renounce to the lease fee, as required by the association of Rebentisch. Although there is an initiative of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, according to which the burial of people persecuted in the war should be left free; but there is still no final settlement.” In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, 30,000 Rroma were murdered. Researchers estimate at least half a million casualties among the Rroma. The genocide of the Rroma is much less known compared to the mass murder of the Jews. This is another reason why a preservation of the memory of the victims and the inhuman actions is of great importance (compare Freie Presse 2014).

Hungary News Eastern Europe

28.11.2014 Hungarian Spectrum: Zoltan Balog promotes segregation of Rroma children

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Hungarian Spectrum (2014) reports on the ambivalent Rroma policy of the Hungarian Minister of Human Resources, Zoltan Balog. Hungarian Spectrum accuses the Fidesz-politician to foster the segregation of Rroma pupils in contradiction to his public statements. The special schooling of Rroma children fostered by Balog is the result of a double standards concerning integration: He does not want equality, but a special treatment of the Rroma, Hungarian Spectrum criticises: “during Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first six months of 2011, the Hungarian government took upon itself the creation of a Roma program for the entire European Union. From the beginning I noted Balog’s reluctance to follow the earlier Hungarian government’s strategy of integration. There were also signs that Balog, realising the enormousness of the task, wanted to dump the problem on the churches. […] My other suspicion was that in his heart of hearts Balog does not believe in school integration. He is convinced that special Gypsy classes enable students to catch up with their non-Roma contemporaries–separate to become equal. Based on countless studies we know that this is a misguided notion. But it seems that Fidesz politicians cannot easily be convinced by hard data or evidence.” In addition, the Minister is accused of having campaigned for the reopening of a segregated Rroma school in Nyíregyháza, which was closed in 2007. In spite of the decision of the appellate court that declared segregated schooling of Rroma children illegal, the Fidesz government enacted a change in law in favour of Balog’s Rroma policy, which allows him to continue administering segregated schools and classes: “How strongly Balog felt about this particular case is demonstrated in a press release his ministry issued on November 6 […]. This press release is a perfect example of the double talk this government specializes in. The final verdict in the case is” highly regrettable because many children will be deprived of a superior education.” […] The proposed amendment says that in the case of schools run by churches or in schools serving national minorities the minister – in our case Zoltán Balog – can issue a decree that will allow segregated classes.”

News Eastern Europe Romania

28.11.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma gang harasses Romanian Member of Parliament

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The British tabloid newspaper “Daily Mail” reports on a group of young Rroma, who allegedly harassed and threatened a Romanian Member of Parliament. Because the politicians paid his loan to late, the bank sold a portion of his property to pay off the debt, the newspaper states. Young “Rroma millionaires” are said to have moved into the sold part and henceforth have started to massively harass the politician. Thornhill’s (2014) article in the Daily Mail builds part of a series of disparaging articles about Rroma, which the British tabloid published in recent months and years. The newspaper reported regularly in a very negative way about Rroma migrants in the UK, and portrayed them as a poor, asocial and often criminal minority, who would intentionally exploit the British welfare system. In the case of the Romanian parliamentarian, the newspaper spreads absurd notions of uncivilized and ruthless “Rroma millionaires”: “A Romanian MP was stunned after a family of millionaire gypsies moved into his mansion after he was late paying back a loan secured on a 20 percent share in his property, and the bank sold it off to the gypsies to recover the debt. It meant that the gypsies who snapped up the 20 percent stake in the property in the north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi moved into part of it overnight, and since then have allegedly made MP Ionel Agrigoroaei’s life hell. […] And if the 53-year-old MP was unhappy about seeing the gypsies move into a wing of his property, he was even more unhappy when they started a catalogue of what he describes as terror and intimidation in a bid to get him to move out so they could occupy the rest of the building.” – Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. In addition, the mentioning of ethnicity in connection with the events described by Thornhill, is irresponsible. It only fuels derogatory prejudices against the Rroma. Most Rroma are integrated and go to work.

Bosnia Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe North Macedonia Serbia

26.11.2014 “De Maizière: discrimination [of Rroma] is not political persecution”

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Sirleschtov/Birnbaum (2014) spoke with Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister and member of the Christian Democrat Party. In the talk, De Maizière justifies his successful efforts to declare Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia to be safe countries of origin. He states that although Rroma are badly treated in these three countries, they are not politically persecuted. Therefore, a refugee status for Rroma from these countries can no longer be acceptable: “A part of the Greens criticise me, saying I play people who come to us against each other. But that would mean by implication that Germany has to accept anyone who comes here. […] That is why the distinction between real political persecution and others who leave their homes for other reasons is the rational way and the path laid out by our constitution. A bad treatment of the Roma in some Balkan countries is just no political persecution. This is hard for those affected, but this distinction is necessary.” Rroma are indeed not politically persecuted in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Their integration is historically proven for the Balkans: since centuries, they belong to all social strata and professional groups. However, that does not mean that they are not exposed to massive discrimination in everyday life, especially since the strengthened nationalism of the Yugoslav Wars. The estimate how strong this discrimination is can only be critically evaluated in individual cases. Therefore, asylum applications should not be treated generally, but individually, to do justice to the fate of those persons affected.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

