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04.07.2014 Rroma and stereotypes: prison sentences against Rroma child traffickers

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Nicolas (2014) provides information about a trial against fifteen Croatian Rroma by the French prosecutor’s office. The prosecution requested for five of the fifteen defendants the maximum sentence of ten years of imprisonment. The Rroma are accused of deliberately having instigated minors to steal and to having traded them amongst each other. The children were literally educated to steal, the prosecution states. The charge is organised crime, human trafficking and group theft. The accused are charged with the involvement in over a hundred thefts, of which the vast majority was committed in France. The gangs were allegedly built on hierarchical families, that were lead by a clan chief: “For the judiciary, those offenders, who settled on sites in  Lorraine and Alsace, belong to family structures that are completely hierarchiszed, with up to seven clans operated in the mode of groups that are directed by family chiefs from afar. The operation mode was always the same: burglaries during a few days, aimed at homes in a given sector, virtually raids to find jewellery and money” (Nicolas 2014). With this charge, Nicolas conveys a common misconception about Rroma. The accusation of criminal, hierarchically organised family-gangs, who commit crimes on the command of a clan chief, has been transformed into an unquestioned fact. However, this supposed fact is based on massive prejudices, misinformation and culturalising racism. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. A cultural explanation for crime is necessarily racist and ignores and discredits the majority of the blameless Rroma, living integrated. The idea of hierarchical family ties traces back to the projection of the medieval caste system onto the Rroma. However, this is incorrect. While it is true that the family has an important place among the Rroma, the organization is largely egalitarian. In addition, the stereotype of arranged marriages is communicated, which is only true for a minority of the Rroma. Furthermore, the phenomenon of child trafficking, as it is presented here, has to be critically questioned. Social science studies show that social realities behind begging or petty crime are largely hidden. Similarly, the structural differences of the societies involved and any related reasons for a migration from Romania to France. The research conveys a more complex, contradictory notion of the subject and points out that crimes such as incitement to begging or trafficking of children are pervaded by a wide variety of morals in the analysis and assessment by authorities, which deny the perspective and motivations of the people concerned and force on them their own ideas of organised begging, child trafficking or criminal networks (compare Oude Breuil 2008, Pernin 2014).

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09.05.2014 Lawsuits against NPD because of harassment and demagoguery

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Gensing (2014) reports on a complaint by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma against the right-wing nationalist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). The occasion is the announcement of a panel discussion of the party, to which it wanted to invite Heinz Buschkowsky, Thilo Sarrazin and Romani Rose to discuss the immigration of “criminal East Europeans”. Rose never agreed to his participation in such discussions and forbids himself any contact with the right-wing party, which is why the Central Council has filed a lawsuit: “The Central Council filed complaint because for harassment to the public prosecutor against the Berlin state chief [of the NPD], Sebastian Schmidtke, who signed the letter. With the public promotion of the alleged discussion, the NPD untruthfully conveyed the impression that there is actually a contact between the Party and the Central Council, the complaint reads. This suggests the assumption that Rose was actually ready to discuss with the NPD on their racist slogans, which is absolutely not the case.” Gensing interprets the action of the party as an attempt to catch media attention, so far without success.

Schmidt (2014) reports a further complaint against the NPD by a German Sintiza. In Würzburg, on numerous locations one could find posters with the slogan “Money for grandma instead of for the Sinti and Roma”. The Sintiza Perla S. filed a complaint on demagoguery. In Würzburg, the posters were then removed, but not because of a verdict of the courts. Several administrative courts on the contrary approved the posters, on the grounds that they do not openly incite discrimination against Sinti and Rroma. Perla S. contradicts this decidedly. The racism against the minority is still widespread: “Perla S. […] knows what discrimination is. “Already in school I was treated with hostility”, she says, “Hitler forgot to gas you, the children said to me.” This hurt the Sintiza. Especially because in her environment “some older people” live “who lived through the Holocaust.””

