Category Archives: France

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04.07.2014 Reims: two squats were evicted

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Livoreil (2014) provides information about the eviction of two occupied houses in Reims, which were inhabited by immigrant Rroma. Following a court order, about twenty people were evacuated from the two buildings. The eviction was not primarily political, but legally motivated, as the assistant of the mayor states: “Apparently, the action executed yesterday followed a legal agenda and was not strictly political. The assistant to the mayor, responsible for the security, Xavier Alibertini, announced: “This eviction will not be followed by more.” In Reims, there are half a dozen occupied homes, of which most are located in the city centre. These are identified by social workers who are in daily contact with the most precarious of the precarious” (Livoreil 2014). A community organization, commissioned by the government of Reims in 2013, takes care of the integration of inhabitants of the occupied houses. Several people were already provided with jobs and for four family flats could be organised. It should be stressed here once again that the French press reports in a highly one-sided way about Rroma in France. About 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma living in an integrated way is never reported (Rroma Foundation 2014). The focus lies solely on the recently immigrated Rroma living in slums.

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04.07.2014 Rroma and stereotypes: prison sentences against Rroma child traffickers

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Nicolas (2014) provides information about a trial against fifteen Croatian Rroma by the French prosecutor’s office. The prosecution requested for five of the fifteen defendants the maximum sentence of ten years of imprisonment. The Rroma are accused of deliberately having instigated minors to steal and to having traded them amongst each other. The children were literally educated to steal, the prosecution states. The charge is organised crime, human trafficking and group theft. The accused are charged with the involvement in over a hundred thefts, of which the vast majority was committed in France. The gangs were allegedly built on hierarchical families, that were lead by a clan chief: “For the judiciary, those offenders, who settled on sites in  Lorraine and Alsace, belong to family structures that are completely hierarchiszed, with up to seven clans operated in the mode of groups that are directed by family chiefs from afar. The operation mode was always the same: burglaries during a few days, aimed at homes in a given sector, virtually raids to find jewellery and money” (Nicolas 2014). With this charge, Nicolas conveys a common misconception about Rroma. The accusation of criminal, hierarchically organised family-gangs, who commit crimes on the command of a clan chief, has been transformed into an unquestioned fact. However, this supposed fact is based on massive prejudices, misinformation and culturalising racism. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. A cultural explanation for crime is necessarily racist and ignores and discredits the majority of the blameless Rroma, living integrated. The idea of hierarchical family ties traces back to the projection of the medieval caste system onto the Rroma. However, this is incorrect. While it is true that the family has an important place among the Rroma, the organization is largely egalitarian. In addition, the stereotype of arranged marriages is communicated, which is only true for a minority of the Rroma. Furthermore, the phenomenon of child trafficking, as it is presented here, has to be critically questioned. Social science studies show that social realities behind begging or petty crime are largely hidden. Similarly, the structural differences of the societies involved and any related reasons for a migration from Romania to France. The research conveys a more complex, contradictory notion of the subject and points out that crimes such as incitement to begging or trafficking of children are pervaded by a wide variety of morals in the analysis and assessment by authorities, which deny the perspective and motivations of the people concerned and force on them their own ideas of organised begging, child trafficking or criminal networks (compare Oude Breuil 2008, Pernin 2014).

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02.07.2014 Évry: demonstration against imminent eviction

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Lemonnier (2014) reports a rally in Évry, in the south of Paris. On June 28th, Rroma and activists gathered at the place of the human rights in Évry, to demonstrate against the imminent evictions of the local Rroma settlements. The demonstrators marched with posters and banners through the streets of the city to the county seat of Essonne and demanded the compliance to basic human rights that are in conflict with the planned evictions. They also rallied against the unworthy treatment of Rroma in France. In Évry, two informal Rroma settlements exist, with about 150 inhabitants each. The closure of the camps is scheduled for the next two weeks. They were founded in response to the evacuation of a camp in Ris-Orangis. Considering the children enrolled in school, one waited until the end of the school year, the general counsellor of the district states: “From the very beginning, we have said that the camps cannot be created in the long term, says the general counsellor of the concerned canton, Claude Vazquez. However, we waited until the end of the school year to authorise the evacuation of this camp, considering that 27 Rroma children are enrolled in the institutions of our community and to enable them to finish the year.” From the perspective of those affected, this apparent benevolence towards the Rroma is a farce. They demand better treatment of Rroma in Évry. First of all, this has to begin with the reduction of the number of forced evictions. Manuel Valls, who is repeatedly criticised for his restrictive, uncompromising policy towards the immigrant Rroma, was mayor of Évry from 2001 to 2012. The demonstration against the planned evictions has therefore a more political character. Of the 100,000 to 500,000 integrated Rroma living in France, one never hears something in the French media. Thereby, one denies them existence and reproduces a one-sided picture of the ethnic group that is being exploited by many politicians for political purposes.

