Category Archives: France

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23.04.2014 Free movement of workers: access to the labour market remains difficult

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Pastural (2014) reports – on the occasion of the European free movement of workers with Romania and Bulgaria since January 2014 – about possible improvements in the access of Rroma to the French labour market. However, this is not the case. The access to the labour market for the low-skilled Rroma workers remains very difficult: “Full of experience as a result of working in agriculture or construction in Greece and Italy, Ionut Nica waited impatiently for the end of the transitional arrangements, towards the access of Romanian nationals to the labour market of the Schengen area. Since January 2014, Ionut has the right to work. “There was a tremendous hope on the part of Mr. Nica, who expected this splendid date of the month of January as if it would change his whole life”, laments Florence Marrand, social worker at the medical-social establishment of the Conseil général of Puy-de-Dôme, who advises Ionut Nica regularly for a little over one year. “Today, he is deeply disappointed. Certainly, he was able to enrol at the job centre, he could enrol at the work-assistant mission, he was able to answers vacancies. But nothing has changed specifically, absolutely nothing…“ It is to hope that Pastural is wrong with his portrayal of two individual cases, and the inclusion of immigrant Rroma into the labour market will enhance. At the latest, when the effects of the economic crisis are finally gone. One problem is, according to Pastural, the lack of resources to improve ones qualifications, and thus the appeal for the labour market.

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23.04.2014 Le Progrès publishes racist article about delinquent Rroma

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Several French newspapers report on an article, published by the regional newspaper Le Progrès, which assigns different types of offenses to various nationalities, including the Rroma. These are named directly in connection with petty crimes, prostitution, scrap metal theft and burglary offenses. That the Rroma are not a nationality but an ethnic group, Annie Demontfaucon (2014), the author of the article, seems to have forgotten. In France, statistics based on national origin are allowed, but not those that capture ethnic membership. Therefore, Le Progrès makes itself liable to prosecution with the infographics, as the attorney of La Voix des Roms confirms. SOS Racisme will file suit against the newspaper for illegal, ethnic profiling of Rroma. The same will be done by Licra (Ligue internationalle contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme), which stated that even the mention of national identity in the context of crime is far from unproblematic. A third lawsuit will be filed by the Movement against Racism MRAP (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples). MRAP also raises the question of whether the sources of the article can be traced back to racist police statistics. But this question cannot be clearly answered: “For their sources, explains the chief editor, they simply contacted the offices of the police, the gendarmerie, and the customs authority, who communicated them the general trends, based on their observations and the arrests. The general trends therefore, but no official figures” (Metro News 2014). Christophe Soullez, head of the national observation post for delinquency and criminal justice (ONDRP), decidedly questions the quality and origin of the sources. While the ONDRP itself publishes statistics based on national affiliation, these only list perpetrators sentenced by the court and not conjectures on the membership of the actors. A link between ethnicity and crimes committed is clearly racist and illegal, he states. La Voix des Roms filed a complaint against an illegal, ethnic file a few years ago, with the name “Minorités Ethniques Non Sédentaires (MENS). Not surprisingly, on the side of the Front National, one praised the article of Le Progrès. Florian Philippot, vice-president of the National Front, announced that he thanked the newspaper that they showed the negative effects of immigration. The fact that this is a deeply biased and racist interpretation of the facts, the conservative nationalist politician cares little about (compare Conxicoeur 2014, Metronews 2014, Le Figaro 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Le Huffington Post 2014).