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07.05.2014 “Toward a Roma Cosmopolitanism“

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Feffer (2014) writes about his encounters with the Romanian Rroma-activist and sociologist Nicolae Gheorghe, who died last August. Gheorghe was decidedly fostering a cosmopolitan view of the Rroma and their affiliation to the different states and turned against all nationalisms: “His widest ambition for the Roma, who had no land of their own, was that they should be a ‘transnational’ people, a grand pan-European federation of men and women, who, while proper citizens of their own countries, also represented a society broader, freer and more enterprising than that of nation states […].” But Gheorghe realized that the real challenge was not the work in the European institutions, but the implementation of integration policies at the local level. In the villages and cities the consciousness of cosmopolitanism, which had existed under the Ottoman rule and Communism, had been lost. At the same time, many Rroma did not manage to evolve into entrepreneurs, as Gheorghe had hoped. The people they helped in training didn’t go back to engage in community work, as planned, but rather accepted positions in the administration. They didn’t understand enough about the mechanisms of the free market and focused too much on the production of goods. The group companies Gheorghe had supported with the help of funding, did not function as desired. They should rather have supported individual business ideas, he remembers. In addition, a further portion of the support funds disappeared due to nepotism. But there had also been successful projects. In these cases, however, private property existed previously, property on which one could build for an enterprise: “Most of the Roma working in our project had no such patrimony. They’d been selling their labour. And they didn’t know what to do with money. They had no entrepreneurial skills. They imagined – and I imagined too – that if we gave them money entrepreneurial skills would just appear. And that was not the case. They wasted the money. We ended up generating personality problems: It was much more than they could mentally cope with.” Gheorghe therewith directly addresses the problems that arose during the transition from one economic system to another, which required completely different values and skills. However, in his account, Gheorghe negates that there were Rroma who worked successfully in the new system and accumulated wealth. There the stereotypes of Rroma kings and palaces come from, as they keep popping up in newspapers.

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18.04.2014 Central Council demands apology because of racist investigations

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma demands an apology from the government of Baden-Württemberg due to racist investigations in connection with the murders of the National Socialist underground (NSU), and the establishment of an investigation committee because of intra-police racism. On the occasion of the trial against Nazi perpetrators who had committed several racist murders, the chairman of the Central Council, Romani Rose, demanded a concession from the government: “Rose said on Wednesday in Munich, that especially in the case of the murdered Heilbronn police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, there has been a “general suspicion” against Sinti and Roma. He expected at least an apology by the state government of Stuttgart and an assurance that such events never happen again. “It is constitutionally inacceptable to put an entire ethnic group under suspicion”, said Rose” (Focus online 2014). “In July 2009, three detectives travelled to Serbia and surveyed a Roma man. […] The psychologists pointed out that man was “a typical representative of his ethnicity.” That means, lying was an essential part of his socialization. The man “obviously grew up in a world of lies and deception since his earliest childhood.” The racist remarks about the witness, and the Roma in general, were adopted by the state police without a distancing statement into the investigation files” (Tagesspiegel 2014). The case against the NSU-murderers is therefore indirectly also a lawsuit against institutional racism in the German police (compare Die Welt 2014, Stuttgarter Zeitung 2014, Südwestpresse 2014).

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11.04.2014 Foundation for the compensation of forced labourers excludes Rroma

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Rroma representatives from Germany were and are until now excluded from the participation in the foundation “remembrance, responsibility and future”. This is criticised in particular by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. The issue is a statute of the foundation, which demands that the German Rroma groups provide one single common representative. The three largest Rroma associations of the country, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Sinti-Alliance and the International Roma Union, could not agree on the selection of a common representative: “the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma demands that finally a representative of these ethnic groups should be appointed into the board of the foundation “remembrance, responsibility and future”, for the compensation of forced labourers. One has again contacted the chairmen of all parliamentary factions with the request to end this “illegal and disparaging condition of a minority”, said the chairman of the Central Council, Romani Rose, on Wednesday in Berlin. […] The legal advisor of the Central Council, Arnold Rossberg, stressed that his association has no intention to claim for itself the exclusive representation for all Sinti and Roma in Germany. However, it is not acceptable that the representatives of these groups are not only refused from the board, but also from the participation in the meetings – without voting rights – or the access to minutes of the meetings. What is more, the board frequently addressed issues of both individual compensation for Sinti and Roma, as well as to cultural and social promotion projects. Hopefully, it is uncontested that concerning these questions “no one has more expertise than the victims themselves”, said Rose” (Balcerowiak 2014). The dispute about the foundation and a common Rroma representative has a multiple, symbolic character. On one hand, the dispute is symptomatic of the continuing exclusion of the minority in the definition of decisions it concerns. Rroma representatives have criticized repeatedly that until today, most of time one talks about them and not with them, what often is a patronizing act. On the other hand, the argument shows that the demands and views of the individual representatives of the minority, despite common claims, are heterogeneous: the Sinto-Alliance rejects the generic term “Roma” for the minority (Balcerowiak 2014 Südwestpresse 2014).

