Tag Archives: Roma

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17.01.2014 Increase in eviction of Rroma Settlements in France

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The European Roma Rights Centre (2014) states in its latest report a massive increase of evictions in France during the year 2013. According to the statistics of the organisation, the French authorities expelled, 20,000 Rroma from their informal dwellings. These are more than twice as many evictions as in 2012. According to the authors of the report it can be assumed that a lot more than estimated 20,000 were displaced, as information of the Human Rights League indicates. As before, the inter-ministerial circular from August 2012 was ignored by the responsible authorities. The circular favoured sound, planned evictions of the informal settlements. The methods now practiced complicate the integration of Rroma and promote racism and rejection of the minority rather than cooperation: „Forced evictions continued almost everywhere without credible alternative housing solutions or social support. NGOs and various institutions (such as the French Ombudsman) have highlighted that government policy is ignored – an interministerial circular of 26 August 2012, which ordered local authorities to carry out a social assessment of Roma in any eviction – is rarely implemented and superficial at best. It often resembles a population census rather than a real and lasting attempt at social inclusion.” Most evictions took place in the districts of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Ile-de-France. The findings of the European Roma Rights Centre are particularly astonishing when considering that the Socialist President Francoise Hollande had promised a major change in the French politics regarding Rroma (compare Al Jazeera America 2014, Sayare 2014).

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17.01.2014 Poverty-migration and the Rroma

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Nuspliger (2014) gives a cursory overview of the debate on poverty-migration and on the feared predictions of mass migrations to Western Europe. He qualifies the images of right-wing conservatives who predict a strong west migration from Romania and Bulgaria in 2014. Many residents of these countries migrated abroad in 2007 after the EU accession and did not wait for the unrestricted movement of persons. The statistics about the poverty-migration regularly treat seasonal workers and students as equivalent to real labour migrants and therefore create a distorted picture of migration movements. In addition it is observed that many would-be migrants go into countries with diaspora groups or related languages: “Against the backdrop of the northern European fears of a Romanian mass immigration it is remarkable that, according to Eurostat figures of 2012, over three quarters of exile Romanians have moved to Spain and Italy – for which there are also linguistic reasons. Half of relocated European Portuguese are living in France and three-quarters of the emigrants of Poland live in the UK and Germany, which attracted many immigrants from Eastern Europe before the end of the licensing restrictions in 2011.” Rroma are being disadvantaged as before. The funding provided by the EU is only insufficiently used. Additionally, Rroma slums in Western Europe are the evidence of the lack of integration of this ethnic group. In the debates on immigration, meanwhile, images of social abuse dominate the discourse, which is taken up readily by polemicists.

Lübberding (2014) discusses the TV program “Maybrit Illner” on the topic “poverty on the move: how much freedom of movement can we afford?” The participants of the discussion were the Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, the Green politician Cem Özdemir, the Councillor of Berlin-Neuköln Franziska Giffey, the head of the German police union  Rainer Wendt, the Duisburger citizen Sabine Kessler and the Rrom Dzoni Sichelschmidt. They discussed the pro and cons of unrestricted migration in the European Union. Lübbering shares the opinion that most of the immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria are Rroma, although the ethnicity is not recorded in the statistics. He states that in the city of Duisburg, with around 500,000 inhabitants, the 10,000 new immigrants are of Rroma origin. Lübberding takes side with the critics of unrestricted migration in the European Union when making fun of the integration targets of the European Union. He claims that the Union lacks sense of practice: “The error of the Brussels bureaucracy is not in their ambitious plans, but in the ignorance of their ambitiousness. On power-point slides just everything looks better than in the neighbourhood of Mrs. Kessler.” On the other hand it is a positive aspect of European networking that the problem of Rroma integration has now become a pan-European issue and no longer just concerns the countries with significant Rroma populations. Additionally, Lübberding qualifies the dimensions of immigration, which are anything but dramatic. Compared with the 1.2 million refugees who have fled from the civil war in Syria to Lebanon, the immigration to Germany is very modest. Dzoni Sichelschmidt emphasised the important fact that the Rroma have emerged in large part as losers from the events of 1989: the hostility towards them has risen. This circumstance is often neglected in Western Europe (compare ZDF 2014).