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02.07.2014 Ireland: investigation confirms ethnic profiling leading to child removal

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Several Irish and British newspapers report the results of an investigation by the Irish ombudswoman for Children – Emily Logan – regarding the child removal by Irish authorities. In the two studied cases, children were taken away from their Irish Rroma parents because they were blond, but the parents are dark-haired. After DNA tests confirmed the biological parenthood, the children were returned to their parents. The authorities took away the children last October, shortly after a blonde Rroma girl was removed from a Rroma camp in Greece. The case confirmed racial prejudice of Rroma being child traffickers, but also proved to be unfounded. The Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, the justice minister Frances Fitzgerald, and the Irish police commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan apologised for the inappropriate behaviour of the Irish authorities. Such an incident should not happen again and one is striving to implement improvements in the training of police officers: “Ms Fitzgerald also met with the families privately and issued a personal apology. “We regret the pain that they went through,” she said. “It happened out of a determination to protect children, but that determination got skewed.” The Government has pledged to implement a range of recommendations – such as cultural training for gardaí and better information-sharing – aimed at ensuring such a mistake does not happen again” (O’Brien 2014). The incident has left a large uncertainty among those affected. A seven-year-old girl, fearing to be taken away from her parents again, has dyed her hair black. The parents of the two-year old albino boy were in a state of shock and despair for a long time. One of the two families has taken legal action against the authorities. The minister of justice meanwhile announced that it was open to a compensation of the families. In a personal statement, the ombudswoman Emily Logan explains the process of her investigation. She comes to the conclusion that the actions of the Irish police officers were prejudiced and clearly guided by ethnic criteria: “After interviewing 42 people and weighing up the information, I concluded that the readiness to believe that Child A, a two-year-old boy, might have been abducted exceeded the evidence available and was tied inextricably to the fact that his family was Roma. Whatever doubts gardaí had in relation to the boy should have been decisively put to rest when his father informed them the toddler had albinism” (Logan 2014). In the case of the seven-year-old, blond Rroma girl, a combination of misinformation by the hospital, where the girl was born, the past experiences of a police officer and again ethnic profiling led to the child’s removal. Logan complains that the officers were asserted in their prejudices by the case of the Greek Rroma girl (compare BBC News 2014, Logan 2014 II/III, Phelan/O’Connor 2014).

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02.07.2014 Rroma and stereotypes: Rroma arrested because of organised copper theft

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Certain (2014) and Labarre (2014) report on the arrest of seven Rroma in the Pays de la Loire. The detained persons are accused of having been involved in the theft and organised trafficking of copper. Most of the suspects live in an informal settlement Rroma in Saint-Herblain. The article suggests, as many before it, that hierarchical organised structures exist among Rroma and favour organised crime: “The network was ultra-hierarchised. With a boss, henchmen and assistants. In order to unravel the involvement of one or the other, and to investigate the black market, it took almost a year of investigation by the theft-brigade of Nantes. This was rewarded this week by eleven arrests, the majority in a Roma camp of Saint-Herblain, the hub of the commerce.” The stereotypes of organised, criminal Rroma clans persist. It has often been pointed out that this is not a Rroma-specific phenomenon and hierarchical structures are not part of Rroma culture. The reference to the ethnicity of the perpetrators is therefore completely unnecessary; it only encourages racial prejudice against members of the minority. Rroma are not more criminal than the representatives of other ethnic groups. Already in June, Le Matin (Grabet 2014) reported on the trial against three Serbian Rroma in Vevey, who are accused of being involved in the organised theft and black marketing of copper.

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27.06.2014 Fassin: lynching racially motivated or not?

