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15.10.2014 Ozd: new Jobbik mayor demands of Rroma assimilation or emigration

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In the northern Hungarian city of Ozd, a representative of the right-wing extremist Jobbik party has become the new mayor after the local elections of October the 12th. Although the party is known for its strong anti-Rroma rhetoric, the new, only 27-year-old city mayor presented himself diplomatically in his first public statement. His oral statements are in contradiction to his campaign manifesto, in which he promised an uncompromising policy towards the Rroma: “He said he would crack down on crime and poverty on behalf of all residents, whatever their ethnic background. Yet the programme on which Janiczak ran in the election is explicit in singling out the Roma community. The manifesto, posted on the Jobbik Internet site next to a photograph of Janiczak, states: “We think there are two ways to solve the Gypsy question… The first one is based on peaceful consent, the second on radical exclusion.” “Our party wishes to offer one last chance to the destructive minority that lives here, so first it will consider peaceful consent. If that agreement fails, then and only then the radical solution can follow.” The programme threatens to “chase off people who are unable to conform”” (Irish Independent 2014). What the new Jobbik mayor is completely silent about in his call for assimilation is that most Rroma have been trying to integrate for a long time, but were hindered to so by economic and social exclusion. The continued segregation of Hungarian Rroma is therefore above all the result of the unwillingness of many Magyars to overcome their prejudices against the Rroma, and to facilitate their access to the labour market, to housing and public schools (compare Dunai 2014).

Aladar Horvath, a Hungarian Rroma activist, comments on the largely unchanged situation of the Rroma in Europe that development funds were often not accessed or landed in the wrong places. He adds that the economic crisis of 2008 has exacerbated social inequality: “Social injustice has risen markedly in the majority of EU countries since the economic crisis began in 2008, according to a recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Discrimination and social divisions have increased especially quickly in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, where the Roma face “systemic discrimination.” In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, enrolling Roma children into classes or separate schools for students with “special needs” remains a significant problem despite recent landmark court rulings against segregation in both countries. Hungary in particular appears to be moving in the wrong direction. Observers say that’s because the popularity of anti-Roma rhetoric and policies outweigh influence from Brussels. The number of segregated, Roma-only schools has increased from 128 in 1997 to more than 300 today, Horvath says. Geographical segregation has also increased as the deteriorating job market and cuts to social spending have combined to drive Roma into isolated “islands of poverty,” says Budapest-based researcher Attila Agh, who worked on the Bertelsmann study” (Overdorf 2014). Of the 600,000 to one million Rroma living in Hungary, there are indeed many affected by poverty and exclusion. However, there are also numerous integrated Rroma, who do not live in segregated settlements and belong to the middle or even upper-class.

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15.10.2014 Photo reportage on homeless Rroma: illustration of misery or favouring their exclusion?

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Mediapart (2014) comments critically on the photo-reportages of the French photographer Marc Melki. He portrayed homeless Rroma in the streets of Paris for two years, and published the photographs on the Internet, in exhibitions and in picture books. Mediapart criticises that the resulting photographs miss the intended aim of the photographer, without him acknowledging this aspect. Melki wanted to draw attention to the failure of the state and the public institutions that allow such misery, but at the same time he enables authorities and right-wing groups to identify the depicted persons and pursue them. In addition, the photographer does not get the consent of the portrayed families, but relies on the right to photograph in public: “According to several consistent testimonies of those managing the emergency shelters in France, they have repeatedly rejected the pleas of Roma families, who referred to the abandonment of an earlier accommodation, because of the publication of undated photos … In Brussels, families who were photographed without their knowledge, found themselves on right-wing extremist internet pages of their homeland. One can therefore completely wonder if these photos do not come to the aid of the police that comes at regular intervals to seize the impacts [possessions?] of the families, to throw them in waste containers and to drive them to their destruction…” Mediapart thus addresses an important point that is at times lost in the journalistic desire to document the “unvarnished truth”. Portraits and documentations are presented in a variety of contexts and with different intentions, whereby they are often given new meanings that do not need to correspond to the original photographer’s intent. For people who are heavily influenced by stereotypes about Rroma, the photographs of homeless Rroma can confirm their prejudices, rather than encourage them to inquiry and empathy, as the photographer intended. A discerning photographer should reflect upon the possible uses and interpretations of photos that can be used to the detriment of the portrayed persons. In France, there are an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma, according to estimates of the Rroma Foundation. The majority of them are integrated, go to work, speak French and have their own houses. Many of them have lived in France for several generations. The photographer negates these invisible Rroma  in his will to portray the “unvarnished truth”.