In debate about immigration, Kelec (2014) takes a right-wing conservative position. Additionally, with respect to Rroma, she present cultural arguments. She sees an unrestricted immigration as a failed policy of ignorance. Kelec accuses the left parties of downplaying the problems of reality and accusing right-wing populism of being responsible for everything. The Christian Democrats are supposed to insist stubbornly on their values. On Rroma she pretentiously claims: “The children of Sinti and Roma are left alone, in the Clans, medieval conditions often prevail [ … ]. Roma children are sent by their parents and clan chiefs to beg or work on the street – they are supposed to be in school. They also have an EU-wide right to childhood and education. In Roma families child-marriages and forced marriage is common – the right to independence and integrity must also apply for young girls and women. There can be no tradition of being above the constitution, even if some believe that medieval manners as “culture” are worthy of protection.” With these unwise generalizations Kelec discredits herself. She represents traditions and media cases as if they were deadlocked and universal. Her remarks are racist and offensive to a majority of the Rroma who do not follow these practices. Kelec reproduces uncritically polemical ideas about backwardness and exploitation that have nothing to do with the identity of the Rroma. Accusing Rroma living in poverty of their poverty as a crime is arrogant and stupid. Criticism of the traditions, which are no traditions, is no intelligent criticism.

Teigeler (2013) points out the important fact that the debate about unrestricted migration in the European Union is dominated by fears and irrational predictions. Before Poland’s accession to the Schengen area there were similar fears of a mass migration, which turned out to be unfounded. The discussion also often tends to forget the fact that with the immigrants also important needed professionals are recruited. Labelling immigrants sweepingly as poverty immigrants and benefit-freeloaders simplifies the complexity of reality too much: “With the multiple accusations that immigrants and in particular Roma from South Eastern Europe “will subvert the social system, old racist stereotypes are stoked”, criticized the speaker of the Green Party parliamentary group, Jutta Velte, on Tuesday (31/12/2013). “We need a more objective debate”, the representative urged.” 

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21.12.2013 The Invisible Rroma

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Gabriela Mirescu (2012) – a Romanian political scientist – wrote a short article for the publication TANGRAM30 by the national commission against racism. In it, she approaches the question of why a majority of Rroma living in Europe – which are well adjusted to the mainstream society, keep their identity a secret, form the “invisible Rroma”. The reasons are quite apparent but not the less forth of detailed covering. The negative stereotypes about Rroma, which have settled in the course of history, make it a social disadvantage to out oneself as Rroma in the public. Discrimination in the working environment but also the personal life can be the consequences. Mirescu sees the behavior of this invisible majority as an indicator for social expectance. If the integrated Rroma still keep their identity a secret, it shows the ongoing stigmatization of Rroma in most European societies and the social transformation and increase of education and enlightment which is still necessary to decrease negative, pejorative stereotypes. A high level of education for a majority of society has therefore to be a temporary and long-term objective.

Source:

  • Mirescu, Gabriela (2012) The other Roma journey: from visible to invisible. In: Tangram 30: Jenische, Sinti/Manouches und Roma in der Schweiz. Bern: Eidgenössische Kommission gegen Rassismus.
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21.12.2013 Klaus-Michael Bogdal’s “Europa erfindet die Zigeuner”

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Klaus-Michael Bogdal’s “Europa erfindet die Zigeuner” writes a history of the representation of Rroma in Europe since their arrival in the 15th century (Essig 2012). First seen as pilgrims from Egypt and handled with respect, soon the Rroma were used to produce an anti-notion of what was regarded as European and civilised. They were ascribed to be eternal migrants, thieves or spies for the Ottomans, to name a few among many more pejorative ascriptions. The defamatory stereotypes marked the beginning of an institutionalisation of pseudo-knowledge about the Rroma, which was presented as sound truth. Bogdal, a professor of German literature and specialised in discourse analysis, shows how the negative, pejorative knowledge was successfully institutionalized and subsequently marginalized positive notions of Rroma. The Rroma weren’t given a voice in their representation nor did they succeed in producing any counter-public. Essig (2012) sees the reason for the inability to produce any distinguishable self-representation in the absence of written knowledge, ethics of discreetness and notions of honor among the Rroma. 

Whereas anti-Semitism during the 20th century was strongly connected to  enviousness against success and wealth – in the case of the Jews – antiziganism seems linked to notions of superiority and timely trangression. As a constant issue in the portrayal of the Rroma one can identify the absence of reason and prudence (Ebbinghaus 2012). 