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09.04.2014 Stigma and the international Rroma Day

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day, Grunau (2014) spoke with the president of the central council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose. Rose’s assessment of the social integration of the Rroma is mediocre. While there has been progress in terms of political and historical recognition of the Rroma, there still are massive stigma and appalling living conditions in which Rroma have to exist: “In some areas some things have improved, but what we are not satisfied at all with is the situation of the Roma minority in Eastern Europe. There are situations that are catastrophic. […] These are particularly Bulgaria, Romania, but also the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There are informal ghettos that are without sewerage, without electricity, and water. There are villages, where over a thousand people live without any perspective. This situation has been known for many years. It is no longer acceptable. There is an infant mortality-rate that is four times higher and a life expectancy that is ten years lower compared to the majority population.” In this regard, Rose demands easier access to funding that doesn’t need not be refinanced by the states themselves. He proposes the creation of a special fund for the Rroma. Next, Rose criticizes the continuing discrediting and instrumentalization of the Rroma by right-wing nationalist parties and actors, but also by bourgeois politicians in the wake of the immigration debate in Western Europe. Thus, the openly racist Jobbik party made a share of 21% of the votes, in the elections in early April. At the end of the interview, Rose also points to the still highly distorted perception of the minority. 64% of the people of a survey said that they did not want Rroma as neighbours. However, many of them already have neighbours, friends or acquaintances that are Rroma are, but they do not know that they belong to the minority: “However, these 64 percent do not know that they already have work colleagues, neighbours and tenants, they do not know that they are shopping in stores with people who are members of the minority. Also in show business or in football, everywhere there are members of the minority.”

Caspari (2014) emphasizes in her conversation with the antiziganism researcher Markus End that there are not only negative but also positive stereotypes that encourage the idea of a cultural alterity of the Rroma: “Those who say that all Sinti and Roma make such great music just positively present a stereotype. It implies that members of the ethnic group are different, that they only make music and do not like to work as “we” do.” The same is the case with emphatic articles about the Rroma that still reproduce stereotypes: “In many – also benevolent – reports clichés of supposedly typical characteristics of the Roma are used, even though the Rroma do not exist at this general level. [ … ] An online editor recently headlined concerning the debate over free migration: “not only Roma are coming, but also academics” – as if there were only uneducated members of the ethnic group. About the nurse, the doctor or the construction worker, who are well integrated in Germany, rarely if ever is reported. Images that are added to the articles on the situation of Roma, often show poor, barefoot children. Here again, a cliché is conveyed.”

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09.04.2014 Amnesty International criticizes the continuing discrimination against Rroma

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Many newspapers chronicle the report published by Amnesty International on April the 8th, the International Rroma Day, which accuses the social discrimination against Rroma. Amnesty International comes to a grim conclusion in regard to the social integration of the minority: the Rroma in Europe are still highly marginalized, the political will to foster them is often deficient and hate crimes against the minority are all too often re-interpreted as a lack of willingness to integrate: “The violent offenders are encouraged by the passive attitude of the governments, which accept a systematic discrimination against the Roma silently”, notes Çalışkan [German secretary general of AI]. “Instead of resolutely opposing violence and discrimination, many European politicians even fuel the notion that Roma are responsible for their own exclusion. Such statements by high-ranking politicians encourage further violence in society and are a distortion of the facts. The current situation of many Roma can be traced back to the years of disregard for the rights of Europe’s largest minority” (Amnesty International 2014/IV). –  “In its report, Amnesty urges national governments in Europe [and the European Union] to condemn hate crimes and to clarify that racist acts will not be tolerated. Among other things, the human rights activists propose to collect data and publish data on hate crimes” (Kalkhof 2014). There follows an analysis of the status quo of the minority in the Czech Republic, France and Greece. In all three countries, the defamation of the Rroma is still massive, the report states. While right-wing extremist groups in the Czech Republic rally against the ethnic group, in France the already mentioned discourse of a supposedly lacking will to integrate dominates the debate. This view totally ignores the exclusion of the minority in the sense of a repressive, nationalist governance. If the Rroma are not given any opportunity to integrate, they cannot, no matter how hard they try. Especially worysome is the repression on Rroma exerted by state institutions. This includes both governments and their measures taken against the minority, as well as executive institutions such as the police and the judiciary. Romani Rose describes the voting share of 21% of the openly Rroma-hostile Jobbik party as a “danger signal for Europe” to no longer passively accept discrimination against the Rroma (Amnesty International 2014/I, Amnesty International 2014/II, Amnesty International 2014/III, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2014, Joerin 2014, Kalkhof 2014, Süddeutsche Zeitung 2014).