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15.10.2014 Racist hatred after “Rroma attacks” in a school of Sheffield

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Several British newspapers report on violence at the Hinde House School in Sheffield. Various students were victims of severe physical attacks in the last few weeks and months, for which Rroma youth from Slovakia are made responsible. While the school management states to get the situation under control, a group of parents calls for harder sanctions against the school violence. The school administration is deemed to show too much tolerance towards the “gang-like culture” of the Rroma community. In the case described here, problems that also exist at other schools are made in​​to ethnic issues. There is no “gang-like culture” of violence among Rroma. What the newspapers report are the actions of individuals, who could also belong to any other ethnic group. The cited parents, who accuse the school principal of Hinde House to do nothing against the Rroma adolescents for fear of racism accusations, see this differently: “Parents have accused an inner-city head teacher of turning a blind eye towards violent gangs of Roma pupils for fear of being labelled a racist. More than 1,600 people have signed an online petition claiming ‘children have been stabbed, mugged and nearly kicked to death’ at the school. It urges the head not to ‘be afraid’ to tackle the issue – and suggests he is failing to do so for fear of appearing racist because the majority of the perpetrators are of Slovakian Roma origin. […] The petition was launched after an attack last Thursday that left pupil Rhys Larkings, 14, battered and bruised with a broken nose after being allegedly punched to the ground by three Roma Slovak teenagers.” The adolescents responsible for the violence were excluded of the school as a consequence, and the police have launched an investigation against them. The complaint of the parents saying that the school administration does nothing for fear of racism accusations is therefore unfounded. Rather, the outrage of the parents cited seem to be influenced by the nationalism fuelled by UKIP, as one can read in the article’s comments section. Excessive ethnic divisions only occur when people are willing to be manipulated by nationalist rhetoric. Rroma are not more violent than other ethnic groups (compare BBC News 2014, Daily Express 2014, Lawton 2014, The Star 2014).

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15.10.2014 Miskolc: “Declared war to the Roma”

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Like other newspapers last week, Schulz-Ojala (2014) from the Tagesspiegel reports on the eviction of a Rroma settlement in Miskolc. Around 600 Rroma are affected by this initiative. The journalist focuses his article on the political context of the action: the instrumentalised and reinforced exclusion and discrimination against Rroma by politics. On October the 12th, local elections were held in Hungary; as expected, the national-conservative Fidesz emerged as the strongest force from the ballot. Also in the future, the party will have most of the mayors. As the second strongest party, the right-wing extremist Jobbik party reinforces its position, taking the second place in share of votes in 17 of 19 constituencies and winning 13 mayoral races in 9 counties. A very worrying trend, since Jobbik has repeatedly distinguished itself with Rroma-hostile slogans (Pester Lloyd 2014, Pusztaranger 2014). Beside Aranka Majoros, a Rromni effected by the eviction, Schulz-Ojala portrays the Rrom and human rights activists Attila Tomas: “Only an hour’s drive it is from Miskolc to the Slovak, Ukrainian and Romanian border; there peacefully undemocratic conditions can grow, away from the core of European attention and also in the isolated fields of understanding of the Hungarian language. Is it a silence before the storm? Attila Tomas lists the symptoms by name. Permanent crisis and growing impoverishment of the population shape everyday life of the former steelwork metropolis Miskolc, where in the 80’s 200,000 people still lived. The Roma, with almost exactly the national average of ten percent of the city’s population, then had work like everyone else. The collapse of communism and the closure of many factories made the Roma the first unemployed, Tomas states. The Roma who have a job nowadays work for the community, in order to avert the reductions in social assistance – well below the legal minimum wage. An unemployed family with three children gets to around 250 Euros of social welfare, including child benefit, half of what the low-income earners receive – a durable envy-breeding ground for the next poorer among the non-Roma. On the other hand, the area of Miskolc is just over a kind of war against the Roma. A few years ago, a spectacular series of Roma murders raged in particular within the vicinity of this city [….]. Downright ghostly it seems that now, scarcely five years later, the three most promising candidates for mayor campaign with anti-Roma propaganda for votes.” Schulz-Ojala conclusion is bleak: despite the increasingly established Rroma party Magyarországi Cigány Part (MCP), the minority continues to be a plaything of the leading forces in the country that don’t have integration and equal opportunities as the highest goals, but the maintain of power and nationalism.

Kacsóh (2014) also covers the forced expulsion of Rroma in Miskolc. He, like Schulz-Ojala, points out that the Rroma with an unlimited lease contract can apply for compensation of up to two million forints, attached to the condition of a voluntary relocation into one of the surrounding communities of the city. It is also requested that they will stay for at least five years at the new location. Adjacent communities as Sátoraljaújhely have in turn responded to these rules with limitations themselves: those who make use of this offer are not entitled to receive social funds for the first five years and may not acquire or rent any apartment from communal ownership. They are also excluded from the local work program for three years. Although these rules are illegal, the government of Sátoraljaújhely takes the change of a lawsuit and has therefore adopted the rules nonetheless. This is further evidence of the continuing prejudice against Rroma.