Bogdal (2011) tries to give the reader an understanding of how ‘grand narratives’ – consisting of unsound racial knowledge and imprecise observation and descriptions of Rroma – succeeded in shaping a distorted picture of Rroma realities. In contrast to notions of civilization and societal progress they were stylized to be creatures without history and culture, as an alter ego to an elite European identity. As Bogdal explains in the introduction, his books is not so much about Rroma, but about the how Europeans reacted to and saw the Rroma. It’s a book about ambivalent European morals, exclusion and civilizational arrogance. Bogdal doesn’t reserve himself the right to write how the Rroma really lived and live, but how the European intellectuals and writers portrayed them to do so. It is in its formal kind, a reflection of the power-asymmetries in the representations of Rroma identity. 

Sources:

  • Bogdal, Klaus-Michael (2011) Europa erfindet die Zigeuner. Eine Geschichte von Faszination und Verachtung. Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, Prolog (S. 9-18).
  • Ebbinghaus, Uwe (2012) Goldene Zähne, gezinkte Karten. Eine mitreißende Studie über die allmähliche Verfertigung eines historischen Vorurteils: Klaus-Michael Bogdal beschreibt die Geschichte der Zigeuner. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 23.11.2012 [http://www.faz.net/-gr6-6vbnr].  
  • Essig, Rolf-Berhard (2012) Der Finger, der auf andere zeigt. Klaus-Michael Bogdal erklärt, wie mit Hilfe der “Zigeuner” eine westliche Überlegenheit definiert wird. In: ‘Die Zeit’ vom 9.2.2012 [http://www.zeit.de/2012/07/L-P-Bogdal].
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20.12.2013 Manuel Valls Acquitted in Racism Indictment

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Manuel Valls was acquitted by a French Court of the charge of racism (Le Monde 2013). The movement against racism had filed a lawsuit against Valls after he had publicly stated that Rroma have an extremely different lifestyle to the French, and had the habit of returning to Romania and Bulgaria. The court justified its decision with the reasoning that Valls’ statements were made in connection with a debate over the public interest and were not racist in the choice of words. The Court thereby ignores the role of intellectual arson and the power of derogatory cultural attribution to the public. A conviction would have been a sign of a more tolerant society, where defamatory statements do not fall under the category of freedom of expression. The court stated: “il n’apparaît pas [que ces propos] excèdent les limites admissibles de la liberté d’expression”  [It does not seem that these statements exceed the admissible limits of the freedom of expression] (Libération 2013).

 

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20.12.2013 Minute of Silence at the Rroma Murdered in Germany

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The Bundesrat of Germany commemorated this week with a minute of silence to the Rroma murdered under the Nazis. Around 500,000 Rroma, some estimates put the number significantly higher, fell victim of the genocide of the fascist regime. Germany discussed this year in details the possible consequences of the “Poverty immigration” from South Eastern Europe, and the Rroma were at the centre of the debate. A lot of non-objective and polemical statements were made about them but the historical guilt of Germany towards Rroma was rarely addressed: “”It is a humanitarian imperative that we never forget this genocide,” said the President of the Bundesrat, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), on Thursday in the Bundesrat in Berlin. It was the “collective failure of an entire generation.” The Bundesrat remebers every year the so-called Auschwitz Decree by the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler. T On December 16th, 1942 he ordered the deportation of members of certain ethnic groups in the concentration camp of Auschwitz –Birkenau”  (Greenpeace Magazine, 2013).

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20.12.2013 Education crisis among Rroma in France?

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Kinne (2013) gives information on a creeping crisis in the Paris suburbs: According to his article, just 10 % of Rroma children living in a illegal or informal camp go to school. The majority of South Eastern Europe originating Rroma who live in a makeshift barracks and camps prefer this to the poverty and discrimination in their home countries. This perspective of events should give pause to the vehement opponents of Rroma. According to a French government report says the author, about a third of Rroma children who live in theses camps, are not enrolled in school: “Aaccording to a government report, in the entire country, only one third of Roma children living in illegal camps go to school. Even though all children aged six to 16 years who live in France are required to attend school. The rest falls through the net, never registers or fails because of the high barriers to enrolment. Families have, for example, to specify a fixed address. Impossible, if you live in an illegal camp.” Besides the problem of the missing address, there are official reservations about Rroma, as well as the danger of being evicted in the near future from one’s current place of residence. Then there is the fear of many parents that their children could be discriminated against in schools. Without a good education, it will not be easier for the next generation to break the vicious circle of poverty and exclusion. That should make us think. On the other hand, there are also quite well-integrated Rroma in France, which are completely ignored in the current debate. They should have a voice.

