{"id":1217,"date":"2014-11-21T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/21-11-2014-tagesspiegel-emphatic-but-one-sided-depiction-of-rroma-in-romania-and-bulgaria\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:47:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:47:21","slug":"21-11-2014-tagesspiegel-emphatic-but-one-sided-depiction-of-rroma-in-romania-and-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/21-11-2014-tagesspiegel-emphatic-but-one-sided-depiction-of-rroma-in-romania-and-bulgaria\/","title":{"rendered":"21.11.2014 Tagesspiegel: emphatic, but one-sided depiction of Rroma in Romania and Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\">Appenzeller (2014) \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treports on the visit of Neuk\u00f6lln\u2019s education councillor, Franziska Giffey, in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRomania and Bulgaria. The Berlin politician, who, among others, is in charge of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe integration of immigrant families from Southeast Europe, wanted to get an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tidea of the Rroma situation in their countries of origin. However, Appenzeller\u2019s \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma representation remains one-sided, despite an emphatic perspective and the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treference to well-educated immigrants: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cThe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toften heated debate revolves around Bulgarian and Romanian Roma families who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare accused of migrating into the welfare system. Since they do not get regular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjobs here, they sign up as contractors.<\/em> <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmen then find underpaid work in the construction business, the women work as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcleaners, gladly also in luxury hotels.<\/em> <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">[&#8230;] \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnd these people have children, many children.<\/em> <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">They go to German schools without speaking a word of German. [&#8230;] A \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfocal point of the Roma immigration in Berlin is the district of Neuk\u00f6lln. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tofficial figures estimate 5,500 people, councillor Franziska Geffey, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tresponsible for education and schooling, estimates twice as many.\u201d<\/em> However, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcritical studies could not detect any mass immigration of Rroma, as is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepeatedly claimed. In addition, the claim that Rroma are needy, poorly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teducated, and have many children, is a massive generalisation. Rroma build part \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof all social strata and professions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\">Appenzeller then discusses \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe educational journey of Giffey to Romania and Bulgaria. There, the education \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcouncillor was able to see the misery of the Rroma with her own eyes, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjournalist emphasises. Unfortunately, Appenzeller reduces the Rroma situation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Romania and Bulgaria to marginalised Rroma in the slums, and the present, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbut not omnipresent racism, as he represents it: <em>\u201cPolitics begins when looking at reality. Franziska Giffey wanted to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tknow from what environment Roma families come from.<\/em> <em>This reality has opened her eyes.<\/em> <em>She has seen that Roma children have no way to be admitted to normal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tschools in their homeland.<\/em> <em>She saw \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat their parents have fewer opportunities for jobs, because they are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdiscriminated against because of their origin and darker skin colour.<\/em> <em>She has experienced how these families are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstigmatised by the prejudice that Roma are lazy and not willing to work. [&#8230;] German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolitics may well ask the question of how the EU intends to sanction two member \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstates, who brutally discriminate against an ethnic group that lives on their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tterritories for centuries.\u201d<\/em> Rroma are discriminated against in Romania and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBulgaria, but they are not faced with an all-embracing state racism, as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAppenzeller claims. The plight of marginalised Rroma in the two countries is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe result of weak economies and the historical discrimination and exclusion of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma \u2013 in the case of Romania their enslavement that lasted until the mid 19th \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcentury. \u2013 The marginalized Rroma in the ghettos, who get all the media \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tattention, are juxtaposed by an big part of integrated Rroma, which belong to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe middle class, and some even to the upper class (compare Mappes-Niediek \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014). <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Appenzeller, Gerd (2014) Politik beginnt beim \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBetrachten der Wirklichkeit. In: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Der \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTagesspiegel online <\/em>vom 20.11.2014. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tagesspiegel.de\/meinung\/roma-familien-in-deutschland-politik-beginnt-beim-betrachten-der-wirklichkeit\/11004202.html\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">http:\/\/www.tagesspiegel.de\/meinung\/roma-familien-in-deutschland-politik-beginnt-beim-betrachten-der-wirklichkeit\/11004202.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Mappes-Niediek, Norbert (2014) Verfolgt werden die Roma nicht \u2013 aber sie \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tverarmen. In: <em style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Badische Zeitung online<\/em> vom 19.9.2014. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.badische-zeitung.de\/kommentare-1\/verfolgt-werden-die-roma-nicht-aber-sie-verarmen--91009204.html\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">http:\/\/www.badische-zeitung.de\/kommentare-1\/verfolgt-werden-die-roma-nicht-aber-sie-verarmen&#8211;91009204.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Appenzeller (2014) reports on the visit of Neuk\u00f6lln\u2019s education councillor, Franziska Giffey, in Romania and Bulgaria. The Berlin politician, who, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[601,14,605],"tags":[92,35,63,24,23,649,133],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulgaria","category-news-eastern-europe","category-romania","tag-discrimination","tag-education","tag-racism","tag-roma","tag-rroma","tag-schools","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1903,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}