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16.04.2014 6th arrondissement: turmoil around a racist police letter against Rroma

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Several French newspapers report on an internal letter from the police of the 6th arrondissement in Paris. The note by a police officer orders the police of the  arrondissement to locate all Rroma living in the streets and to expel them: “From now on and until new directives to the staff of the 6th arrondissement are given, all Rroma families living in the streets have to be located day and night and systematically expelled” (Le Monde 2014). One senior police officer, interviewed by Le Parisien, expressed to be snubbed by “violent and illegal” nature of the text. The letter is illegal because it is explicitly forbidden in France to mark people based on their ethnicity and to make them the targets of interventions. The mayor of 6th arrondissement, Pierre Lecoq, was not surprised by the tone of the letter and announced that he did not want to see Rroma families with small children in the streets. The number of Rroma families in the area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has tripled in the last two months, Lecoq stated. He also perpetuates the racist notion of child-trafficking gangs that deliberately educate Rroma children to beg and steal. Jean-Pierre Colombies, delegate of the national police syndicate, said that he regretted the fact that police officers have to implement instructions from the police headquarters, which are directed by ruling politicians. The expulsion of Rroma from one place to another doesn’t solve anything, he added. The Paris police prefecture in turn communicated that the proposed approach directly derives from the directives of Pierre Lecoq, who demanded decisive actions against the Rroma. Gérard Taieb, attorney for personal rights, discredits Lecoq’s argument as pure hypocrisy. Taieb stated that it was not about the protection of the children. By expelling the families from the streets, the minors and infants are not helped in any way. The detection and expulsion of a group of people based on their ethnic affiliation was clearly illegal. This view was assented by the new interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, in his public statement.

The new spokesman for the French government, Stéphane Le Foll, stated that there were clear guidelines and rules on how the police should behave in the event of such circumstances, regardless of internal proposals. Le Foll also denied estimates that there was an “invasion” of Rroma in 6th arrondissement. No increase in the number of Rroma had been recorded. Le Foll added that it must not be forgotten that there are actual slums and one should try to make the Rroma immigrants move back to their countries of origin. At this point, Le Foll must be contradicted, since this migration happens because of discrimination, poverty and lack of perspectives. Most immigrant Rroma want to integrate, have a job and lead a normal life. This intention is denied them repeatedly and decidedly, as one hear clearly in an interview with Louis de Matignon Gouyon on Europe 1 (20 minuntes 2014, Béguin 2014, Carez 2014, Europe1, Le Figaro in 2014, Le Monde in 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Politi 2014).  

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16.04.2014 Manual Valls has to go back to court

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The new Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, must again appear in front of the court. The Rroma organization La Voix des Rroms accuses him of incitement to “discrimination, hatred, and violence” against Rroma. The lawsuit relates to statements that Valls made on the March 14th and on September 24th, 2013 in presence of the French press. He accused Rroma immigrants in France of wilfully not wanting to integrate and stated that there is widespread, intra-ethnic crime amongst them: “The inhabitants of the camps do not want to integrate into our country, for cultural reasons or because they are at the mercy of begging or prostitution networks. […] They have an extremely different lifestyle than we do and are obviously enough on a confrontation course: we all know, the proximity of these camps causes begging and theft and therefore delinquency. […] The Rroma have a tendency to return to Romania and Bulgaria.” Fassin wonders why the lawsuit against Valls has not received any media attention. He explains this lack of interest on the one hand with a focus on his political profile that is characterized by seriousness and rigor, and on the other hand, with the verdict of the French court of December 13th, 2013. This first lawsuit against Valls, filed by the French movement against racism (MRAP), was rejected with the explanation that Valls’ statements were not a minister’s instructions, but personal opinions of the politician: “[the minister] is in the exercise of his function when he is issuing instructions […] but not when he interacts with the media to express his opinion. […] The French Republic does not recognize the concept of race. [He] could only be in the exercise of his functions, if he recommended a different treatment of persons, based on their origin.” Fassin discredits this justification of the French court as absurd. It means that de facto a minister can never possibly speak on behalf of the government in matters relating to racism, but only ever on his own. Thus one allows Manual Valls and other policy makers to enjoy the privilege of fools, while it is denied to the rest of the population, whereby Fassin is absolutely right (Fassin 2014).

