13.08.2014 Anti-Rroma demonstrations in Halle-Silberhöhe

Halle Spectrum (2014) reports about an anti-Rroma rally in Silberhöhe, a district of the city Halle in Saxony-Anhalt. In Silberhöhe, numerous Rroma families have been living for several weeks. At the rally, around 200 people expressed their anger about the neighbourhood’s new residents. On banners, slogans like “We live here!” could be read. According to estimates of Halle Spectrum, in addition to angry residents, there were also members of the extreme right among the 200 protesters: “According to police representatives on site, several participants were known to the police, some of them as criminals […]. A total of eight criminal complaints were filed, among other things for libel, assault and criminal damage. In five cases, simple physical violence had to be applied to enforce dismissals. In one case, the offense of demagoguery is being examined.” – Demonstrations against ethnic minorities such as the Rroma are always also an expression of the ambivalent policies and public opinion towards minority groups. Under the header of “poverty immigrants”, the press repeatedly stated that uneducated Rroma would supposedly migrate en masse into the German social security system, would not want to integrate and would create social tensions. That Rroma were made to an instrument for political debates on migration has rarely been explicitly addressed. Beyond the problematic and political notion of the “Rroma question”, there is the reality that gets far too little attention: For generations, 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma have been living in Germany in an integrated fashion. They work, pay taxes, and contribute to public prosperity. Among the immigrants there are many well-trained, highly skilled workers, who are rarely mentioned in the one-sided discussion. Among immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, there are not only Rroma, but also ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians and members of other ethnic groups. Conspicuous immigrants are not seldom simply made to be Rroma because of prejudices. The right-wing nationalist protesters, who rebel against foreign immigration, deny all this. The Rroma are not social parasites, but people like you and me. Rroma are not an underclass, but belong to all social classes. Most of them want to integrate many already have, but are not perceived as Rroma.