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13.12.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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Kühn (2013) informs about the evacuation of several Rroma settlements in Duisburg. The houses, the majority of whom belong to a controversial real estate speculator who had already received a large coverage in the German media this year. One-sided reports of littering, noise, theft, prostitution, and begging evoked a distorted, almost absurd image of Rroma unwilling to integrate and adapt. Again and again, local residents were quoted as saying that their way of life was incompatible with the one of the new residents. The homeowner – Branko Barisic – now lets residents to be gradually evicted from his buildings and he will set up social flats or apartments for the elderly. He also speaks of Rroma as social parasites and discredits them unjustly as poverty migrants, with no valid reason for migration: “Most of them could not care less where they live. They want to enjoy the benefits of our welfare state. They need not live in Bergheim” (Kühn 2013/II). That many Rroma are well integrated and that many are also victims of massive discriminations in their countries of origin is once again not mentioned here.

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13.12.2013 Rroma from South Eastern Europe: Economic Migrants or Refugees?

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The Welt (2013) reports currently on practices against migrant Rroma in Hamburg. The responsible Minister of the Interior Michael Neumann wants to continue the deportations of asylum seekers from South Eastern Europe, despite the massive criticism from Greens, the Left and the FDP. This does not mean, according to the Interior Minister that the deportations were not individually critically examined. Again, one must be amazed that migrants from Southeast Europe are held from the outset for Rroma, although this fact is not recorded in the statistics. Many immigrants from the Balkans are members of other ethnic groups. However, it is true that Rroma are particularly affected by exclusion. Radio Dreyeckland (2013) rightly criticised that the protection rate of asylum applications from Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina fixed at 5% is too low. Many Rroma in these countries are discriminated against and should not therefore be treated as pure poverty refugees. This is also criticized by Jelpke (2013): The asylum applications of immigrants from the Western Balkans are being processed in shorter and shorter periods. This is due to the coalition agreement between the CDU and the SPD. This document plans to declare the western countries of South Eastern Europe to be “safe countries”. This makes it increasingly difficult for migrants from these countries to get a successful asylum application. A protective claim is still just awarded 0.1 to 0.6 percent of applicants from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, meanwhile decided a deportation moratorium for the winter months (Carini 2013).

Haug (2013), in his article, points to the discrepancy between integration efforts communicated by the State and the real experienced exclusion. Rroma deported to Serbia mostly find there an income on the edge of society or live on welfare. Against the official statement of Serbia, that Rroma are not persecuted in the country stand in contrast to the misery and hopelessness: “Where it can be, they are marginalized, the victims reported. You get no jobs and are not informed of your rights. Even for food the meagre money barely suffice. […] “On paper, there are now many measures to end discrimination against these people,” says the lawyer. The trip did however convinced him that: “In daily life the affected ones feel little of it””

The President of the German Association of Cities Ulrich Maly goes against simple explanations in connection with immigrants from Southeast Europe. The migrants are often discriminated against and are hoping for a better life in Germany. He appealed to the historical responsibility of Germany in dealing with minorities and argued against a policy of isolation, as demanded by several parties. Rather, one must promote the integration in Germany and in the countries of origin: “These are not people who come and go with open hands to the administration. They come for other reasons. Because they are oppressed at home, perhaps even feel persecuted. They come because they believe that they will find a better life with us. These are reasons that one initially must respect.” Maly therefore goes against an alliance of politicians and citizens fearing a “social tourism” on the German social welfare system from the beginning of 2014. Bulgarians and Romanians will then be able to search unrestricted fro work in the European Union, thanks to the European free Movement Agreement (Kusicke 2013).

Leber (2013) sees the debate about immigration marked by varying degrees of coverage in social systems. The “general principle of European free movement” meets various forms of social welfare. That, however, this is not necessarily a contradiction in a polemical debate, however, it is often forgotten. Instead, it is dominated by a politics of fear, which flattens the heterogeneity of migration phenomena and propagandises the immigration of unskilled problem cases. It is this utilitarian thinking is criticized by Koch (2013) in his account of the problem. It means a ranking of people on questionable, inhuman principles.