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11.04.2014 Robert Kushen: the integration of Rroma remains a challenge

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day, the chairman of the European Rroma Rights Centre, Robert Kushen, reflects on the situation of the Rroma in Europe and the continuing challenges for this minority (Kushen 2014). He arrives at a sober view: the decade of Rroma inclusion, which was adopted in Sofia in 2005, and encompassed the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain, unfortunately cannot fulfil the expectations that it raised. Rroma are still affected by widespread poverty, discrimination, unemployment and insufficient access to public institutions such as schools and hospitals: “Despite this political recognition of an unconscionable social crisis, Roma remain among the poorest, unhealthiest, least educated and most marginalised European citizens. The data are devastating: Across Central and Southeast Europe, 90 percent of Roma live in poverty. Fewer than one third of adults have paid employment. Only 15 percent of young Roma have completed secondary or vocational school. Nearly 45 percent of Roma live in housing that lacks basic amenities. Life expectancy in Roma communities is 10-15 years less than in non-Roma communities, with many Roma lacking access to insurance and health care.” Kushen refers in his judgement to information from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 2013). Reasoning with such figures is not without dangers, since the representation of the Rroma as uneducated, poor, and unhealthy is often interpreted by the polemical, public discourse as a cultural peculiarity of the minority, although these characteristics are inevitably a poverty phenomenon. Although is not to deny that numerous Rroma are poor and uneducated, the relevant question is whether such an argument can contribute to the  integration of the Rroma. In addition, surveys often only take into account the visible Rroma, because the integrated ones are hard to identify as Roma and difficult to contact. Not only images of misery are needed, which generate compassion, but also images of success that allow a positive identification.

Kushen continues with information about the marginalization of the Rroma in Italy, France, Sweden and Hungary, and then gets on to the latest report from the European Union on the situation of the Rroma. The report published on April the second this year, can not present success stories either: “In early April, the European Commission convened a “Roma Summit” and issued a report assessing how member states are doing in addressing the interconnected problems of poverty and discrimination which the Roma are facing. The report noted “the persistence of segregation” in education, a large and in some cases widening employment gap between Roma and non-Roma, big differences between Roma and non-Roma in health insurance coverage, and an “absence of progress” in addressing the need for housing. Finally, the report noted that discrimination remains “widespread” (compare European Commission 2014).

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09.04.2014 Amnesty International criticizes the continuing discrimination against Rroma

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Many newspapers chronicle the report published by Amnesty International on April the 8th, the International Rroma Day, which accuses the social discrimination against Rroma. Amnesty International comes to a grim conclusion in regard to the social integration of the minority: the Rroma in Europe are still highly marginalized, the political will to foster them is often deficient and hate crimes against the minority are all too often re-interpreted as a lack of willingness to integrate: “The violent offenders are encouraged by the passive attitude of the governments, which accept a systematic discrimination against the Roma silently”, notes Çalışkan [German secretary general of AI]. “Instead of resolutely opposing violence and discrimination, many European politicians even fuel the notion that Roma are responsible for their own exclusion. Such statements by high-ranking politicians encourage further violence in society and are a distortion of the facts. The current situation of many Roma can be traced back to the years of disregard for the rights of Europe’s largest minority” (Amnesty International 2014/IV). –  “In its report, Amnesty urges national governments in Europe [and the European Union] to condemn hate crimes and to clarify that racist acts will not be tolerated. Among other things, the human rights activists propose to collect data and publish data on hate crimes” (Kalkhof 2014). There follows an analysis of the status quo of the minority in the Czech Republic, France and Greece. In all three countries, the defamation of the Rroma is still massive, the report states. While right-wing extremist groups in the Czech Republic rally against the ethnic group, in France the already mentioned discourse of a supposedly lacking will to integrate dominates the debate. This view totally ignores the exclusion of the minority in the sense of a repressive, nationalist governance. If the Rroma are not given any opportunity to integrate, they cannot, no matter how hard they try. Especially worysome is the repression on Rroma exerted by state institutions. This includes both governments and their measures taken against the minority, as well as executive institutions such as the police and the judiciary. Romani Rose describes the voting share of 21% of the openly Rroma-hostile Jobbik party as a “danger signal for Europe” to no longer passively accept discrimination against the Rroma (Amnesty International 2014/I, Amnesty International 2014/II, Amnesty International 2014/III, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2014, Joerin 2014, Kalkhof 2014, Süddeutsche Zeitung 2014).