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15.10.2014 Nanterre: 30 immigrated Rroma evicted from pavilion

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Brahmi Howton (2014) reports on the expulsion of about 30 immigrant Rroma, who had settled in an abandoned pavilion in Nanterre. A large contingent of riot police was deployed to expel the group from its new site. The Rroma families were evicted in May this year, following a court verdict, from the grounds of the infrastructure company of Seine Arche (Epadesa), and have since wandered about the city from one place to the next: “This building has been unoccupied for over a year, and we decided to seize it as long as there is no solution found to host the families again”, said a member of the committee that was initiated in last spring to support them. In mid-afternoon, the families finally accepted to leave the place quietly, in the rain, and without knowing where to go.” In France, according to the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma. The majority of them is integrated, goes to work, speaks French and has its own accommodations. Many of them have lived in France for several generations. These invisible Rroma are not perceived by the media, the politicians and the public, they are even denied existence. On the opposite side, there is a minority of the minority, approximately 17,000 recently immigrated Rroma, who get all the media attention, as in the report. They live in informal settlements and are affected by extreme poverty, but also only want one thing: to integrate. Also in Saint André-lez-Lille, a group Rroma was evicted of their place. They had been camping next to the football stadium Sainte-Hélène since a year and a half (North Eclair 2014).

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10.10.2014 Centuries-old prejudices exacerbate integration

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Petersen (2014) reports on the integration of recently immigrated Rroma families in Berlin. According to the journalist and the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), the findings are sobering. As reasons for the supposedly difficult integration, the journalist refers to common prejudices about Rroma, which are thoughtlessly reproduced: „According to the CDU, the integration of Roma in Berlin is threatened to fail! Meanwhile, approximately 10,000 Roma live in the capital, tendency increasing. However, often they cannot be integrated: centuries-old traditions and clan structures can rarely be influenced by western strategies of integration.“ Petersen conveys the notion of a culture as corset, to which all Rroma subject to. Tellingly he doesn’t mention the prejudices, which exist since centuries and essentially contribute to their marginalisation. A worldview that builds on prototypical conceptions of men, and reduces the possibilities of a person to his or her will to act, is very reductionist. Apart from the prejudices and discriminations that impede an integration, the following measures are supposed to be applied to better include the immigrant Rroma: „Representatives from the youth welfare and the public health office, the school board and the police from Berlin and Rumania shall together visit the Roma-families. In the process, proposals shall be made to the families and on the other hand, there shall be sanctions, if for instance the children don’t go to school. Only with decisive actions can the integration succeed, the youth and health town councillor of Neukölln, Falko Liecke (41), stated. “So far, the plan of action of the senate is a paper tiger.” Liecke developed the seven-point plan together with Christina Schwarzer (38, CDU), MP of Neukölln, after a trip to Rumania.“ The plan of action also includes registering the Rroma, not an unproblematic plan, as this would be an ethnic register, and the creation of more day schools and support in health insurance. According to the Rroma Foundation, an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma live in Germany. The majority of them are well integrated, work, send their children to school, and have their own apartments.

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10.10.2014 European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) wants to foster the civil society integration of the Rroma

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EurActic (2014) reports on the plan of the European Economic and Social Committee to better foster the civil society integration of Rroma. It recommends that the governments and aid organisations of the European member states should provide more social housing for marginalised families and should improve the cooperation with the minority representatives. The evaluation of the integration efforts of the different countries varies considerably. While the committee gives very good grades to for example Finland, the assessment of the Romanian Rroma-policy is very mediocre. Valeria Atzori, the EESC Representative for Rroma issues, states: ““Roma are not travellers by choice. They are obliged to leave because they are thrown out of their settlements,” she said. “When they have houses, they stay.” This is one of the first EESC conclusions following visits to countries with Roma minorities over the last few months. EESC experts met with the Roma community, NGOs and national authorities in Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Spain. Through these meetings, the EESC aims at exploring civil society initiatives in the Roma integration process, and provide recommendations to EU institutions in November. According to Atzori, the situations vary considerably between countries. […] In Romania, the government still lacks political will to help the Roma, despite the creation of a National Agency for Roma Integration. NGOs and the Roma were defensive in their meetings with the EESC, and blamed both the government and the EU for not doing enough. Romania is also confronting deeply rooted stereotypes about Roma. Atzori said that due to a few Roma that are exploiting the system, a lot of Romanians believe that the minority deserves the deplorable situation they are in now.” What is not mentioned in the analysis is that the different EU-countries are dealing with very different conditions. The economic situation and political stability in the states are not equal, and difficult economic situations facilitate mechanisms of social exclusion. On the other hand, the will of political and civil society to integrate the minority is without doubt a critical factor to a better integration of the Rroma. In Mid-October, the European Economic and Social Committee will be rewarding eight organisations that have been particularly committed to a better social integration of the Rroma.