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13.12.2013 Racism Accusation for Luc Jousse

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The mayor of Rocquebrune-sur-Argens, Luc Jousse is suspended until further notice from his own UMP party. Jousse had made a racist remark towards Rroma during an interview. He had stated: “Je vous rappelle quand même que les gens du voyage, que dis-je, les Roms, m’ont mis neuf fois le feu. […] ils piquent des câbles électriques et après ils le brûlent pour récupérer le cuivre et ils se sont mis à eux-mêmes le feu dans leurs propres caravanes! Un gag! Ce qui est presque dommage, c’est qu’on ait appelé trop tôt les secours!” (L’Express, 2013). [I remind you nevertheless that these travellers, what do I say, these Rroma, laid nine times fires. […] they steel electrical cables, and after that, they burnt them to recover the copper, and they torched their own caravans! A joke! What is almost a pity, isthat one called the emergency services too early] With this tasteless remark Jousse makes himself clearly guilty of racism. As the Huffigton Post (2013) currently reports, Jousse was suspended from the UMP until further notice.

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13.12.2013 The Tale of the Thieving Rroma Clans

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20 Minuten (2013) reports about two young girls who were arrested by the policie in Lucerne while trying to break into a house. Apparently, the girls come from a Roma camp in France. This short news confirms and is in line with the suspicion expressed in the Weltwoche (Gut, Philipp / Scherrer, Lucien 2013). In its article from early November it again talked of a “culture of crime”, which is brought into Switzerland by the Rroma. Articles with ethnic attributions that are not contextualized do promote racism towards an already heavily marginalized minority. More sensitivity in handling ethnic attributions would be highly desirable.

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13.12.2013 European Rroma Policies: A Sobering Result at Year End

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Riesbeck (2013) discusses the prospects of the European Rroma policies, which are aimed at the promotion of Rroma in the areas of education, health, employment, and housing. The results of theses policy is meanwhile sobering. The current project that has now been running for two years does not get the ball rolling. One of the reasons for the lack of success stories is the lack of legal means of the EU administration: “The States indicate their goals in the Roma strategy, but the European Commission has no legal basis to call for the implementation of these objectives and make them binding.” therefore, the European Rroma policies fall to bureaucratic hurdles between EU policies and programs of the respective nation-states. In addition, Rroma are themselves insufficiently involved in the projects. One talks about and for them, but not with them. 7sur7 (2013) sees a fundamental problem in the voluntariness of the implementation of EU decisions on the part of the EU Member States.

Mappes-Niediek sees an alternative to increasing educational achievements among Rroma, something which does not necessarily guarantees a real improvement, in the creation of social funds to cover the basic needs of all EU residents. His thought stems from the fact that education alone cannot eliminate the discrimination by the majority society (Gędziorowski 2013).

Meanwhile, several Western European countries are trying to stem the migration of Rroma. Members of the EU Parliament again spoke against restrictive practices towards Rroma: “EU countries must stop illegal expulsion of Roma people and end ethnic profiling, police abuse and human rights violations perpetrated against them, says Parliament in a non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday. It assesses member states’ strategies to boost Roma integration and calls for more funds to prevent discrimination and reach small community projects” (European Parliament 2013). The undeniable tension between national political programs and pan-European plans are visible in particular also in the European Rroma policies. While the EU insists on integration and recognition, conservative politicians in Germany, France and Great Britain propagate an isolationist policy (see Flechter 2013).

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06.12.2013 The Rroma and the European Free Movement of Persons

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma criticized the agreement of EU interior ministers to curb the free movement of persons in the EU. The European Interior Ministers have agreed this week to reduce the allowances for needy immigrants and, where appropriate, again can introduce a visa duty to restrict larger migration flows from South East Europe (Handelsblatt, 2013). The curb on migration within the EU will not solve any problems, but freeze and uphold the dependency structures and injustice among the States. There is also no denying that the exclusion of Rroma is practiced more in some countries than in others.

The German towns President Ulrich Maly asked meanwhile for more tolerance towards immigrants and appealed to the historical responsibility of Germany towards the minority of the Rroma (Unternehmen-Heute 2013).

Böhm (2013) meanwhile suggests that a veritable “competitive repression”  against Rroma is taking place. Western European countries such as France, Germany, or the UK up each others on measures aimed at wanting to limit immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. The widespread exclusion of Rroma, which only make the migration necessary and the real problem is usually ignored. Instead, virtually all immigrants from Southeast Europe are collectively identified as poverty immigrants and thus as migrants, who apart from their poverty have no real reason for asylum (20 Minuten, 2013). Furthermore one often forgets that the assessments of the security of countries done by the states to assess the discrimination of minorities such as the Rroma are often inadequate or euphemistic, especially if the analysis comes from the countries themselves. To declare the immigrants from South East Europe broadly as poverty immigrants ignores real practices of exclusion that are not looked at by these country assessments.    

