07.03.2014 Taking into care of Rroma children: care or structural violence?

Voigt (2014) from the Frankfurter Rundschau reports on two young Rroma children taken into care by the Frankfurt youth welfare office. The youth welfare office justifies its action with reference to the precarious living situation of the family: the Romanian Rroma family is said to have lived under problematic conditions in an hut without heating and running water. The Förderverein Roma takes a very different viewpoint: “taking the two children into care [is] a clear case of “punishment of poverty”. The family was not illegal, but lived in the hut with the consent of the owner. Just because the parents cannot finance an own apartment because of their poverty, the children are taken away from them.” The association is committed to find a reasonable accommodation for the whole family and for the parents to receive social welfare.