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10.10.2014 Jean-Marie Le Pen in court again because of racist remarks

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Paris Normandie (2014) reports that Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the rightwing-nationalist Front National, is again set to appear in court on October the 9th. Le Pen had claimed at a party congress in 2012 that the Rroma steal as naturally as birds fly. In French, the word “voler” means both “to fly” and “to steal”. Le Pen was subsequently sentenced by the criminal court of Paris on December the 19th, 2013, in the first instance, to a fine of 5000 Euros. Since he has appealed against the judgment, he must now appear before the court of appeal of Paris: “The attorney for the MEP, Mr. Wallerand de Saint-Just, refers among others to the “right to humour”. A law which “contains limits, and which must stop at the point where violations of human dignity and personal attacks begin”, the tribunal had reminded. If the last “has in no way has spoken about humour or word games of good taste”, the judges estimate that the controversial statements indicate to a willingness to stigmatisation, which degrade the Roma “with a comprehensive and severely insulting stereotype.”” Pierre Mairat, co-president of the anti-racism organization MRAP, which had filed the lawsuit against Le Pen, condemned his remarks as a disparaging and demagogic. The the court of appeal will communicate its verdict on November the 20th (compare 20 Minutes 2014, BFM TV 2014, Le Nouvel Observateur 2014).

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10.10.2014 Rroma, Pentecostals churches and ambivalent morals

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Quambry (2014) reports on the increasing popularity of Pentecostal churches among Rroma communities in the UK and in continental Europe. With the example of the Appleby horse fair in Cumbria, in the north of Britain, she explains the effect of the Christian movement on the community: the “Life and Light Gypsy Church” recruits actively new members there, strengthens the social cohesion of the community and tries to overcome the discrimination against the minority: “There have been religious services at Appleby from the 1930s till the 1970s, according to local historian and town mayor, Andy Connell, but they were led by local Methodist or “Assemblies of God” ministers, rather than Gypsy pastors. Life and Light, by contrast, is a church for the Gypsy people, led by them. It is changing everything that we think we know about the communities, reinventing and redrawing the image of the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people throughout Europe. They are presenting a new face to the outside world – one of forceful moral and political authority, as they seek to free their people from prejudice and poverty. This is a story of emancipation, similar to that of the Baptist church in the American Deep South, led by civil rights and religious leader, Martin Luther King. The movement has spread from Brittany throughout France, into Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, South America, Scandinavia, Britain and Eastern Europe. Around one third of all French Gypsies are now thought to be Pentecostal Christians – with about the same proportion in Spain and Portugal. Further east, in the former communist bloc, many Roma are Pentecostals […].” The self-empowerment of Rroma through the Pentecostal church can indeed be seen as something positive, if one focuses on the aspect of the strengthening of civil rights. However, one should be cautious when the Pentecostal morality is said to be superior to other social values. Many Pentecostal churches forbid contraception for their members, to abort and diabolise homosexuals as being possessed by demons. Such a morality is not based on an enlightened understanding of the world and independent critical thinking, but on Christian traditions, which in case of contradictions, put themselves above the traditions of the Rroma. An uncritical subjection to conservative role models and values should be questioned. They can also severely hinder a real self-determination.

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10.10.2014 Rroma, role models and education in Greece

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Sutton (2014) reports on the Rroma community of a suburb of Thessaloniki. According to the author’s opinion, the access to education for the local Rroma is still very limited. Women and girls are particularly affected as they often get married early due to traditional role models, she states. Sutton tries to show the discrimination against Rroma, but also reproduces one-sided stereotypes about the minority, especially by focusing on marginalised Rroma that are, contrary to her assertion, not representative of all Rroma, but rather a visible minority of the minority: “Statistics on Roma women make for depressing reading. They have on average 10 years lower life expectancy than the rest of the EU’s populations, higher infant mortality, less access to healthcare, limited access to information, extremely high levels of illiteracy, far higher rates of addiction, far, far lower rates of employment, voting and education, poorer housing and sanitation. In addition, girls are married off at 13 and generally start having children immediately, most without any knowledge of material health, infant nutrition or how to read. Despite giving birth in hospitals, the medical system doesn’t work on their behalf. Greek doctors don’t inform social services for a 13-year-old Roma girl in labour, even though this is one place where the vicious cycles of bad health, poverty and disempowerment could be broken.”