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In his newest article for Libération, the sociologist Eric Fassin (2014) poses the question, of why only a few newspapers speak of a racist lynching of the young Rroma, and instead portray the incident as a vigilante justice between robbed banlieue residents and a criminal youth, both of which are poor. He contrasts this to the case of a young Moroccan Jew, who was tortured to death in 2006 by a group of Muslim immigrants. At that time, no one had any doubt that the act was racially motivated. However, this time one does. Even the public prosecutor denies that the offence was committed with racist motives. The thefts committed by Darius, which are regarded as nearly proven, are cited as the actual motive for revenge. Fassin criticises that the victim’s presumption of innocence, valid until his actions are really proven, are completely disregarded. He sees the reduction of the incident to a vigilante justice between robbed and thief as a trivialisation of the intellectual arson against Rroma in France. Negating the defamation of Rroma by politics and the media, also negates some of the possible motives: “In reality, masking the racism of the lynching is abandoning finding the culprits among the responsible people. In other words, it is the denial of the responsibility of politics towards the increase in Roma-phobia: if this act has nothing to do with racism, it has no political relevance. Nevertheless, the “lapses” in public discourse are so numerous and deliberate that it is appropriate to speak of an actual landslide.”

Fassin is certainly right that in the investigation of the lynching case, all aspects need to be analysed and considered. The racist discourse against Rroma is an inherent part of this. However, one also has to be cautious to jump to conclusions and to insinuate motives of the  perpetrators that are not proven. The investigation has to show what motives stand behind the vigilantism. On this issue, Fassin engaged in a dispute with the deputy editor of Libération, Eric Decouty. Decouty (2014), in his commentary on Fassin’s article, criticises that the argument builds upon unsecured facts and is therefore not unproblematic. Rastello (2014) agrees in her analysis with the assessment that the evidence on the exact course of the event is still not verified: witnesses’ statements are contradictory, for example regarding the exact time of the abduction as well as the number of involved persons. Witnesses on  the Rroma side fear further reprisals and therefore hold back statements. On behalf of the residents, there is supposedly a “law of silence”, which is the result of the bad acceptance of the police in this impoverished neighbourhood. In addition, the offenders’ motives are still not clearly established.

Fassin (2014/III) replies that he goes from the position that the racist discourse is in part responsible for the committed crime. Pejorative words and opinions expressed about Rroma in recent years manifested themselves into a real act of violence in the case of the lynched Rroma. To trivialise the issue of intellectual arson against the Rroma is dangerous, as is the silence of the public on this incident, he states. However, what Fassin does not take into account prominently enough is the social dynamics of the suburbs themselves and the misguided social policy that allows this misery. The inhabitants of the suburbs are themselves victims of mechanisms of exclusion (compare Bilefsky/De la Baume 2014, Fassin 2014/II).

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25.06.2014 Gerhart-Hauptmann-school in Kreuzberg being evicted: 40 Rroma were resettled

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The former school building of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-school in Kreuzberg, which housed 200 refugees, homeless and Rroma since 2012, is being evicted. In a first phase, the inhabitants are offered an alternative accommodation: “After long debates and political quarrels, on Tuesday, the evacuation of the school in Berlin-Kreuzberg, occupied by refugees, has begun. The district authority and the police are trying to make the residents move voluntarily to other accommodations, said a district spokesman. Accommodations are available in Charlottenburg and Spandau, for each of the 211 refugees, according to district spokespersons. However, the refugees from the occupied school shall only obtain new lodgings from the state if they follow the call for evacuation on Tuesday voluntarily” (Treichel/Mösken/Zivanovic 2014). The evacuation takes place on a decision of the district office of Kreuzberg. Many people, especially regarding the future stay of the refugees, criticize the action. Local activists tried to prevent the police from shutting off the building. According to journalists, around 40 Rroma have accepted the offer of the department and were brought to the site of a new accommodation. In contrast to France, until, there had been no forced eviction in Germany, since most immigrant Rroma are housed in rented affordable housing, which, however, also led to disputes. What is astonishing about the coverage of the eviction is that “refugees, homeless and Rroma” are mentioned. Focus (2014), rbb (2014) and the Berliner Morgenpost (2014) even speak of “Roma families, homeless, and drug dealers.” It is therefore assumed without further comment that Rroma inevitably find themselves in a similar situation as refugees, homeless or drug dealers. Why the ethnic affiliations of the other residents are not named, is not explained. This happens only with the Rroma (compare Die Welt 2014, Lang-Lendorff 2014, Treichel 2014). 

