Daily Archives: mars 15, 2013

15.03.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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Reinger Burger (2013) of the FAZ concerns himself rather one-sidedly with the topic of poverty migration to Germany. He focuses on the media hype surrounding an apartment tower in Duisburg, which is regularly visited by politicians and journalists. There is nothing really new that he can tell, but he lets the residents speak out in an emotionally loaded way without any context with residents complaining about littering and rising crime. The gloomy forecast from people responsible for integration in Duisburg, which says that because of the freedom of movement within Europe that will start at the beginning of 2014, they will need to spend an additional 15 millions, cannot be missing. Men mostly do undeclared work while many young women prostitute themselves. He brings a few new points to the debate namely that many in Germany believed that Rroma, as they are travellers, would only temporarily stay in Germany. The opposite is the case: Many want to stay and build a future for their children, because in Romania and Bulgaria they see no future for themselves. Hannes Swoboda, chairman of the SPD in the European Parliament demands a dedicated Commissioner for Rroma issues. To ignore the situation is not an adequate response to the prevailing events.

The Welt (2013) reports on the action of Saxony’s interior minister Markus Ulbig. He will travel from March 17th to 20th to Serbia, Macedonia, and Kosovo and talk to state, charities and Rroma representatives. His aim is to rationalise the debate about poverty immigration. Migrants from Southeast Europe are almost to 100% not political refugees but are fleeing poverty. This leads to the abuse of political asylum.

The Bremen SPD politician Martin Korol is being excluded from the local SPD fraction (Möller 2013, Hudemann 2013, Stengel 2013). After anti-Rroma statements were made public on Korol’s website, a public debate started centred on the content and intentions of this blog. Korol tried to appease it, which did not succeed with his party colleagues. From his point of view he wanted to start a constructive debate on the situation of Rroma in Germany. Since his statements go against social democratic principles, an exclusion proceeding has been instituted against him. Korol only just became a citizen of Bremen.

Arndt (2013) is writing a report for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on the situation of Rroma in Bulgaria. The article consists of a series of statistics which does not describe how they were collected and does not discloses their sources disclosed nor discusses them. Arndt distinguishes initially three dominant minorities in Bulgaria: Bulgarians of Turkish origin, Pomaks and Rroma. About the Rroma living conditions, he reports is fully in line with the standard misery views: the majority of Bulgarian Rroma live in closed communities, 55% in urban areas and 45% in rural areas. The number Rroma completing school is blatantly lower than among ethnic Bulgarians. Illiteracy, particularly among women, is also much higher. Many Rroma children speak little or no Bulgarian, when they arrive at school. This data may be correct, even though in the absence of any sources, criticism is almost impossible. The report becomes problematic when it starts to operate on the level of values. Arndt notes for example that: “Due to the shortcomings of their socialization they often lack the necessary social behavioural patterns required to be successful in school. […] The biggest obstacle to a successful integration is likely to prove to be the ghettos with their patriarchal and feudal, often criminal structures, less so the Roma culture.” What shortcomings in the socialization does Arndt mean? How is this justified? His article postulates facts without context and these are not explained. This approach is seriously to be questioned. 

Sources:

  • Arndt, Marco (2013) Geschlossene Gesellschaft. Zur Lage der Roma in Bulgarien. In: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung – Auslandsbüro Bulgarien vom 8.3.2013.
  • Burger, Reiner (2013) Das bessere Leben im Problem-Hochhaus. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 11.3.2013.
  • Delius, Mara (2013) „Die Zigeuner“, ein imaginäres Kollektiv Europas? In: Die Welt vom 14.3.2013.
  • Die Welt (2013) Ulbig will Situation der Roma auf dem Balkan erkunden. In: Die Welt vom 14.3.2013.
  • Ebbinghaus, Uwe (2013) Europa erfindet die Zigeuner, um sie zu verachten. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 13.3.2013.
  • Hudemann, Steffen (2013) Rassismus oder Denkanstoss? In.: Radio Bremen vom 22.2.2013.
  • Möller, René (2013) SPD meidet Martin Korol. In: Radio Bremen vom 8.3.2013.
  • Staats, Christian (2013) Kitsch und Hass. In: Die Zeit vom 28.2.2013.
  • Stengel, Eckhart (2013) Auch SPD-Fraktion will Rechtsabweichler loswerden. In: Frankfurter Rundschau vom 1.3.2013. 

