13.12.2013 Rroma and Poverty in the Czech Republic

Rühmkorf (2013) reports on the Czech city of Josefov, in which there is increasing tension between the resident Rroma who make around one third of the local population, and ethnic Czechs. The right-wing Workers’ Party (DSSS) succeeded increasingly in mobilising apolitical citizens against the Rroma. One of the grievances causing the frictions are real estate speculators who buy up town homes and flats cheaply, and then rent them to Rroma and who take social funds from them: “The city no longer rents apartment because of Rroma, instead they sell – often at bargain prices – their real estate to businesses, without any conditions on usage. The carve-up the spaces with partitions into smaller units. Their Clientele: socially deprived Roma, who have no work and are undesirable elsewhere. In order for them to get any social assistance and housing benefits, the landlord must confirm them a permanent address. That’s what he loves to do. The kickback:. Rents equivalent to 400 euro and more for residential units, which sometimes do not even have a bathroom” Rümkorf’s article shows once again that a poverty issues is made to be an ethnic problem r. The residents of Josefov should not demonstrate against Rroma, but against poverty and against exclusion. Instead Rroma and impoverishment are uncritically equated.