26.11.2014 Halle: violence and inflammatory language against Rroma

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Bonath (2014) reports on violence and inflammatory language against Rroma in Halle. According to the journalist, right-wing extremist groups have repeatedly agitated against the minority and committed several attacks on Rroma in recent months: “Neo-Nazis have declared Roma families in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt) as their target. On the right wing website “Hallemax”, there is call to a parade in the southern district Silberhöhe, with 3,000 planned participants […]. The Internet portal “Hallemax” is run by the avowed neo-Nazi Rolf Brückner. […] Brückner and his “comrades” have been raising a mob in Silberhöhe since months. Meanwhile, a “militia against Rom” was founded there; “patrols” have been mobilised. Repeatedly, there have been brutal attacks on people of foreign origin in the neighbourhood. The right-wing thugs did not even stop at children. Adolescents attacked a Romanian mother and her two-year-old son in early September. At the end of October, a ten-year-old dark-skinned girl was beaten up so hard that she had to be hospitalised. In early November, a van belonging to a Roma family caught fire in a parking lot.” Today, an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma live in the Federal Republic of Germany. Before the genocide by the Nazis, there were many more. Most of them speak perfectly German and have a job. Numerous media and politicians have strengthened prejudices against the minority with biased, unreflecting remarks about Rroma as poverty immigrants.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

26.11.2014 Huffington Post: economic and social integration of Rroma must be encouraged

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Cyrulnik (2014), a psychiatrist and member of the UNICEF, talks about his work in Romania and Bulgaria. By working for the children’s charity UNICEF, Cyrulniks perspective is largely restricted to the excluded Rroma of Romania and Bulgaria. Despite his emphatic perspective on the minority, he reproduces several stereotypes about Rroma, such as the misconception that Rroma were all originally travellers: “At the time of communism, the sedentarisation of Roma was enforced, and the results seemed rather promising. The kids could run around everywhere, were laughing and were supervised by the “big” between 10 and 12 years and all adults of the village [Siria]. […] The Roma population is important. One estimates 2 million of them for Rumania, of which 650,000 are nomads. They are therefore already largely sedentary.” However, Rroma have always been largely sedentary. The travelling lifestyle ascribed to them is rather the result of their continued exclusion and dissemination. – Another focus of Cyrulnik’s article is on the limited access of the Rroma to health care institutions, the low enrolment rates and the continuing segregation. However, Cyrulnik forgets that, concerning this topic, he addresses only the visible, marginalised part of the minority and negates the integrated Rroma. In addition, it is dangerous to ascribe the marginalised Rroma a collective apathy toward the inevitability of their situation: “The segregation plays an important role in the difficult socialisation of Roma. The distance at the countryside reinforces the clan spirit and creates a culture that is difficult to participate in and in which one group ignores the other. The Roma families set themselves limits and internalise the discrimination. They subject themselves to a faith that makes them say that they cannot do better, that this is their fate. They easily become school dropouts, which threatens to make their integration in Europe difficult.” Nonetheless, Cyrulnik’s plea to economically and socially foster the integration of the Rroma and to make better use of their work force for the economies of Europe is commendable and indeed of great significance. 

Bulgaria Denmark News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

26.11.2014 Illegal black lists of immigrant groups in Denmark

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The Local Denmark (2014) reports on the existence of illegal black lists in various cities in Denmark. The local government of these cities have set different immigrant groups, such as the Chechens or the Rroma, on a list of undesirable immigrant groups. The illegal practice was revealed by the Danish newspaper Berlingske: “Some municipalities tell the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) not to send them refugees from certain countries, Berlingske newspaper revealed. […] Another unwanted group is the Roma. Sønderborg Council told Immigration Service that it “wants to put an end to the visits of Roma people from former Yugoslavia who come on humanitarian grounds”. Danish municipalities provide requests and recommendations to Immigration Service each year as a way to build upon previous successes with certain groups, but many of the municipalities also use the annual exercise as an opportunity to tell the national authorities which refugees they do not want. This would appear to be in violation of the nation’s immigration laws which state that no distinctions can be made based on nationality when helping those in need.” However, Rroma are not a national group, but a transnational, ethnic minority, with a centuries-old history of exclusion and persecution. The deliberate exclusion of a specific group of persons violates the anti-discrimination legislation. Rroma are not a homogeneous mass, but are composed of a variety of individuals, with diverse experiences. With the expansion of the European free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria, various western European countries warned of a mass immigration of poor Rroma. However, these forecasts build not on critical analysis, but on politicized, polemical estimates of migration: Rroma are not mass of uneducated poor, but belong to all strata of society and professional groups.

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