The continuing discrimination against Rroma as well as role models and traditions that impede or prevent an individual conduct of life are massive problems, which must be decidedly fought. However, the image of Rroma that is conveyed here which portrays them as a mass of uneducated and illiterate persons, who bear children while themselves in childhood, represents only a part of reality. They are visible Rroma, who live mostly in segregated settlements and are therefore easy to reach for statistical surveys or aid organisations. The integrated Rroma, who have good education, belong to all strata of society and also form part of the minority, are hidden by this account. This is problematic, especially when starting from the liberal premise that the life situation of poor people results from a lack of individual initiative, or even connects the characteristics described here in a fallacy with the culture of the Rroma. Poverty and exclusion have nothing to do with the Rroma culture. The general assertion that Rroma girls are married of at the age of 13, applies only to traditional families and certain groups. Many Rroma want a good education for their children and question traditional role models and early marriages. Sutton also implies this, when she asks the portrayed girls about their own wishes for the future. Nevertheless, a more critical and differentiated presentation of the background and the heterogeneity of the minority would have been very appropriate.

Sutton, Ruth (2014) The young Roma women who are changing their communities. In: Open Democracy online vom 8.10.2014. https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/ruth-sutton/young-roma-women-who-are-changing-their-communities

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10.10.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma clans and prostitution

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Szenogrady (2014) reports on a former employee of a money office. The 35-year-old was sentenced by the Zurich district court to a prison sentence of two years on probation, since he had forced a Hungarian Rromni into prostitution on the Zurich Sihlquai. The defendant, who is also indicted for the theft of 100,000 francs from his former workplace, which he admitted, denied the allegation of pimping: “According to the indictment, the defendant had operated in the fall of 2010 as a pimp and had regularly pressured and financially exploited a Hungarian prostitute. If the woman resisted, the resident of Bülach used brute force, by giving her fist blows to the head or kicks. The defendant is thought to have been a subordinate to a Roma leader, who had forced several of his countrywomen to hustle. The arrested Hungarian citizen has since been sentenced. […] The judge relied on the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution. Accordingly, the Swiss had executed seamlessly the instructions of the boss, as a newcomer in the red-light scene. Therefore, a promotion of prostitution is said to be proven.” The background of the case described here cannot be critically evaluated, because reliable information is missing. However, it has to be critically remarked that the assertion of a connection between patriarchal Rroma clans and prostitution is wrong. Hierarchical clans are not a cultural peculiarity of the Rroma, as it is often claimed. In this case, it is a false equation of criminal organisations with Rroma, which is based on prejudices. Few Rromni are effectively working as prostitutes, but the media, who give this topic a lot of attention, distorts this fact.

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Lichtensteiger (2014) provides information on a group of around 100 travelling Rroma, who had rented an empty meadow from a private citizen in Maischhausen. The community, which the journalist calls “clan”, had therefore settled legally on a private land and paid for it. Nevertheless, their presence led to turmoil and the engagement of the police: “They talk to each other in a Roma dialect, but with us in fluent German and French. Apparently, they are from the Alsace, which the number plates also indicate. “We are Roma, but not Romanian, write that! And we work here, not right here, but also in Zurich and the region”, says a traveller with a firm voice. On his red T-shirt emblazons the Swiss cross. They have a residency permit for one year and can work three months, it is said. […] The emergence of the strangers is perceived and commented on differently by the inhabitants. The opinions range from understanding, to indifference, to scepticism, to resentment and rejection. […] However, the landowner leased his land without the consent of the local authority. For this purpose, however, a building permit would have been required. […] Mayor Bruno Lüscher is on holiday. That’s why his deputy Roman Engelermeer took care of the matter. He did an on-site inspection and came to the conclusion that the stay was not tolerable in that way. Given the legal situation, the travelling community was asked to leave the place. They did this on the same day.” Lichtensteiger’s article clearly shows that Rroma often encounter massive resistance and are not be treated with kindness, despite the will to cooperate. Slightly more negotiating skills would have made the expulsion of the group unnecessary. It has also to be commented that the majority of Rroma are sedentary. Only a minority of the minority are in fact travelling (compare 20 Minuten, St.Galler Tageblatt 2014).

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10.10.2014 Swedish Member of European Parliament wants special taskforce for Rroma issues

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EurActiv (2014) spoke with Soraya Post, Swedish Member of European Parliament for the social democrats and a Rromni. Post wants to establish a special taskforce for Rroma issues, in order to put emphasis on these topics and to be able to better sanction nations which don’t adhere to antidiscrimination laws. In EurActiv, she presents her objectives in more detail: “Needless to say that as a Roma MEP, I will work on having strong language on Roma issues in every piece of legislation the Parliament will be adopting. Secondly, I will make a suggestion to include Roma history and culture in the EU countries’ national curriculum. Apart from that, it is important to ensure that every event about Roma in Europe should offer translation into Romani. At conferences and meetings, it is often the case that Roma cannot contribute to discussions because of a lack of translation services. Lastly, my two main goals during this parliamentary term are to work towards appointing a EU Special Representative for Roma, and creating a Roma Platform. The EU Special Representative for Roma should coordinate the work that is done in the EU institutions on this issue. The person in charge should serve as a bridge between the Romani, civil society and politicians.” Using the example of Sweden, Post explained further who important a close collaboration between Rroma-representatives and government authorities is: for the White Paper that documents the history of the minority in Sweden for the period of 1900 till 2000, they hold intense talks for several months. The White Paper is now builds the basis for school materials and for the deconstruction of stereotypes.