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25.06.2014 Lynching and Rroma as social scapegoats

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Willsher (2014) discusses the role of the Rroma in France in the context of the lynching of a young Rrom in the Paris suburbs. In addition to a political instrumentalisation of the minority for political campaign purposes and as scapegoats for social ills, Willsher also notes that Rroma are equated with petty crime, leading to a prejudiced association of thieves and Rroma: “It is illegal to compile data on the basis of ethnicity in France, so there is no evidence that the gangs of children who swarm around tourists to filch money, valuables and wallets, or pick pockets in the Métro, are in fact Roma. Because the word “Roma” has become synonymous with petty criminal and delinquent, the public perception is that they are.” Willsher as well as the people she interviewed have, besides the awareness of social inequalities, no understanding of the majority of Rroma who are living integrated lives in France. In the French media, they are continually ignored. The fact that these integrated Rroma do not call themselves Rroma is a consequence of their fear of discrimination and disadvantages if they do so, something journalists and politicians do not seem to be aware of. Thereby, the wrong conception that equates Rroma with an underclass that is uneducated and lives on the edge of crime, is becoming prevalent. That these ideas persist in the minds of people can be seen in the statements of Nassima Kleit, an assistant of the general council of Seine-Saint-Denis. She admits racism against the minority, but simultaneously reproduces xenophobic prejudices and culturally motivated crime: “Of course, we can’t put a gloss on this and say there’s no criminals among the Roma, and of course we need to change cultural attitudes that see Roma parents sending their children out to beg or steal; but we can only do that by educating them and getting them out of these shanty towns into places where they can live with dignity […].” Kleit confirms with her statements the misconceptions of criminal, culturally determined Rroma gangs, as the Weltwoche repeatedly conveys them. However, there is no ethnic-based culture of crime. If anything, there are massive social inequalities that make criminal activities appear more attractive to certain social layers than to others. As already said, it is wrong to equate the Rroma with a social underclass. There are educated and well-off people among Rroma. Rroma are part of all social classes.  

Bouvet (2014) identifies the latest incident not only as the outcome of a failed policy towards Rroma, but primarily as a failed social policy in France. The lynching incident shows that the social policies of the last decades have not been able to create a social balance: “What the lynching of Pierrefitte tells us is the failure of social policy, which was conducted in France for decades in neighbourhoods such as that of the Cité des poètes […]. The failure of employment policy and integration, not least those concerning the young people, who did not prevent an unemployment rate of more than 35%.”

Piquemal (2014) points out that the incident with the young Rrom is symptomatic of the ongoing expulsion and oppression of immigrant Rroma in France. The violence against the minority has increased. Since one hinders the immigrated Rroma to install themselves in the long term, one also makes it impossible to them to build a longer-term existence, which includes regular schooling of the children, adequate housing and a job. This rigorous expulsion policy must finally come to an end. Nathalie Godard, from Doctors of the World, states: “One clearly notices it on the site: with this policy, groups get fragmented, they are scattered throughout the territory of the department. But still they do not leave Seine-Saint-Denis. It’s always the same persons living here, some for a very long time. We follow the family for years, even if it is increasingly difficult for us to work. This is really complicated. Today, we use our time to find them again. With each eviction, all relationships that you try to create, to treat them, for example, must be restarted again. Everything is falling into the trap doors. I do not want to talk about the school to you! How do you want to enrol children, when they sometimes only sleep one or two nights at the same place.” What is also continuously hidden in the French press is that there are 100,000 to 500,000 integrated Rroma living in France. Therefore, the people living in the slums Rroma make up only a small percentage of Rroma in the country. Nevertheless, only they are present in the media.

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20.06.2014 After Lynch incident: Renewed debate about Rroma in France

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After the lynching of a sixteen-year-old Rroma in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, a new debate about the Rroma and the contact with them has started in France. However, as expected, one doesn’t only find expressions of compassion and condemnation of the barbaric lynching, but also expressions of sympathy for the bourgeois vigilantism. This worrying trend can for instance be identified in the article by Seelow (2014), in which residents of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine express their displeasure with Rroma and trivialize the act of revenge on the young Rroma as retributive justice: “The Roma, they are in same filth as we are […], but they take everything they see, they have no inhibitions. One day, I left my new fridge on the sidewalk and when I came out they were loading it. The Roma are poor that steal from the poor. The fact that they go for a walk, that’s all right, but you shouldn’t go to people like that, it’s like rape. He went crazy, this kiddo. Afterwards, the young went too far and it degenerated, because of the group effect.” More eyewitness accounts from local residents follow, that reduce the Rroma to a wild, uncivilized horde. This is not differentiated at all. Instead, the Rroma are accused of a collective predisposition to criminality. The author of the article, Soren Seelow, is content to reflect the opinions of local residents, who proclaim an increase in crime since the influx of the Rroma. However, it is surprising that the inhabitants of the Quartier des poètes in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine admit that rough manners prevail in the quarter. Many are said to be poor themselves and to have a criminal record. That is why almost no one calls the police if something happens, it is said. However, it is very dangerous to equate poverty with an automatic disposition for crime. Many poor people are living decent and blameless. Once again, these are statements from individuals.