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06.12.2013 Discrimination against Rroma in Austria

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The association Romano Centro (2013) published a report on the exclusion of Rroma in Austria this week. The authors of the report saw discrimination in everyday life, in public facilities as well as in access to the labour market. Here, the effective observable racism is only a part of what actually takes place. Discrimination in the private sector will often not be reported and therefore remain undetected. The internet on the other hand, is so rich on information, that the effective dimensions of antiziganism cannot truly bee assessed. Regarding the media coverage, as in Ettinger (2013), they see a one-sided focus on delinquency and the ethnicisation of poverty different phenomena: “The reports are usually unilaterally focused on begging or on the topics of poverty induced migration, human trafficking and specific criminality. The social problems that are seen by many as “grievances”, are attributed to an ethnic group which fuels the growth of the rejection of this group.” A further concern is that the racist acts against Rroma are by far not only committer by members of right-wing groups. Antiziganism is socially acceptable in broad sections of the population and anchored on the transmission of false prejudices. The authors therefore deem it as a truly important and viable challenge to break this institutionalized racism.

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06.12.2013 The Media Coverage on Rroma in Switzerland is One-Sided and often Defamatory

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On behalf of the Federal Commission against Racism, the Research Institute for the Public and Society of the Zurich University made a study on the quality of the reporting in Swiss media about Rroma (Ettinger, 2013; compare NZZ, 2013; 20 Minuten, 2013; Südostschweiz, 2013). The study examined a representative sample of Swiss media of the period from 2005 to 2012. The study concludes that the contributions are highly selective and unbalanced: in the daily press on Switzerland,  Rroma are almost only referred to in relation to asylum abuse, begging, theft, or prostitution. They appear primarily as perpetrators or in the case of prostitution as the victims of clan-related forced prostitution. While some Rroma come to word in various newspapers, the tendency to let officials talk about them dominates “Because of the focus on crime and deviant behaviour, representatives of the executive branch (24%), respectively of the police (12%) and the judiciary (6%) are the ones who most frequently come to word” (Ettinger 2013). The coverage is dominated by an image of an enemy that hypes up individual cases as precedents and builds them to an attestation of the culturally determined Rroma delinquency, which needs not be further explained: “The explanation of the rationale behind their statements is waived in particular by spokesman for the police (60 %), who limits their statements to delinquent behaviour of Roma, and almost without exception the citizen who argument on the basis on the basis of their subjective concerns whose aversions and fears are expressive statements that do not require a justification.” The alleged facts are therefore based on suspicions and on the willingness to believe them as facts.

In the reporting on Rroma outside of Switzerland in turn dominated by the perspective of portraying Rroma as the victims of discrimination and exclusion. The usual defamation about Rroma in Switzerland are largely ignored.

However, the study does not sufficiently question to what extent journalists and concerned citizens just assume that the people one reports on are Rroma. The attribution of a Rroma identity to conspicuous people is not looked into and considered to be problematic, but simply taken as given. This became clear in particular in the study of the Zurich street prostitution that simply postulated that the women in question are Rroma. How these statistics came about, is not problematized: “The majority of sex workers surveyed include the groups of the two Roma groups Romunro or Olah on”  (Sex Educatio 2012: 43). A clear identification of ethnicity is anything but simple, as the case around the blonde Rroma girl has shown.

On the Rroma Contact Point side, we find it would be great to give unspectacular topics such as the lives of integrated Rroma a voice and speak of their everyday life in order to create a counterweight to the negative representations. Ettinger notes: Although “Roma themselves come to word in no small numbers in reporting, t in 13 percent of the contributions they present their reactions. But the opinions the Roma and respectively Jenische are usually only reactions to existing problems. Roma or Jenische therefore are not able to contribute their own issues and positions in the reporting.”