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02.04.2014 Insidious racism in France

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Several French newspapers report on the latest publication of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNCDH). The commission concludes that racism in France is in overall decline, but that it has become more insidious, subtle and sneaky as a result. Christine Lazerges, the president of the commission, concludes: “In the long view, racism in France decreases, the time of the riots is long gone, but the racism that is propagated today is much more insidious and no longer limited to the extremist edges. It pervades all strata of society.  […] The scapegoats today are particularly Rroma, who are stigmatized, including from the government, and then the Arab Muslims.” Whether the time of racially motivated riots actually belongs to the past may be doubted. Marches of right-wing groups against ethnic minorities such as the Rroma regularly take place in several Eastern European countries. The results of a recent survey, mandated by the commission, makes clear that negative stereotypes towards the Rroma are persisting in the minds of many people. 85% of the thousand respondents said that they believed that Rroma often exploit children and 78 % that they live of theft and the black market. In addition, the suspicion towards anti-racism actors is said to be significant. The commission recommends to continuously foster the education of the population, because it has been shown that there is a clear link between educational alienation and racism. The commission’s authors acknowledge that the Rroma are a heterogeneous group and are not belonging to a homogeneous culture or a single religion. However, they mistakenly assume that the Rroma live in France only since the early 20th century (CNCDH 2014: 201). However, they appear in France in early chronicles since the beginning of the 15th century. Tassel (2014) emphasizes the particular context in which the book is published. On the weekend of March 30th, the right-wing nationalist National Front, which bases significant parts of its policies on xenophobia, achieved a new high in the electorate. In addition, a new Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has been inaugurated. He is notorious for his repressive policies towards the Rroma. The commission also emphasises the distinction between visible and invisible Rroma, a differentiation that has been fostered by the Rroma Foundation for quite some time: “Only a small minority of the Rroma define themselves in this way – between 15,000 and 20,000, who generally originate of a recent immigration from Bulgaria and Romania – live in a very large uncertainty, that means in the slums. The others are not “visible” and do not live in a state of extreme poverty. The vast majority consists of Gens du voyage, an estimated 350,000 people” (CNCDH 2014: 201-202). This view is contradicted by Tcherenkov/Laederich (2004: 4, 513), who make a clear distinction between travellers of European origin and Rroma. The latter are almost invariably not travelling and belong to the groups of the Manouche, Sinti, Gitans, Kaldersha, Lovara and Yugoslav Rroma (20 minutes 2014, La Croix 2014, CNCDH 2014, Tassel 2014, Vincent 2014).

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02.04.2014 Elections in Hungary: Hungarian Rroma party (Magyarországi Cigány Part, MCP) aims to strengthen the rights of the Rroma

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Murphy (2014) reports about the Hungarian election campaign on the occasion of the forthcoming parliamentary elections of the 6th of April. On this occasion, the newly established Rroma party Magyarországi Cigány Part tries to give more emphasis to the concerns of the Rroma. The president of the party, Aladar Horvat, held a campaign speech before the residents of Ozd, a former industrial city, with a majority of Rroma: “If we stick together, we can fix our problems. No one else will”, the soft-spoken 49-year-old told Agence France-Presse in Ozd, a rusting former industrial town right on the Slovakian border. Vast steelworks once employed thousands of Roma in Ozd, a town of about 34,000 inhabitants, but today, they lie derelict. Widespread unemployment and poverty has fuelled mistrust against the Roma, and far-right party Jobbik – the country’s third biggest party – is building on that anger.” So far, there were only two Rroma politicians in the 386-member parliament of Hungary, two of them members of the ruling party Fidesz. Murphy describes the distrust of many Rroma against the Hungarian politicians as being massive. The consistent poverty and discrimination over the years made many lose their faith in politics. In addition, several Rroma criticized that a party focusing on ethnic membership was not working in the sense of a successful integration, but would rather make it more difficult.

