Daily Archives: November 12, 2014

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12.11.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma and prostitution

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Szenogrady (2014) reports on the verdict against a Hungarian pimp who was sentenced for forcing a debtor and a long-time girlfriend into prostitution at the Zurich Sihlquai. The pimp is referred to as being Rrom. The victim’s ethnicity is not explicitly stated, but it is suggested that there are also Rroma. The pimp was sentenced to prison for four years: “With a now 34-year-old labourer from Hungary, a brutal Roma pimp had to stand trial for human trafficking, promotion of prostitution, extortion and other crimes at the Zurich high court. […] The pimp had threatened an indebted compatriot with death by shackling him in Hungary and menacing him to push him into a water channel. […] In Zurich, the offender forced his trafficked victim into prostitution on the Sihlquai. Although the victim is heterosexual, he had to disguise himself as a woman and to sexually satisfy diverse punters as a transvestite over several weeks. […] The brutal perpetrator also brought a long time girlfriend in his power. […] In Zurich, the young woman had to prostitute herself for several months and pass her winnings to her patron. If she protested, he hit her or threatened to throw her out the window.” Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. However, by the one-sided media focus on delinquent Rroma, this impression is wrongly suggested and maintained. Few Rromni and Rrom are effectively involved in prostitution.

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12.11.2014 RTS: one-sided reportage about Rroma in Switzerland

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Widmann and Widmer-Baggiolini (2014) report in a current documentary about the life of Rroma in Switzerland. Unfortunately, the journalists focus their attention only on those Rroma who are already visible and who are anyway in the media focus: Rroma who recently immigrated from Romania, many of whom live begging. At the beginning of the report, one can see a young Rromni on a public square of Lausanne. She repeatedly speaks with passers-by and asks them for some money. Before that, the audience is at home of the young woman and sees her together with her little daughter. She begs for herself and not for a criminal clan, as it is often incorrectly stated. This stereotype is put into perspective at the very beginning. Even the police officer responsible for Rroma confirms that there is no organised begging in Lausanne. The portrayed beggars state that they earn 15 to 20 francs per day. Thus, they earning far less than the official estimates, which talk of several hundred francs per day. A family portrayed has been repeatedly fined for illegal camping and begging. Without the help of the Rroma organisation “Opre rrom”, and its president Véra Tchérémissinoff, the family could not have paid the fines. For health care, the family is dependent on the organisation’s help and also takes help from the church. Two other recently immigrated families live in a big house, thanks to the help of a real estate owner. Here, Widmann and Widmer-Baggiolini focus on the school enrolment of the children. These have undergone numerous interruptions in their education, even if though they want to go to school. A negative notion about lack of education among Rroma is conveyed here. Another reproduced stereotype are traditional gender roles and child marriages: a young teenage girl goes not to school, as her mother states, because she is already married, and therefore must remain at home for reasons of tradition. Most of the 80,000 to 100,000 Rroma who have been living in Switzerland for generations, have a job, speak one of the national languages and send their children to school. This is not mentioned. Neither is the fact that traditions such as traditional gender roles or early marriages are critically questioned by educated Rroma. At the end of the report, one sees some of the portrayed Rroma back in Rumania. They live in poverty, but due to the large wealth gap between Switzerland and Romania, they live appreciably better thanks to the panhandled money.

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12.11.2014 Rroma attend anti-racism rally in Waterford

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McCormack (2014) reports on an anti-racism rally in Waterford, Ireland. A racist pogrom against Rroma took place at the end of October, culminating in the attack of a house inhabited by Rroma. The protesters accused the Rroma of burglaries and thefts. The residents could be brought to safety thanks to the police’s intervention. In response to the pogrom, a rally against xenophobia took place in early November. A Rroma family from Dublin, who had kept their identity a secret until now also took part: „Roma woman Jennifer Ciuciu (20) concealed her true identity for three years for fear of persecution when she moved from Romania to Ireland with her family. […] So Jennifer and her four siblings said they were “Romanian instead of Roma gypsies.” And in the aftermath of the recent “anti-Roma protests” in Waterford, they have no regrets about denying their roots. “Some people are so racist. If had to go back I would hide it again because I wouldn’t like what happened here to happen to me”, she said standing in the middle of John Robert’s Square at last week’s Waterford Against Racism protest.” Chief superintendent Pat Murphy condemned the anti-Rroma pogrom as racist scapegoat politics by people who are not interested in public safety. In the UK, there are an estimated 90,000 to 120,000 Rroma according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation. The majority of them are integrated and have a job. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups, but are particularly affected by discrimination and exclusion. In recent months and years, right-wing populist parties and the media have fuelled fears of a mass immigration of Eastern European Rroma, which allegedly would abuse the British welfare system and do not want to integrate. Such prejudices and misinformation also spread because of uncritical media coverage.