The aspect of the political instrumentalisation of the Rroma to political ends falls short in this study even though Ettinger notes that Rroma are exploited before votes for partisan political ends. But the continuous values projection on Rroma by politically varied oriented daily and weekly media are too little criticised. Yet it is precisely the Rroma who are continuously abused as a counter point to the construction of a civic identity. Ettinger’s study therefore lacks a historical perspective on the aspect of discrimination that could thematise the socio-political aspect of the exclusion. This view would show that there is a tradition of prejudice against Rroma that has been perpetuated for centuries. A good source in this respect is Klaus-Michael Bogdal (2011) study on the dissemination of false, distorting culturalisms. Another problem is that the misrepresentation of Rroma on poverty-related phenomena such as illiteracy, begging, prostitution, high childbirth rates, or low level of education is not discussed critically. It is not enough to expose these representations as racist. They must be identified as wrong and distorting representations. Otherwise, the impression may arise that while the coverage was indeed distorted, there nevertheless is a culture of delinquency and exploitation among Rroma, which, due to political correctness, one must not mention. In the context of the poverty immigration to Germany, numerous journalists are arguing this way. Rather, social problems such as poverty and exclusion must be considered as such. In addition, cultural explanations that are based on prejudice and not on effective knowledge must be recognised as such and deconstructed.

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29.11.2013 Segregation through an Integration Project?

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Klapheck (2013) reports on the integration project “Maro Temm” [Our country] in Kiel. The program financed 50 settlements for Sinti that were built in the district of Gaarden in the suburbs. The report, filled with a lot of empathy nevertheless gives a fairly questionable image of integration and Rroma: the journalist talks at the beginning of the settling the Sinti. Most Rroma are not travellers. In addition, settling Rroma in ethnically segregated quarters should really be questioned. How can an exchange take place with non-Rroma if they live in segregated settlements? Segregation is already there even without the help of such integration projects. The fact that the interviewed Sinti speak of widespread illiteracy among the Rroma is also one-sided. This is not true of many integrated Rroma living in Germany. They are simply hidden in this report. Klapheck evokes an emphatic but highly one-sided picture of Sinti and Germany. This also criticized by Romani Rose in his interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung (2013).

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29.11.2013 Rroma Debate in the UK

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Pany (2013) reports on polemical statements against Rroma in the UK. Politicians and residents of Sheffield spoke of potential social unrest, should the Rroma not culturally assimilate. David Blunkett (BBC 2013) states that the majority of the Slovak Romany would thus have to adjust their social behaviour in order to prevent social tensions. The fact that large families, low education or littering have nothing to do with culture but rather with poverty, does not seem to be clear to Blunkett. In addition, one again needs to note the tendency to automatically assimilate all immigrants from Eastern Europe to Rroma, even though their ethnicity is everything but easy to determine. Conspicuous individuals and groups are simply flatly decreed to be Rroma: “The complaints reported by residents as in the Guardian [Pidd 2013], in the Telegraph [Shute 2013] or shriller even in the Boulevard [Reid 2013], range from night time disturbance because of loud gatherings of Roma on the streets, garbage in front of houses and extend to allegations of theft of metals, drug trafficking and prostitution.” This contrasts with reports such as in the Guardian (Townsend 2013), who expose the propaganda as part of the campaign against the free movement of people in Europe and who address issues such as exclusion and discrimination. The Austrian, right-wing populist online newspaper Unzensuriert.at (2013/II) meanwhile speaks uncritically of the Slovak Rroma clans that are swamping the UK and who disturb the social peace with their anti-social behaviour: “In British media in connection with Roma, there have been reports of vandalism, garbage dumps, theft, drug trafficking and prostitution.”

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29.11.2013 Baden- Württemberg: New State Treaty strengthens rights of the Sinti and Romany

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Grunau (2013) reports on the newly signed treaty between the German state of Baden- Württemberg and the local Land Association of German Sinti and Roma. The agreement recognizes that the Rroma have been a part of German society for the last 600 years and as an ethnic minority have the right to protect and promote their interests. With the signing of the Treaty, the State of Baden-Württemberg also acknowledges its historic responsibility in the genocide of the Rroma and must attempt to fight against antiziganism: “The State Treaty in Baden-Württemberg is intended to inform. The State agrees to enshrine the past and present of the Sinti and Roma in the curricula for schools and teaching so as, “to counter possible prejudices.” A research centre for the history and culture of the minority as well as of antiziganism will be created.” The chairman of the National Association of German Sinti and Roma, Daniel Strauss, is hoping for a pioneering role of the State of Baden-Württemberg in the fight against racism and social exclusion. It is greatly hoped that the concessions made in this contract do not only remain statements of intent.