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02.04.2014 Invisible Rromni in the book “Baxtale Romnia”

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The Nordstadtblogger (2014) reports on the publication of the book “Baxtale Romnia” by Magdalena Stengel and Helene Pawlitzki. Together, the photographer and the journalist visited integrated Rromnia living in Germany, England, France, the Netherlands, and Hungary. In the book, these invisible Rromnia give information on their lives, their decisions and their favourite recipes. Through that, they create positive counter-images to the persistent negative stereotypes about Rroma: “street prostitution, poverty, problematic houses, welfare fraud, truants: with these keywords, media report on Sinti and Roma in Germany. In contrast, success stories are all but missing: about well-integrated, educated, successful and creative Romnia one rarely reads or hears […] These are women who have succeeded in securing a nice place in life – sometimes against considerable opposition, says the author of the book-texts, Helene Pawlitzki […]. They are self-confident, successful, strong, and they know what they want. What life has thrown at their feet, they have taken up and made the best of it. For us their life stories were very inspiring.” The book launch will take place on April 4th in the Nordstadtgalerie in Dortmund.

  • Nordstadtblogger (2014) “Baxtale Romnia” zeigt erfolgreiche Roma-Frauen aus Europa: Studentinnen präsentieren ihr fotografisches Kochbuch. In: Nordstadtblogger online vom 30.3.2014. http://nordstadtblogger.de/10114
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02.04.2014 Manuel Valls and the French Rroma policy

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Manuel Valls is the new prime minister of France. President François Hollande is taking the consequences of the bad result the Socialists made in the French municipal elections. Valls is notorious for his repressive policies towards Rroma. Cécile Duflot, the minister for social housing, criticized Valls policy repeatedly in the past two years and described it as a threat to the Republican pact. Valls accused the immigrant Rroma sweepingly of not wanting to integrate, whereby justifying his repressive policy of forced evictions and deportations, which is no less rigid than the one of the Sarkozy government. He also spoke out against voting rights for foreigners, which was not implemented until now. Duflot will no longer be a minister in the Valls’ government (Beguin 2014, Le Figaro in 2014, Le Point 2014 Metro News 2014).

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02.04.2014 Pierre-Alexandre Bouclay’s supposed truths about the Rroma

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Bouclay (2014) offers himself as revelator of hitherto undisclosed grievances of the Rroma in France. He claims that the French welfare system fosters organised crime amongst Rroma through its humane legislation against minor offenders. That the ideas of organised gangs build upon suspicions and cultural stereotypes about Rroma is not discussed here. This is also the case about his massive criticism of the EU-funds for the Rroma integration, which he dismisses as largely ineffective because they are said to disappear in the black economy. That these are rather problems of coordination between EU-policies and national policy programs, he totally denies: “A circular on minors from 1945 prohibits that a child is placed under police custody. In 2012, 8’000 Rroma children were arrested at least once in Paris. They are systematically released. The mafia networks didn’t expect as much. With humanism and indulgences, one promotes the spread of organized crime. 17.5 billion Euros were assigned by the European Commission for the integration of the Rroma for the period of 2007 till 2013. It is of public notoriety that a significant proportion of these funds was diverted to fraudulent organizations and corrupt politicians. A part of this assistance is blocked today, due to lack of transparency.” Bouclay’s supposed revelations about Rroma and inefficient EU-funds build on crude generalisations and assumptions. What he represents as a public general knowledge are rather myths of public opinion, an opinion, which satisfies itself with simple explanations, regardless of their truthfulness. More critical, complex analysis would not hurt Bouclay.

