07.05.2014 Immigration from South-Eastern Europe is an economic and not a Rroma phenomenon

Demir (2014) discusses in the MiGAZIN once more the role of the Rroma in Europe’s debate on immigration from Southeast to Western Europe. He insists that immigration from Eastern Europe is not a Rroma problem but an economic phenomenon. Many skilled workers from Romania and Bulgaria have come to Germany for economic and social reasons, without provoking questions on whether they are Rroma or not. This only happens with so-called “poverty immigrants”, who are usually hastily referred to as Rroma. It is important to emphasize, Demir states, that the German Rroma-organizations are not contact- but dialogue-partners for the debate on immigration: “Not to be forgotten is the question of what the self-organization of my people can contribute. This includes the willingness to be available as a dialogue partner. In addition to that, the council of experts recommends entering into dialogue with the Roma self-organizations. It is important to emphasize: a dialog partner is not a contact-partner. The self-organizations justifiably see themselves not as a contact for immigration from South-Eastern Europe, precisely because it is not a Roma problem and should not be further ethnicized. [ …] It is unclear how high the Roma population of immigrant Bulgarians and Romanians is. Basically, it’s not even relevant. Because the membership to an ethnic group says nothing about the level of education or economic status of a person.” ” This viewpoint is contradicted by the opinion of many German politicians, also conservative ones: Rroma are heavily discriminated against and marginalized in Romania and Bulgaria and therefore come to Germany because they hope for a better life there. From this perspective, ethnicity is not entirely irrelevant. However, in the political debate it is unjustly intermingled with misleading culturalisms as Rroma clans, patriarchal structures or allegedly cultural-related anti-social behaviour and crime. In this context, Demir is completely to agree with that ethnicity should be kept out of the discussion.