Meanwhile, senior French politicians condemned the deed. This view of the events is at odds with the French Rroma policies that have consistently evicted immigrated Rroma and discouraged them of integrating. Politicians of the right-wing nationalist Front National, as Louis Alliot, justify the lynching as the response of the population to a non-functioning state of law. That such acts of violence are promoted by a xenophobic propaganda against Rroma is not mentioned here. The politicians and journalists who accuse Rroma of collective criminality and antisocial behaviour are accomplices of this drift towards violence. Their marginalisation and exclusion promotes violence, as it is now happening in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. The press secretary of Romeurope, Laurent El-Ghozi also criticised this. One must not be surprised that the integration of immigrant Rroma fails, he suggest, if one consistently prevents them from integrating into society. Bastié (2014) denies this viewpoint. She accuses the sociologist Eric Fassin of producing ideological hot air. It is, she states, not the political discourse about the Rroma which is responsible for the recent violence, but the state, which does not comply with its obligations and has given rise to areas of legal freedom, where people take the law into their own hands. This, she argues, is complemented with the economic crisis and the new migration flows since the creation the Schengen area. Bastié is right that the marginalisation of the Rroma is not only due to the political discourse. However, she is wrong when she trivializes it with her criticism and declares it irrelevant. Words are often the first step, followed by deeds. Therefore, on the contrary: intellectual arson exists. Le Monde (2014/II) also accuses the silence of the French public in its latest editorial. The indifference of large parts of society implies that the denigration of the Rroma has become an accepted fact and has slowly but steadily established itself in French society. This indifference is very dangerous and prone to more vilence. It means a de facto toleration of massive injustices and grievances (compare De Gouyon Matignon 2014 I/II, Euzen 2014, Le Monde 2014, Molinié 2014).

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20.06.2014 Biggest Rroma camp in Marseille was evicted

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Various French newspapers report on the eviction of the largest Rroma camp in Marseilles. The illegal settlement was founded in response to the eviction of a camp in Capelette, in October 2013, and was home to around 400 people, including one hundred children. Most of them are now homeless, as the inter-ministerial circular which requires an early social diagnosis as well as the organisation of alternative accommodation, was very badly applied. Only eighteen families were accommodated in a different location. Once again, children, many of whom went to school, are particularly affected. Their further education is in doubt because of the eviction, and the long-term integration of the families is additionally complicated. Some of the residents have been moving from one camp to the next since ten years. During summer, the number of closures of Rroma settlements massively increases in France. In winter, many communities have a moratorium in evictions on humanitarian grounds. Most of the residents will move to other informal settlements, resulting merely in a shift of the problem from one place to the next. Papin (2014) comments: “Hundreds of people, consisting of members of organisations, members of the Front de Gauche and citizens, were present this morning. All request that long-term solutions have to be found. Otherwise, the problem is merely displaced. In a few days, one will discover that families have created another camp at a different location. Without a permanent solution to accommodation, the story of the evacuation of the Rroma camps will remain an eternal problem.” The next clearance of another camp is already announced. The fact that Rroma are repeatedly accused of voluntarily wanting to live in the camps is absurd and shows the lack of any understanding of social inequality (compare Civallero 2014, Fiorito 2014, Gruel 2014, L’express 2014, Libération 2014, Miguet 2014).

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20.06.2014 Nancy and Bastia: Several Rroma accused of child trafficking

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Le Point (2014) reports on the arrests of several suspects accused of being involved in the trade of infants. The ethnicity of the suspects is stated to be that of French travellers, the babies however are said to be Rroma. Whether the author of the article uses the terms interchangeably or whether he means a different ethnicity is not evident. The accused are supposed to have smuggled infants from Corsica to France and sold them in Marseille and Ajaccio. Only inaccurate information is available about the exact background and motives of the events. One of the biological mothers is said to have given birth to her child under a false identity to facilitate a resale. By making the ethnicity of the accused explicit, something anything but obvious, the article suggests that the offense is a Rroma cultural peculiarity. This is much more the matter of extreme behaviour by some individuals. Something that is not stressed at all. With this, all those Rroma who are living blameless lives are discredited. The phenomenon of child trafficking, as repeatedly portrayed in the media, has to be critically reviewed, as scientific social studies demonstrate. These refer to the prevalence of criminal explanations of human trafficking over the perspective of the people involved and their backgrounds (compare Ortoli 2014, Oude Breuil 2008, Oude Breuil et al 2011). 

