{"id":1378,"date":"2014-08-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/06-08-2014-stereotypes-rroma-as-child-robbers\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:00:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:00:59","slug":"06-08-2014-stereotypes-rroma-as-child-robbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/06-08-2014-stereotypes-rroma-as-child-robbers\/","title":{"rendered":"06.08.2014 Stereotypes: Rroma as child robbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several British tabloids \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treport on the fate of the Belarusian model Olga Romanovich. The beauty queen was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tallegedly kidnapped as a four year old from her birth mother in Moldova. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchild robbers are termed as gypsies. From these, she was supposedly sold for a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpair of gold earrings to another Rroma family that wished to have a daughter in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taddition to their son: \u201cHer birth mother \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTamara fled an abusive husband with Olga and was initially cared for at a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trailway station by gypsies who persuaded her to move from her home in Belarus \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto Moldova. She had to beg on the street with her daughter, before she was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttricked into giving up her child during a car journey. They stopped at a shop, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand gave her money to buy cigarettes, before driving off with her baby who was sold \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto another gypsy, who lived in the town of Soroki near the Ukrainian border. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe woman who bought her had a son but wanted a daughter too, and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“bought” Olga for a pair of golden earrings and a tiny sum of money, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthough she Olga was largely raised by this woman’s mother\u201d <\/em>(The Huffington \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost 2014). The stereotype of Rroma as child robbers reaches back to their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarrival in Western Europe. The prejudice is based on the idea that Rroma are deliberately \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanti-social living groups who steal their livelihood from the hard-working \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmajority population and enrich themselves from them by illegal means. However, Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare not more criminal than other ethnic groups. Trafficking of children has \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnothing to do with the culture of the Rroma, as the articles cited here suggest. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt is a racist prejudice that has been handed down for generations (compare \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCockroft 2014, Hartley-Parkinson 2014, Metro News 2014, Stewart 2014).<\/p>\n