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12.11.2014 Rroma and asylum in Canada

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Cain (2014) reports on a new and controversial practice in the Canadian immigration policy. Financial subsidies are paid to immigrants when they voluntarily agree to renounce an asylum procedure and return to their homeland. From the perspective of immigration lawyers, this practice is not without problems, as asylum applicants are  encouraged to give up their rights in return for financial incentives: “Under the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Program, unsuccessful refugee claimants who agree to abandon the appeal process are given airfare home, which on average costs $1,500, and “in-kind reintegration assistance” to a maximum of $2,000. […] Immigration lawyers question how voluntary the program – targeted at people who are often extremely poor, worried about incarceration or deportation and may be unfamiliar with Canada’s refugee appeal system – really is. “The more appeal rights you give up, the more money you get,” says immigration lawyer Max Berger. […] “Essentially, it’s a bribe. The Government of Canada is offering refugee claimants money, which is tied to them forgoing their appeal rights.” In addition, Cain’s article discusses the fate of a Rroma family from Slovakia. The father portrayed points out on his ill-treatment and discrimination in his home country. He wanted to spare his two young sons such experiences through emigration to Canada. For five years, the young family man has been living there with his children and his wife. However, the personal experiences of discrimination have little impact compared to the official estimates of the authorities. Rroma are not politically persecuted in Europe. However, that does not mean that they do not experience discrimination in everyday life, in the education system and the labour market.

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12.11.2014 Judgment of the European Court of Justice: Social abuse remains an exception nonetheless

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Various newspapers report on a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice. The object of the lawsuit was the complaint of an unemployed Romanian woman, who sued the German government, because it didn’t want to allow her to obtain any social funds. Since the woman was not actively seeking work, the European Court of Justice dismissed the complaint. However, the judgment, which is seen by some officials as a precedent against social tourism to Germany, should be seen in a critical context: social abuse is the exception, not the norm. The ethnicity of the applicant was considered by most of the media as “Romanian”. Nevertheless, in the context of the debate about the so-called “poverty immigration”, it was repeatedly claimed that primarily poor, uneducated Rroma would migrate to Germany. This polemical misrepresentation was far too little critically questioned and criticised. Therefore, it is important to rectify that most migrants are looking for work and are no social tourists: “Not social benefits in the host countries are the reasons that pull Romanians and Bulgarians abroad, but the better job and income opportunities. When in June, in Hamburg, a personnel secondment firm went broke and 230 workers from Romania and Bulgaria were left penniless, one wondered at the local job centre: only four of the persons concerned remained in the country, all the others went back home. […] Poverty migrants from Bulgaria and Romania constitute, according to figures from German or Belgian cities, only for ten percent of the immigrants – which is about the proportion of the poor population in both countries” (Mappes-Niediek 2014). Already now, 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma are living in Germany, many of them for generations. They have a job, speak German and are integrated. These invisible Rroma are constantly hidden in the often one-sided debate about the immigration of low skilled “poverty migrants”. In addition, not only Rroma migrate to Western Europe, but also ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians and members of other ethnic groups (compare Hacker-Walton 2014, Linke 2014, Preuss 2014).

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12.11.2014 Goberling: memorial for the victims of the Rroma Holocaust

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ORF (2014) reports on the inauguration of a memorial for the victims of the genocide committed by the National Socialists. In Goberling, in the southeast of Austria, there were around 120 Rroma in the beginnings of the 1940s. Many of them were employed in the mining industry, as the historian Gerhard Baumgartner states. Then, in 1943, almost all of them were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau: “In the era of National Socialism, thousands of Roma have been murdered. Entire neighbourhoods were obliterated, including those in Goberling (District Oberwart). Now, a memorial for the victims of National Socialism was built there. […] Until their deportation, the Roma were virtually the only Catholics in Goberling. After the war, their church remained empty. About 60 years ago, the Catholic parish of Stadtschlaining sold the church, the evangelical pastor of Stadtschlaining, Gerhard Harkam, said. The municipality had initially taken over the church and later sold it to the Lutheran church of Goberling. Next to the Goberlinger Church, which is one of the oldest in Burgenland, a memorial stone has been built now on the initiative of mayor of Goberling, Hans Bieler.” In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, 30,000 Rroma registered were murdered. Researchers estimate at least half a million casualties among the Rroma. The genocide of the Rroma is much less known in comparison to the mass murder of the Jews.

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