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18.06.2014 Lynching of a Rroma in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine

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Many newspapers report a case of lynching in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. Neighbours of a local Rroma settlement accused a sixteen-year-old Rrom to have broken into one of their apartments. The group penetrated into the camp and abducted the young man with violence. They locked him in a basement and beat him severely. He was found along the National Road One on June 13th, lying unconscious in a supermarket shopping cart. His condition is critical; he is in a coma: “According to the current status of the investigations, that have been entrusted to the criminal investigation department of Seine-Saint-Denis, the prosecution of Bobigny remains cautious about the facts and the motives of the perpetrators. What is known is that a group of individuals arrived at camp where Darius and his family lived, late afternoon on Friday. According to a witness, the group was in possession of long weapons and opened fire around 17:30 without hurting anyone, before abducting the adolescent into a Clio” (Seelow 2014). The mother of the adolescent notified the police after the abduction of the boy. The victim was detained several times by the police for theft offenses. Lynch-law against minors is severely punished by the French judiciary. A couple, who had imprisoned and abused a fourteen-year-old thief in Toulouse for hours, was sentenced to three years in prison. However, until now, none of the perpetrators of this abuse has been arrested. Representatives of various organizations see the act as symptomatic of the increased intolerance towards Rroma in France. At the last European elections, the right-wing nationalist and repeatedly xenophobic National Front achieved a new high in votes. This act was preceded by a series of car break-ins, which the resident blamed the Rroma for. According to Libération (2014), the inhabitants of the local Rroma settlement have left their home precipitately. Ironically, Manuel Valls, who was repeatedly blamed for racist remarks against Rroma, condemned the incident decidedly and asked for an immediate arrest of the perpetrators (compare BBC News 2014, 20 minutes 2014, Le Figaro 2014, Le Monde 2014 I/II, Le Parisien 2014, Rollot 2014, Seelow 2014, Vincent 2014).

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13.06.2014 Marseille: forced eviction of Rroma settlement is imminent

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Several French newspapers report about the imminent eviction of an informal Rroma-settlement in Marseille. Around four hundred Rroma, including many children, would be affected by the planned eviction. Several aid organizations protested against the plans of the prefecture. The request for a moratorium on evictions was rejected by the administration. Paul Kopp, president of Rencontres Tziganes, criticized in a statement that the expulsion policy pushes the Rroma from one camp to the next, but changes nothing to their long-term situation. A moratorium on evictions would allow them to plan and implement a long-term integration. Civallero (2014) summarizes: “According to the prefecture, the population of the Roma in Marseille amounts to 1,200 to 1,300 people. In 26 areas settlements have formed, since the beginning of the year, five evictions took place, according to the organizations. In October last year, the largest camp in Marseille was evicted, located in the quarter Capelette of the 10th arrondissement, many families subsequently settled on the site of La Parette.” – In fact, it’s astonishing how persistently the French authorities evict the informal settlements at regular intervals, although new settlements are create shortly thereafter. Long-term solutions are needed. These depend primarily on the will of the policy makers. Does one give the Rroma the opportunity to integrate, or does one continue to marginalize them? Integration is a process that requires concessions and efforts from both sides, the migrants and society, respectively the state. Already last winter, the camp of La Parette was targeted, but at that time, the eviction was successfully prevented. Now the organizations and residents of the camp want to draw attention to the concerns of the Rroma with a poster campaign. The posters show the residents of the camp and ask the observer what are his/her thoughts towards the evictions (compare Delabroy 2014 Miguet 2014).

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13.06.2014 Swiss Federal office for migration accuses Rroma of abuse of return assistance

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Von Burg (2014) reports on a new report by the federal office for migration. An external evaluation of the federal office comes to the conclusion that the return assistance is functioning well, but in some cases has issues. The abuse of return assistance through Eastern European Rroma is cited as an example. Thereby a poverty phenomenon that also concerns other ethnic groups is made to be a Rroma problem. As part of the immigration debate in France, Germany and Great Britain on the occasion of the free movement of persons with Romania and Bulgaria, one can observe repeatedly that Rroma represented according to political views and debates and exploited for them. Such a categorization is racist something that does not seem to come to the mind of Von Burg and the migration commissioner Eduard Gnesa. However, the following statements are clearly demagogic: “It was the Roma from Eastern Europe, who specifically exploited the system of return assistance: they made hopeless asylum applications and then travelled back home with repatriation grants of up to 4000 francs per head. The Swiss special commissioner for international cooperation on migration, Eduard Gnesa, says: «From this example one can prove it. If you give too much money, this leads to this effect.» Roma don’t receive return assistance anymore since two years.” How these people were identified as Rroma is not clear. Was it from their asylum applications or by other means? The refusal of return aid for a specific ethnic group is simply racist. The fact that members of other ethnic groups can also exploit the return assistance because of poverty is completely neglected. Eduard Gnesa and Christian von Burg show no understanding for the differentiation of different phenomena. Instead, they present the issue as if it were exclusively Rroma that take advantage of return assistance. Thereby, the federal office for migration, which is indirectly mentioned as the source of information and should be aware of such methodologies as the very first, practices an ethnicization of poverty phenomena. However, poverty has nothing to do with ethnicity, apart from the exclusion that leads to it. That the federal office for migration does not understand this is deeply upsetting and very thought provoking.  

