January 2005.One Rroma Family in Switzerland has repeatedly made the press headlines. Either stealing, begging, stabbing, in brief all calamities concentrated within one family. But is this the actual case of all refugees?

ONE RROMA FAMILY

Rroma Foundation

January 2005

Switzerland has taken quite a few refugees from the former Yugoslavia. Proportionally to its size, in fact, many more than Germany, and in absolute numbers, more than the others neighbouring countries. Adding to this influx of refugees, there is a substantial Yugoslav minority in the country, due to the large number of workers that came to Switzerland in the 60s and 70s.

The rise of the nationalistic party (SVP) of Christof Blocher in the last few years has tilted the balance. The press is currently relishing in stereotyping of young Yugoslavs as being criminals, of not being capable of integrating into the fabric of the Swiss society, and, more worrisome, more and more people are clamouring to introduce a stricter Asylum policy, to reduce the number of “foreigners” in the country, etc.

In this tense context, the fate of one Rroma family from the Kosovo has made it to the headlines of several newspapers and television. This family, who fled their country in 1999, has been granted temporary residency, since the situation in Kosovo currently prevents their return to that region. In fact, most Rroma refugees from the Kosovo, while denied asylum on the grounds that there is no state persecution of Rroma, are granted this status (so-called F-Permit), and are allowed to stay in Switzerland.

This F-Permit, while securing their residency is far from optimal. Holders of this permit are only allowed a limited range of activities, regardless of their qualifications. They can work in restaurants, on construction work, etc. In addition, the confederation withholds part of the salaries to a so-called security account that will be paid out (minus expenses),  should the family or holder of the permit have to leave the country.

These low-paid jobs are not easy to obtain, and at best allow these families to become working poor, thus requiring them to depend on social help. This help usually covers health insurance, rent or part thereof, and further contributes, for the Swiss population at large, to the impression that refugees are only cashing in money. In addition, it is far from trivial to find a job in Switzerland with such a permit. Employers are wary of hiring people who can be deported at very short notice. Nevertheless, a fair percentage of he Rroma refugees (around 80%, according to the sample of refugees we are counseling) are actually working and trying to rebuild a life in Switzerland. A far greater percentage sends their children to school, and few, if any problems are reported.

Clearly, there are some that do not fit in this neat if hard integration pattern. Some are criminals. These, in accordance with Swiss law, are immediately deported to their country of origin, if possible. The “if possible” clause applies mostly to refugees from Europe, and thus from former-Yugoslavia, as these arrived in Switzerland with papers. To the frustration of Mr. Blocher, this is more complicated in the case of refugees from other countries, especially for African countries, where it is often impossible to determine from which country a refugee came. In the case of former-Yugoslavia, especially Serbia and Montenegro, this deportation is made easier by a treaty signed by Switzerland with the Serbian authorities (at that time, Mr. Milosevic), guaranteeing that Serbia will take refuges back. This hard policy towards delinquents insures, that in the case of Rroma refugees from Kosovo, there are very few criminals. In fact, to take a rather representative sample of cases, one has much less than one percent of cases where refugees were engaged in criminal activities. And from the ones that were condemned, a fair part was deported for family matters, i.e., generally for domestic violence.

This leaves us with the case of this family that defrayed the chronicles in various newspapers and television. Here, it is not the father nor the mother, but the children that cause the problem. Three of the six children have already been repeatedly arrested, for theft, but also for more serious crimes, such as robbery, and one of the daughters, aged 13, has been placed in an institution. The children do not go regularly to school, do not respond to any kind of authority, in brief, a pattern that is not that uncommon, even in quiet Switzerland.

Were the parents hardened criminals, then, all would have already been resolved long ago, as the family would have been deported a while back. Here, however, one is faced with a slightly different problem: youngsters and children criminality. Why they turned that way, how this happened and why this was not caught and prevented earlier will never become clear. It is never easy, and prevention in those cases is far from being a science.

What is bad is that this case is now being used to reinforce the usual stereotypes one encounters in Switzerland against Gypsies: Beggars, thieves, do nothings, etc. This even though this doesn’t apply at all to the Rroma refugees in that country. Even the ARK, the Swiss Asylum Recourse Commission, usually a very discreet entity felt compelled to publish its standpoint in the press. Having been criticised by the nationalistic party of Blocher for not having done anything to deport this family, the ARK, in a strongly worded article that appeared in the Tages Anzeiger, defended its standpoint: In the current situation in Kosovo, Rroma cannot return to that country. They are thus to be granted the temporary F permit.

While luckily the press’ attention span is rather short, and thus, the headlines have disappeared, some of Mr. Blocher’s party have seized upon this pretext to launch a populist attack against the Swiss asylum laws and the Rroma from the Kosovo in general. Only time will show what the outcome will be, but, in an already tense situation, with nearly 30% of the population agreeing with those views, one can only but fear what will happen.