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02.04.2014 The Rroma and the French mayoral elections

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Rigaux (2014) discusses the relationship between French mayoral elections and the Rroma. The latter played a prominent role in the campaign, often in the figure of a scapegoat for social ills or in the form of slums. The frightening thing about the terminologies “Rroma question” and “Rroma problem” is their inevitable reference to the “Jewish question” under National Socialism. However, in the case of France, the important question is how to integrate immigrant Rroma as successfully as possible. To accuse them of a cultural unwillingness to integrate is counterproductive. But precisely this happened again and again in the course of the election campaign. Another point of contention are the so called “integration villages”, which are meant to facilitate the integration of the Rroma immigrants into French society. The proponents see the integration villages as a positive method to prevent the emergence of slums, to promote the enrolment of children in schools, to prevent begging and other unwanted activities and to foster the willingness to integrate among the immigrants. Critics fault the high cost of the institutions and see it as unfair advantage for one ethnic group at the expense of other taxpayers. In this discussion about the integration measures for immigrant Rroma, once more only the visible Rroma are in the focus. The ones who are living an integrated life in France, making up between 100,000 and 500,000 persons, are never addressed or considered in these discussions.

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29.03.2014 General attorney Rolf Grädel reinforces racial prejudice

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Summer (2014) reports on the results of a recent crime statistic for the canton Bern. Overall, less violence was committed in 2013. On the other hand, the number of burglaries has risen. At this point, Summer begins to talk about crime-tourism. As a source of information, the general attorney of Bern Rolf Grädel is quoted. Grädel reinforces racial prejudices of criminal Rroma networks: “For them, our country is not only attractive because of the prey, also, the risk of getting caught is not very high, Grädel” said. Moreover, in Switzerland, the penalties imposed would hardly deter the perpetrators from committing further crimes. In Roma circles in France, there is apparently a leaflet circulating, which recommends Switzerland as a destination, because the penalties are significantly milder there than anywhere else.” This statement is highly racist, because it implies a direct correlation between ethnicity and criminal offenses. It would not hurt Rolf Grädel to choose his words a little more carefully. The cliché of hierarchically organized Rroma networks, which educate children to become criminals, stubbornly persists. Especially the Weltwoche cites it regularly. However, these ideas are based on suspicions and crude generalizations, which is almost never discussed. Real complexity is replaced here by one dimensional explanation that present reality in a very biased way. 

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29.03.2014 Racism-lawsuit against Jacques Domergue

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The French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed a lawsuit against the UMP politician Jacques Domergue. Domergue said in public, on the occasion of the mayoral elections of Montpellier that: “The Rroma have no place in the city centre. I tell you very clearly. I will be very uncompromising concerning security (…). I am on the line of Estrosi. I see today how Rroma attack young people and old ladies at cash machines. I will not tolerate this. Without further ado, they will disappear from the city centre.” Domergue is not alone with his racist remarks. Last year, many French politicians, from left to right, from candidates to elected ministers, made racist remarks against Rroma. At least, the French law doesn’t tolerate these transgressions passively. However, whether the lawsuits, whose verdicts usually turn out very mild, will change something in this practice is not clear (Dubault 2014, Le Figaro 2014).

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26.03.2014 French mayoral elections: Rroma give their requests a voice

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Courtel (2014) reports on a group of Romanian Rroma who made use of their right to vote as EU-citizens and participated in the French municipal elections in Tourcoing. In addition to their EU-citizenship, they had to prove to be members of their community since more than six months. The participation of immigrant Rroma has mainly socio-political symbolism: in the media, they are accused again and again to not wanting to integrate. Now, they could actively demonstrate their desire for integration with their participation in the elections. Whether their specific demands – access to the labour market, material security – will be heard by the by the elected politicians is another question. Also in other municipalities in France, immigrant Rroma – which are usually visible in the media in contrast to the integrated ones – went voting: “The Rroma from Tourcoing are not the only ones: in Villeurbanne, in Saint-Denis, in Vitry … they also wanted to make use of their European legal rights and go voting. Some of them had access, the request of others was denied, under the pretext that they had no fixed domicile.” Based on the last example, the deprivation of the right to vote as a result of an ascribed homelessness, one can see how cultural stereotypes continue to influence reality. Most Rroma are not travellers.