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07.06.2014 Valls must appear before court because of racist statements

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Several French newspapers report on the decision of the court hearing against the new head of government and former interior minister Manuel Valls. Valls had publicly announced last year that Rroma did not want to integrate, had an extremely different lifestyle than the French, and had the tendency to return to Romania and Bulgaria. The organization “La Voix des Roms” then filed suit against Valls because demagoguery. Now, the incumbent head of government will have to appear before the criminal court on May 28th, 2015. Valls’ lawyer announced that he questions the competence of the tribunal. Only the court of justice of the Republic, a special institution for ministers, is empowered to judge the actions of incumbent ministers, he stated. In October 2013, Valls already appeared before court due to a lawsuit by MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples). Valls was then acquitted (compare Europe 1 2014, Lacombe 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Schweitzer 2014).

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07.06.2014 Paris: 20 Rroma charged with child trafficking

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Several French newspapers report on a current trial against twenty adult Romanian Rroma. The residents of a former settlement in Seine-Saint-Denis are accused of inciting some forty children between nine and seventeen years to commit thefts for them between 2011 and 2012. Each child is said to have been forced to deliver the adults several wallets and mobile phones per day. Revenues from the stolen goods were used to pay off gambling debts or to support relatives in Romania. After surveillance of the children, the instigators of the criminal network were arrested in September 2012. While two persons are accused of human trafficking, the other defendants are accused of incitement to commit criminal activities. Once again, the explicit discussion of the ethnicity of the defendants suggests that there is a culture of delinquency among Rroma. The fact that these are extreme cases of individual members of the minority is completely ignored. Thereby, all Rroma who live integrated and blameless are discredited. In addition, the phenomenon of child trafficking, as it is shown repeatedly in the media, has to be critically questioned. Social science studies show that social realities behind begging or petty crime are largely hidden. Similarly, the structural differences of the societies involved and any related reasons for a migration from Romania to France. The research conveys a more complex, contradictory notion of the subject and points out that crimes such as incitement to begging or trafficking of children are pervaded by a wide variety of morals in the analysis and assessment by authorities, which deny the perspective and motivations of the people concerned and force on them their own ideas of organized begging, child trafficking or criminal networks (vergleiche France 3 2014, Le Figaro 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Midi Libre 2014, Oude Breuil 2008, Oude Breuil et al 2011).

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05.06.2014 Further evictions in the Île-de-France

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Several papers report on further evictions of informal Rroma settlements in the Île-de-France. Thus, in Villebon (Essonne) a camp that was built on a former industrial site, was evicted. The settlement was home to between 200 and 250 people. Samu social tired to provide as many alternative accommodation options to those affected as possible. On the day of the evacuation, the majority of the inhabitants had already left. When, at half past six, the security forces arrived, only about fifteen people were on site. A Rroma charity organisation criticizes in particular that the future education of the children is put in question by the eviction. Sometimes, the children are accommodated up to 70 kilometres from their school. A young Rroma is even enrolled at the local university: “About fifteen children were enrolled in a special class, five children in the high school of Palaiseau and a adolescent was enrolled at the Faculty of Law”, said M. Peschanski. “This effort of the enrolment that was coming to fruition, was destroyed this morning”, he added” (France 3 2014). Previously, the residents of the settlement were trying to obtain a postponement of the eviction on part of the authority until the end of the school year. Around 900 people had signed a petition that was presented to the local prefect. Inconclusive. The evacuation was carried out as planned and more are imminent. Barré (2014/I) points out that since the last municipal elections, in which the Front National has increased its share of votes, the mayors are under constant pressure to act. The Rroma are made to scapegoats for social ills, by connecting them with fears. The reservations are also directed to the responsible politicians. Mayors who previously supported the Rroma were not re-elected or now behave hide their views on the issue. However, small integration projects have shown that the inclusion of some selected families with the active support of the communities delivers very positive results. However, these create envy of observers who disapprove special treatment for a selected group. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that all needy people have a right to support, regardless of their ethnicity. One should also cease to speak of a Rroma problem. However, at present, communication silence prevails. No discussions take place, but the eviction policy is continued uncritically (compare Barré 2014/II, Delin 2014, Francetv info 2014, Labreigne 2014, Le Figaro 2014, Monier 2014).