The Stuttgarter Zeitung (2013) adds that around 12,000 Sinti and Roma live in Baden- Württemberg. They form one of the four recognized minorities besides the Frisians, Sorbs and the Danes. That Jews are not mentioned is somewhat astonishing. The representatives of the Rroma also complained that, contrary to Schleswig-Holstein, it did not come to a change in the state constitution, in which the protection of the Rroma is enshrined. The Schwabian newspaper (2013) adds that the Baden-Württemberg State Association will receive 500,000 euro from 2014 and that a Council for the affairs of the German Sinti and Roma has been created.

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29.11.2013 Rolf Bauerdick written defence of his book

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In an article in die Welt, Bauerdick (2013) responds to the many sometimes violent criticisms of his book, “Gypsies: Encounters with unloved people.” He still seems not to realise that his supposed revelations on culturally related grievances is after all racist. He notes: “If the police, as currently in Westphalia, warns against bands of con artists, then this is no need for the Central Countil [of Sinti and Roma to read the Levites to their own clientele. If Roma pimps send thousands of young women to bars and to brothels, not a single official stands up to protect the victims. And when in Paris, the Louvre closes because droves of abused children steal from the visitors, then that has nothing to do at all with that ethnic group for which Heuss speaks as non-Gypsy. For the Central Council, Roma crime is solely responsibility of individuals. Only the racism of the dominant society is collective.” With his statements Bauerdick follows the same line as the Weltwoche. His criticism is one that builds on a very one-sided picture of the Rroma, pervaded by prejudice. Bauerdick wants to have encountered all the things that he wrote and criticised about in his book. But how does he knows with certainty that the begging children are Rroma and the prostitutes are Rromnja? How does he know that the children are not begging for themselves or their parents, and the women prostitute themselves out of poverty? Where does he take the authority as Gadjo to gauge Rroma? The problems he sees among the Rroma are exactly those that outsiders over and over again simplistically use to explain the observed events: Begging children are part of hierarchically organized clan networks, the same applies to prostitutes or theiving Rroma. Behind them stands a mighty Rroma king who skims all of them. That despite numerous refutations of his vision, Bauerdick still decidedly insists on his position is incomprehensible. It hurts Rroma more than it helps them, although the latter is his officially his goal. The fact that he thereby interprets the freedom of expression in an ethically very questionable manner, does not seem to be clear to him (compare with the right-wing populist platform Unzensuriert.at 2013).

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29.11.2013 Support versus recognition of the Rroma

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Mappes-Niediek (2013) provides information about a restaurant project in the Slovenian town of Maribor. The restaurant will be operated by Rroma and to a certain extent reduce the high unemployment locally. Against this project co-initiated by the mayor, local resistance has been organised: the critics, among them local representatives, fear that the restaurant will become a Rroma meeting place where there will be only Rroma. The cook Ajša Mehmeti decidedly stated that she wants it to be a restaurant for all. For Slovenes, Serbs, Bosnians and Rroma. But for the project to work, it needs not only the support of the mayor, but also the support of the local population. So far, this is missing: “Meanwhile, the Roma have the key for the local. The contract is signed, an architect has looked at the rooms. But the Maribor Rroma do not look like winners. Friendliness or integration you can not just win by fighting.”

On the basis of the fate of the young Rrom Orhan Jasarovski, Gojdka (2013) discusses the injustices of the social structures and asylum procedures. Orhan has epilepsy and a lame leg. He came with his family as a youngster from Macedonia to Germany. Here he hopes for a better life outside of poverty and exclusion. He works hard and wants to study. But the German migration authority has other plans. Orhan and his family have to return to Macedonia. After numerous legal hurdles and thanks to the support of German helpers, he manages to make it back to Germany. But the recognition as Rrom remains difficult. As before, there is a clear discrepancy between verbally expressed sympathy and real recognition: “In a literature seminar at the university a lecturer speaks finally about Sinti and Roma: “An anti-social people on the margins of society”. Jasarovski boils. His pulse skyrockets. Every word is like a knife in his heart. Anger about the lecturer. Rage over his own cowardice not to have outed oneself. Then Jasarovski stands up. “I know best what Roma are,” he says, “I ‘m Gypsy.” Many friends renounce their friendship. Too deep are the literary and non-literary stereotypes of the thieving Gypsies, the travellers and the child abductors. In the literature, one must analyse these pictures scientifically, says Jasarovski. But he also knows that he can not meet the bitter reality scientifically.”

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