On occasion of the French mayoral elections, Mathis (2014) reviews the statements of interior minister Manuel Valls towards Rroma. In September 2013, he alleged all Romanian Rroma a general unwillingness to integrate into French society: “The residents of the camps do not want to integrate into our country because of cultural reasons, or because they are in the hands of begging or prostitution networks.” Mathis identifies Valls expressions as deeply shameful and populist, as a disgrace for a French minister. Valls remarks are a clear case of state racism against a minority, a reductionist populism, which does not differ between different individuals of a group. The Rroma are Europeans, both politically and historically, this can not be repeated often enough.

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26.03.2014 The rise of the right-wing populists

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Reinecke (2014) reports on the new upsurge of nationalist parties in Europe. Until now, their influence has remained modest. However, especially in view of the forthcoming elections for the European Parliament, a reversal-trend is looming. A strong growth of nationalistically enclined voters has to be expected. In France, the share of votes for the National Front has already risen to 23 percent: “Admittedly, the conservatives and social democrats will retain the majority in the European Parliament. But if extreme right-wing Euro-sceptics become the strongest party in a core state of the EU – then that is a symbol. Something starts to slide: populism, fears of foreign domination and prosperity chauvinism become stronger.” Reinecke encourages not to stand idly in the face of this swing to the right, but to take action against those who question the free movement of persons and the European Economic zone. One should not simply shrug in reaction to the vote against the free movement of persons by Switzerland. Concerning Rroma, he names the political instrumentalisation of the ethnic group by right-wing publications such as the Weltwoche, which has repeatedly stirred up hatred against the minority. That such tendencies cannot be met with silence, can’t be stressed often enough.

Bade (2014) complements these reflexions with his thoughts on the German immigration debate. He begins with the economic idea that the increasing impoverishment of the middle and lower classes make more and more people susceptible to “defensive attitudes and scapegoat theories”: “In this dangerous mélange of problems and prospects, pragmatic evaluations, integration and socio-political as well as socio-legal discussions are burdened by cultural and socio-racial defensiveness from the context of negative integration. They are enforced by the populist exploitation of yet unknown issues for election purposes.” Bade therefore argues as Reinecke that the Rroma are exploited and abused by being designed as scapegoats for political debates about values and impoverishment. It is significant here that one never talks with but always about the Rroma. Through this, a highly one-sided image of the minority is actively encouraged.

Romani Rose, chairman of the central council of the German Sinti and Rroma, emphasized in an interview with the Südwest Presse (2014) his unease about the rise of right-wing groups and their modes of argumentation. He criticizes once more the political instrumentalisation of the Rroma for campaign purposes and the equation of poverty-migration with the group of the Rroma: “This is a harmful discussion. In the last federal election campaign they wanted to poach votes from the right-wing „Alternative für Deutschland“ and the right-wing NPD. The NPD did not let itself slow down by this and advertised with the slogan “Better money for grandma than for Sinti and Roma”. With this, it left the level of our constitutional order. […] We demand guidelines in the election campaigns, which prohibit racist and discriminatory election propaganda. A legal basis is missing.” He perceives as particularly outrageous and frightening that despite the historical awareness of their discrimination, Rroma are blamed for social ills. The extreme right-wing parties are said to want to undermine the state of law. That is why it is so important that democratic parties defend the rule of law. A considerable fear to identify oneself as Rroma in the public remains. This fear of disclosing one’s own origin is a clear indicator of the still strongly rooted reservations of the majority against the minority.