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30.05.2014 Celebration of Saint Sara in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

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Dunlop (2014) reports the annual procession in honour of Saint Sara in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, taking place on the 24th and 25th of May. According to legend, Sara was the servant of the three holy Marys who came to France as a result of the persecution of the Christians and founded a Christian community there. Another explanation is that Sarah-la-Kali, as Saint Sara is also called, is a Christian modification of the Hindu Goddess Kali. This hypothesis is supported by the Indian origin of Rroma. During the procession, a statue of the saint is carried from the church to the sea. The ceremony attracts thousands of tourists and goes against the usual negative image of the Rroma. For the incumbent mayor of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Roland Chassain of the UMP, this is not a contradiction. Nicolas Sarkozy is said to appreciate riding and the music of the Rroma very much. Immigration policy is another matter, he states. With this, Dunlop points to a contradiction that is insufficiently discussed. When it comes to economic incentives, such as the famous St. Sara festival, the prejudices are happily laid aside for once. However, this tolerance disappears quickly when it comes to the removal of informal settlements, when the Rroma are again the hated minority: “Gitanes, Tigani, Roma, Gypsies – call them what you will, this is one day a year when, in the remote marshlands of the Camargue, they shed their minority status and become the majority. The sleepy seaside town, a stronghold of the National Front but ruled by the centre-right UMP, is transformed, the locals are outnumbered. “I am not anti-Gypsy”, protests Mayor Roland, “but their young are not disciplined, it has changed. It was different 40 years ago.”” However, Roland neglects in his explanation important historical and political upheavals. Not the young generation, the continued marginalization of the minority and economic crises lead to an escalation of the conflict between the minority and right-wing nationalist groups.

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30.05.2014 Persistent evictions in the Île-de-France

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Several French newspapers report on forced evictions of informal Rroma settlements in Île-de-France. Around ten settlements in Corbeil, situated on the Francilienne road ring, were evicted by the police forces and then destroyed by excavators: “Ten informal settlements, with about 300 people and situated in the middle of a junction of the Francilienne [traffic ring] and along this infrastructure, located in the municipality Corbeil-Essonnes and sited near the hospital Sud-Francilien, were evacuated on this day by the use of a court order and a municipal decree”, confirms the prefecture of Essonne. According to the organizations in support of the Roma, who were present at the sites, “numerous families preferred to leave at night, since they had been harassed by the police. Only a few dozen people remained” (Le Parisien 2014/I). According to the authorities, a “social diagnosis” was made and the needy were offered alternative accommodation options. However, this does not change the ongoing problem of regularly scheduled evictions that impede a successful integration of immigrant Rroma. In particular, children enrolled in school are disturbed by the evictions in their school careers. Laurent Lurton, from the Catholic aid of Essonne criticized in particular that numerous mothers with infants were affected by the forced evictions (compare Didio 2014, Essonne Info 2014, Libération 2014, Le Monde 2014, Le Parisien 2014/II, Le Républicain, Ménage 2014).

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28.05.2014 Rroma migrants in the Paris region

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Radio Dreyeckland (2014 I/II) reports about Rroma-migrants on the Île-de-France, from the perspective of the collective Romeurope du Val Maubuée. The activist François Loret talks in the interview about his experiences during the relief work in Champs-sur-Marne: about routine evictions of informal settlements, about human dignity, problems of everyday life and the exploitation of Rroma in the informal economy. The collective, which consists of about a hundred activists, advocates for the integration of immigrant Rroma. François Loret has an awareness of the political instrumentalisation of the Rroma through politics and its campaigning. But he neglects the integrated, invisible Rroma. Loret regrets the big reservations of many politicians towards the Rroma, who are often also uncritically solid against the Rroma because of the bias in the electorate. Therefore, many evictions are politically motivated, and not the result of safety defects or other deficits. At the same time, it is amazing how little anger can be found among Rroma, he states. Loret sees the evictions as counterproductive to a successful, long-term integration.

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