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10.10.2014 The excluded Rroma of Miskolc

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Molnar (2014) reports, as Odehnal (2014) already did at the beginning of this week, on the eviction of a Rroma settlement in the eastern-Hungarian city of Miskolc. While those families who have a lease can apply for a replacement payment of up to 7’200 francs, all those who are in arrears for their rent or don’t have any official papers for their house, will not receive any compensation. The Rroma residents of this settlement in Miskolc were particularly affected by the decline of state-owned factories, Molnar states, where many of them worked. But the object of their anger are the reasons for the settlement’s eviction: the creation of a bus parking area for a football stadium, and the openly racial policies of the Fidesz and Jobbik parties, which even run campaign with the topic of “Gypsy crime”. Some of those affected hope for a better life in Western Europe, including in Switzerland: “We are poor, but we have rights. We urge the European Union, of which Hungary is a member, to take care of our case”, demands a Roma leader during a recently organised demonstration in Miskolc. “Our houses were not ruins, they were perfectly habitable”, confirms another, whose property was also destroyed. Witnesses, among them Barbora Cernušáková, of Amnesty International, share this opinion: “Gypsy Town” deserves not at all to be considered as a slum, they state. Many Roma have announced to want to leave Hungary. A group of several families is interested in Switzerland, “particularly known for its low unemployment rate”, one of them announced, who is close to Swiss Roma.” In Hungary, according to estimates of the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 600,000 to one million Rroma. While many of them are affected by poverty and exclusion, there are also many well integrated Rroma, who belong to the middle or even upper-class. These are not perceived as Rroma.

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08.10.2014 Germany: dispute over antiziganism study

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Fleischhauer/Petrovich (2014) criticise the study on antiziganism issued by the anti-discrimination agency in Germany, as being strongly biased and politicised. They accuse the agency of having “fudged” the methodology used by scientists to obtain clearer results. The German anti-discrimination agency denies this accusation: “The scientists who carried out the study cannot agree the interpretation of the anti-discrimination agency. “The difficult job of studies is that politics likes clear results, which science often cannot deliver”, says Wolfgang Benz, one of the two project managers. […] The social sciences are not an exact science. It’s about moods and attitudes, for which there are no exact measurement instruments. Therefore, it is important to formulate the questions so that they do not suggest a particular answer. The researchers intentionally designed a catalogue in which one has to rate statements on a scale of one to seven. […] The research team had made ​​the conscious decision to only interpret the values ​​ ​​6 and 7 as a dismissal. However, Luders and her colleagues have added to the 10.9 percent those who chose the scale value 5, to get a value higher and thus more media-suitable.” The dispute initiated by the Spiegel-journalists therefore concerns the qualitative weighting of the applied analytical tools. Indeed, statistics, their design and evaluation should be reviewed critically, for all studies. However, in the case of the methodology applied by the German anti-discrimination agency, one cannot identify a one-sided interpretation of the results, as the Spiegel-journalists claim. The negative values ​​of 5-7 are all above the mean 4, representing no opinion in favour of a rejection or acceptance of a statement. The accusation that the study results were artificially inflated, therefore only applies to a limited extent. It depends on how the statement “quite accurate” is weighted with respect to the statements “accurate” and “very accurate”. The researchers state, concerning the use of the Likert scale: “The scales were made uniformly, using a Likert scale of positive values ​​from 1 to 7, which were adjusted in a verbalised form to the respective question content. The context for the decision in favour of a finer scale division was the wish fore more graded answers instead of having a clear dichotomy into positive and negative, as for example, a 4-scale would have created” (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes 2014: 34). The authors remark that is was the particular wish of the client, therefore the anti-discrimination agency, not to create values as high as possible, but also to capture gradations: “It would be contrary to the scientific intention of the study as well as towards adequate courses of action intended by the client, to cancel the graded answers in favour of the determination of maximum values possible​​. Therefore, the scaling values ​​were summarized in the presentation of the results as follows: 1 and 2, 3-5, and 6 and 7. Therefore, more nuanced opinion groups are eventuated: those who clearly agree or reject and a middle section, with opinions not as distinct (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes 2014: 37).