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26.03.2014 Île-de-France: Rroma hindered at entering a bus

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Several French newspapers report about an incident in a public bus in the region of Île-de-France. A 23-year-old Rrom and his two colleagues were hindered at entering the bus 213 by the bus driver shouting with racist remarks at them. The bus driver massively insulted the Rroma and did not want to let them on the bus: “The Romanians walk, they do not get on the bus. I do not care, you can have two Navigo-passes, you will not get on my bus, the bus driver insisted. The bus is not public. You dirty Romanians, I do not like your visages. I take onto my bus who I want. […] Dirty Romanians, you are like dogs.” The Romanian Rroma has filed a complaint against the Parisian bus company Régie des transports autonomous Parisiens (RATP). A call for witnesses of the incident of the 28th of February was started. Meanwhile, RATP has urged all its bus drivers to accept all passengers unconditionally. – The event is thought-provoking, especially in the context of the strong growth of votes for the national-conservative Front National (Le Figaro 2014, Fouteau 2014, The Local, Metronews 2014, Respect Mag 2014).

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21.03.2014 Fire in Rroma camp in Fontaine

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France 3 (2014) reports on a fire in a Rroma camp in Fontaine, in the region of Grenoble. Most of the dwellings of the thirty residents were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable:  “The fire broke out in the Rroma camp behind the BUT store at around 15 o’clock, near the Gérard Philippe high school. The residents of the camp and the students who were present at the site were quickly evacuated. Firefighters believe explosions of gas bottles in the barracks caused the fire. Several of them in fact exploded but the firefighters were able to cope with the flames.” Two men were slightly injured. The residents of the camp were housed in tents by the city council of Fontaine (see Le Dauphiné 2014). – The safety deficiencies in illegal settlements are the subject of repeated political disputes. While certain politicians interpret these as a justification for rigorous evictions, others see them as evidence for the need to better supply the camps with water, electricity and sanitation, rendering improvised installations unnecessary, installations which indeed show security flaws.

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14.03.2014 The Rroma build part of French Society

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Vincent (2014) reports on an agreement that the French government has concluded with the national society for social housing (Adoma). In contrast to Sarkozy’s government, Vincent argues, the socialist government slowly but surely realizes that the Rroma debate is not an issue of migration but a problem of housing. However, there is a problem with the plan to move Rroma from the camps into social housing: in the Ile-de-France, where according to an assessment two-thirds of the immigrant Rroma stay, too few apartments are available. The temporary allocation into hotels in the agglomeration often hinders the schooling of the children and the autonomy of families. The so-called “insertion villages” are not a long-term solution and are also very costly. On behalf of the government and the society for social housing, the sub-prefect Jérôme Normand now conducts a survey on the situation in the slums and the insertion villages. With the collected information on the population of the settlements, the allocation to social housing is expected to be better coordinated. However, a fundamental problem remains the financing of the social housing: “The great weakness of all these initiatives is their funding. The funds from which Adoma has profited, will have to be rapidly increased on the basis of urgency loans. The budget that was allocated to the integration policy, that in particular finances the French courses, fell by 3% in 2014 [ … ].”

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07.03.2014 Paul-Marie Coûteaux relaunches the Rroma debate anew

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Le Monde (2014) reports on the opinions of Paul-Marie Coûteau. Coûteau belongs to the national-conservative and Eurosceptic party Souveraineté, indépendance et libertés (SIEL), which he founded himself. On his blog, he expresses the idea that Rroma should be put in specialy established camps. The article has the telling title “On the establishment of Rroma in Paris and the slow extinction of the national sense of honour”. Coûteau perceives the sight of impoverished Rroma in the streets of Paris as aesthetically disturbing: “Their presence is an unworthy sight for Paris and unworthy of France, unworthy of a great country, and a problem for the aesthetic order.” He stands for election for the electoral coalition Rassemblement Bleu Marine as mayor for the sixth district of Paris. Coûteau expresses himself negatively towards the free movement of persons with Romania and Bulgaria, against which he voted.

Coûteau’s perspective on the Rroma is as one-sided as the majority of the public debate, which focuses only on visible Rroma. It is also telling, that he states to be hurt in his national honour by the sight of Rroma. He therefore reveals himself as a proponent of a radical order-policy that puts aesthetic feelings before human dignity, which is totally absurd. SOS Racisme has announced that it will file a complaint against Coûteau because of his racist remarks (compare 20 minutes 2014, Libération 2014, Théveniaud 2014).

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