15.03.2013 Klaus-Michael Bogdal receives European Understanding Book Prize for his book “Europe invents the Gypsies”

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The German literary scholar Klaus-Michael Bogdal was awarded the German Book Prize for European Understanding for his work “Europe invents the Gypsies” (Delius 2013). Bogdal researched the handing down of mainly derogatory stereotypes on Rroma in literature and oral traditions, which are persisting to this day in the minds of many people. Bogdal researched since 1992 for this book, which appeared in 2011 and the award comes at a time where there is a fierce polemic in Germany about the foreign Roma and their role, and where exactly the very same images that Bogdal deconstructs and condemns are being used.

Bogdal (Ebbinghaus 2013) sees clear parallels between the story of European Rroma exclusion and the current debate in Germany. Even hundreds of years ago, there was resentment against people coming from the East to Western Europe, people who were seen as Turkish spies and endowed with numerous other stereotypes. They were deemed to have a low level of civilization and seen nas the last Wild people of Europe.

One of the problems in the current debate is the fact that many of those involved are trying to find clear answers to causes of the glaring poverty of many Roma and thereby, while speculating about the Roma identity, reproduce the standard stereotypes. As a result, the game is repeated with the external and self-ascription of identity, whereby in the case of Roma foreign attribution dominates. It seems, as Bogdal notes, as if one denies the Rroma the right to state their own identity. In his work on the representation of the Roma in the European literature, he sees not only a blatant distortion of the representation of the Roma, but also a disfigured awareness of reality itself, which is to be criticized and changed. He also criticizes the use of negative terms and images that in itself are vague and contradictory, such as the terminology “antiziganism”. On the relationship between anti-Semitism and anti-gypsy attitudes, he notes that European society found too few common points with Rroma that could be openly defamed, and therefore created the image of the “foreign, non-European” to discriminate against them deem them outside of the law. Particularly shocking to Bogdal, is to forget that the uncritical use of traditional prejudices on Rroma was key at major turning points in history, for example during  their systematic persecution and extermination under the Nazis. When asked what kind of picture of the Rroma he has today, he notes pluralistically:

Today I don’t have one anymore. The image has been dissolved in a variety of images of European Gypsies. It’s a good feeling to see a Finnish Kalderash – this is a very traditional group – and it’s as good a feeling not to be able to determine a lawyer with Sinti background, who has dropped his traditional traits (Ebbinghaus 2013) 

In an interview with The Time (Staas 2013), he emphasizes a hand down of prejudices against Rroma, which ideologically legitimises the use of force against them. Rroma a lower position within the ranking of Nations: While amongst nations, “territorial, economic and cultural domination” is key, the Rroma take the place of the undefined stranger who remains in the country, but is neither friend nor foe, a homeless “faceless embodiment of the Other”. In relation to the development of prejudice, he states:

In the Middle Ages the “Gypsy” was considered sinful per se, during the enlightenment as a primitive intelligence, and in the industrial age as a natural being. Always seen as a threat, Rroma were assigned to the lowest social status. […] In the early modern period, this happens in the context of contemporary peoples and nations genealogies. In the Enlightenment, science rearranges mankind anew. One discovers that the Rroma have their own language which belongs to the Sanskrit family. At the same time one explains them to be the descendants of the lowest and most despised Indian caste the pariahs. For the 20th century racism, Rroma are nothing but a “inferior” race. New knowledge – or perceived knowledge – always has the same result: the exclusion of Rroma (Staas 2013).

This desire for knowledge on the Roma always culminates in new findings on Rroma to is imposed upon them. Their poverty is criminalized and becomes a stigma. They are perceived as a danger, as people in need of discipline. Not much has changed at these views, which already existed centuries ago.

Quellen:

  • Delius, Mara (2013) „Die Zigeuner“, ein imaginäres Kollektiv Europas? In: Die Welt vom 14.3.2013.
  • Ebbinghaus, Uwe (2013) Europa erfindet die Zigeuner, um sie zu verachten. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 13.3.2013.
  • Staats, Christian (2013) Kitsch und Hass. In: Die Zeit vom 28.2.2013.
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