This finding is contrary to the assertion of Spiegel-journalists that the anti-discrimination agency requested clearer results and therefore forced them for the presentation. In terms of a critical analysis, the demand for a nuanced presentation of the results is clearly to be agreed with: the heterogeneity of reality is rarely black and white. On the other hand, one must also realise that people can often be influenced by the views of the majority in their beliefs and subordinate themselves to social constraints. This phenomenon is studied in the social sciences, under the term “new institutionalism”. This includes stereotypical views about minorities such as the Rroma. That the federal agency for anti-discrimination did not totally evaluate the results is confirmed by the finding that the majority of the respondents were aware of the genocide against the Rroma through the Nazis. This point was communicated in the study as it is.

Fleischhauer (2014) himself didn’t create his research and viewpoints in a value-free space, and therefore can be described as a political journalist himself, as can be read in his commentary on Spiegel Online. There, he comments in a condescending ductus about the anti-discrimination agency, and alleges that the director has lost touch with reality outside of discrimination questions: “Who only meets people who believe in the same thing, eventually loses touch with reality outside his own world. There, one easily panics if one faces contradiction.” This is a meaningful comment insofar, because Fleischhauer outs himself as strongly prejudiced himself, and loses somewhat credibility (compare Saarbrücker Zeitung 2014, Süddeutsche Zeitung 2014, RP Online 2014).

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08.10.2014 Hungary: government holds back poverty report

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Pester Lloyd (2014) reports that the latest poverty report of the Hungarian central statistical office (KSH), which usually always appears in late September, will probably appear this year only after the municipal elections of October the 12th. According to the opposition, with high probability this is the result of wanting to conceal the significant rise of the poverty rate, which would cast a poor light on the ruling Fidesz party. The spreading poverty creates a fertile ground for nationalist ideas that are also directed against the largest minority of the country, the Rroma: “A survey of the OECD, together with Gallup, found that nearly half of the Hungarian households cannot buy regularly enough food for an adequate nutrition, around 40,000 children hunger on a regular basis (2010: 20,000) and 250,000 (120,000) children are not properly fed. The 2010 study the Fidesz government did by itself, to illustrate the failure of the predecessors; the numbers four years later were contributed the abovementioned foreign organizations. At this point, it is necessary to clarify that a child who is hungry, is done violence to by the state. It is a crime against humanity. The government has – also with EU funding – again launched a multi-million dollar aid program and intensified it in the face of the coming winter, which provides, among other things, subsidised or free cafeteria food for the needy and distributes food parcels and firewood to households. However, it is regularly reported of humiliating allocation practices, especially towards the particularly affected Roma minority, which is either excluded or only benefit from this charity under specific conditions.” Given this news, it seems not without irony that the minister for human resources, Zoltan Balog, demanded in a recent statement the better integration of Rroma into the European labour market and a better use of their work force. As the current situation demonstrates, in many cases, the will to work alone is not sufficient to get a good job, because the equal access to training and the labour market is not given. Moreover, to designate the Rroma as cheap labour, who could do non qualified labour, is an ambivalent appreciation of a minority who also encompasses many skilled members (compare Politics.hu 2014).

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08.10.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma as gangs of thieves

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Brönnimann (2014) reports on gangs of thieves, who especially steal the valuables of hospital patients who are not in their rooms at the moment of theft. After a detailed description of a recent incident at the canton hospital of Nidwalden, in which the perpetrators asked for a Mr. Müller – one of the most common last names in Switzerland – it is noted that a witness identified the perpetrators as Rroma: “Of the men, there is no trace yet”, says Lorenz Muhmenthaler, head of the Nidwalden security police in the newspaper. According to the testimony of a witness, the suspects are Roma.” The mentioning of the ethnicity of the perpetrators is not necessary, as it only encourages racist stereotypes about a culture of crime among the Rroma. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups, rather, this is suggested by the media through the explicit thematisation of the Rroma in connection with criminal offenses. Moreover, the statement that the perpetrators looked like Rroma is based on racist criteria: it is undoubtedly meant that they were dark-skinned. There are also many light-skinned Rroma. Whether the criminals were in fact Rroma is not assured. It is rather an expression of suspicion, based on prejudices. A cultural interpretation of the offenses is necessarily racist and ignores and discredits the majority of Rroma living respectable and integrated lives. More caution when using ethnic criteria and fomenting prejudice and resentment would be appropriate. The negative stereotypes about Rroma have become a generally unquestioned canon.

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08.10.2014 “The Roma have to stay”

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A primary school teacher from Ennepetal calls for the integration of immigrated Rroma families. He demands that the immigrant families be accepted and supported in their integration efforts, with special regard to the future of their children. The primary school teacher Folkert Köppe therefore decidedly speaks against a policy of expulsion, as the owner of the houses in which the families are currently located, intends to do. He announced a few weeks ago to terminate the lease of all families, although temporary leases have no legal basis in Germany. Folkert Köppe states: “Given the dubious behaviour of the owner of those dilapidated houses in the Hagenerstrasse, where the Roma currently live, it is time to address the children’s situation. They are the real victims of the current conflict, because a shift from here to another city would mean a new change of school for them. Here in Ennepetal, special collection classes have been established for these children, within which I am working as a teacher. And as such, I say in all determination: the Roma must stay! Because already now, some of them show significant academic deficits, caused by frequent changes of residency and thus of schooling. The exhaustive lessons show signs of success; the children are happy in school and we educators are gradually finding “the right turn”, to equip them with the basic knowledge important for their future. All this would be abruptly terminated by a departure, and the children would have to start all over again elsewhere” (Köppe 2014). According to estimates of the Rroma Foundation In Germany, an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma. Before the genocide by the Nazis, there were many more. Many have been living for generations in Germany, speak fluently German, go to work, and send their children to school. They are the living proof that integration is possible.

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08.10.2014 Visible Rroma in Serbia

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Ivanji (2014) reports on visible Rroma in Serbia. In a Belgrade suburb, next to a refugee centre, where even two decades after the war, refugees from Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo are living together with other asylum seekers, there is a Rroma camp. Kameraj Sajin lives there with his family. He is one of those who is directly affected by the new status of Serbia of “safe country of origin”. Although the Sajins are not persecuted, they are affected by severe poverty and exclusion: “Eight months the family spent in Steinfurt, this year “three months and eleven days.” A few weeks ago, they were deported to Serbia. The stay was “really nice” tells Sajin. After the family had moved between several asylum homes, they received an apartment and around 1,200 Euros a month. At Caritas they could buy clothing and food for two Euros. The daughter went to school, the two sons to the playschool. “Not like here”, says Sajin […]. Here, in Krnjaca, his daughter has to go to evening school because, she lost her place in the regular primary school and he has no confirmation that she attended a German school. For the boys, there is no kindergarten, and from the state he gets only 10,000 dinars (around 85 Euros) of child benefit.” This article addresses the important question of whether one should not recognise poverty and exclusion as legitimate reasons for asylum, and not only political persecution. It must also be added that Rroma in South Eastern Europe, even though many are affected by severe poverty, are not living exclusively in slums. Rroma, especially in the former states of Yugoslavia, belong to all social classes, but are usually only perceived as Rroma if they conform to the stereotypes of the minority. But there are also Rroma doctors, policemen, teachers, etc., which are fully integrated, and have been so for generations.

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08.10.2014 Wolfgang Benz: „The return of enemy stereotypes“

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The German historian and researcher on prejudices Wolfgang Benz has published a new book in which he thoroughly investigates the mechanisms of prejudices towards Rroma. Benz tries to comprehend the reasons for the emergence and adherence of the negative stereotypes, which are consciously instrumentalised politically by various protagonists. In his article for the Tagesspiegel, he conveys the most important theses of his book. Part of these are self-appointed experts, who blame Rroma living in misery for their own fate, by playing off liberal self-reliance against societal injustices: „Sinti and Roma are rejected and despised, because they are poor, are regarded as placeless and without culture. Cherished through fears of foreign domination, enemy stereotypes are being reactivated. Self-appointed experts argue that they have to blame themselves for their misery in Slovakia, in Hungary, in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Rumania or Serbia and the Kosovo. The situation of the Roma in Southeast Europe has become a tourist attraction, topic of hypocritical sensitive reports, which are being created with the point of view of master men – and confirm the majority in their rejection of the minority. Roma-foes call the object of their interest unashamed once more “Zigeuner”, even though (or because) it is hurtful. By the use of generalisations, fears are fuelled, and dubious knowledge about Sinti and Roma is spread, fears are evoked, which allegedly threaten us. The unpleasant characteristics, which are projected sweepingly on all Roma from Southeast Europe, are welcomed reasons for discrimination. Immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania are seen as the incarnation of a threat, which is usually equated with Sinti and Roma. The traditional stereotypes of the “gypsy” have sowed the seeds for generations, the new images of the slums from which they come, and the poverty in which they live, are seamlessly compatible. […] Xenophobia, racism, petty-bourgeois fears for their property and identity weaknesses condense into an enemy image of poverty migrants, whose feared attack on social funds, bourgeois order and the German way of life must be resisted. Right-wing populists and -extremists benefit from it, and operate their enemy image with success – in the middle of society.” The perpetuation of prejudices has become a vicious circle which is difficult to break. A possible way out is a public, media-catchy discussion of the integrated Rroma, the “invisible Rroma”. However, many of these integrated Rroma keep their identity a secret, for fear of discrimination among friends and colleagues, at work or in the housing market. Here again, there exists a vicious circle of legitimate fears that cannot be so easily overcome (compare Benz 2014).

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