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26.03.2014 The rise of the right-wing populists

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Reinecke (2014) reports on the new upsurge of nationalist parties in Europe. Until now, their influence has remained modest. However, especially in view of the forthcoming elections for the European Parliament, a reversal-trend is looming. A strong growth of nationalistically enclined voters has to be expected. In France, the share of votes for the National Front has already risen to 23 percent: “Admittedly, the conservatives and social democrats will retain the majority in the European Parliament. But if extreme right-wing Euro-sceptics become the strongest party in a core state of the EU – then that is a symbol. Something starts to slide: populism, fears of foreign domination and prosperity chauvinism become stronger.” Reinecke encourages not to stand idly in the face of this swing to the right, but to take action against those who question the free movement of persons and the European Economic zone. One should not simply shrug in reaction to the vote against the free movement of persons by Switzerland. Concerning Rroma, he names the political instrumentalisation of the ethnic group by right-wing publications such as the Weltwoche, which has repeatedly stirred up hatred against the minority. That such tendencies cannot be met with silence, can’t be stressed often enough.

Bade (2014) complements these reflexions with his thoughts on the German immigration debate. He begins with the economic idea that the increasing impoverishment of the middle and lower classes make more and more people susceptible to “defensive attitudes and scapegoat theories”: “In this dangerous mélange of problems and prospects, pragmatic evaluations, integration and socio-political as well as socio-legal discussions are burdened by cultural and socio-racial defensiveness from the context of negative integration. They are enforced by the populist exploitation of yet unknown issues for election purposes.” Bade therefore argues as Reinecke that the Rroma are exploited and abused by being designed as scapegoats for political debates about values and impoverishment. It is significant here that one never talks with but always about the Rroma. Through this, a highly one-sided image of the minority is actively encouraged.

Romani Rose, chairman of the central council of the German Sinti and Rroma, emphasized in an interview with the Südwest Presse (2014) his unease about the rise of right-wing groups and their modes of argumentation. He criticizes once more the political instrumentalisation of the Rroma for campaign purposes and the equation of poverty-migration with the group of the Rroma: “This is a harmful discussion. In the last federal election campaign they wanted to poach votes from the right-wing „Alternative für Deutschland“ and the right-wing NPD. The NPD did not let itself slow down by this and advertised with the slogan “Better money for grandma than for Sinti and Roma”. With this, it left the level of our constitutional order. […] We demand guidelines in the election campaigns, which prohibit racist and discriminatory election propaganda. A legal basis is missing.” He perceives as particularly outrageous and frightening that despite the historical awareness of their discrimination, Rroma are blamed for social ills. The extreme right-wing parties are said to want to undermine the state of law. That is why it is so important that democratic parties defend the rule of law. A considerable fear to identify oneself as Rroma in the public remains. This fear of disclosing one’s own origin is a clear indicator of the still strongly rooted reservations of the majority against the minority.

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19.03.2014 The Rroma and the European free movement of persons

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Rosendorff (2014) reports on an informal Rroma camp in the Gutleutviertel of Frankfurt am Main. The 19 Romanian Rroma who lived so far on an industrial wasteland must vacate the location. The social security office will clarify whether the residents of the settlement have pursued social insurance work. If not, they are not entitled to social security benefits and are likely to be expelled, Rosendorff states. The 37-year-old Rrom Mirkea sees the asylum system as unfair. He criticizes: “My country is terribly corrupt, and I can not get a job there”, he says. “Why does Europe exist? We are all colleagues. I do not understand why so many German say ‘shit Romanians’. We have financed our food by collecting returnable bottles. We do not steal”, asserts Mirkea.” The deportation method described is in conflict with the free movement of workers within the European Union, to which Romania and Bulgaria belong since January 2014. Under this scheme, residents of member states are allowed to reside six months or longer in another EU-member state if they are actively looking for a job.

Die Linke (2014) criticizes in a recent statement the efforts of the government coalition to classify the countries Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as safe countries of origin. With this decision, asylum reasons such as discrimination and exclusion would no longer be recognized: “As long as even only one asylum seeker from these countries is recognized as requiring protection, there can be no acceleration of proceedings by law. In 2013, at least 64 Serbian and 43 Macedonian asylum seekers were recognized as refugees or were given protection from deportation on humanitarian grounds. In two thirds of these cases, recognition was granted only by the courts, because the measures taken under an emergency procedure by the federal office for migration and refugees were wrong.” Die Linke criticizes correctly that the discrimination against Rroma is insufficiently highlighted by such country analyses. When determining migration policies, economic and not socio-political considerations are central to decisions, which is done at the expense of minorities such as the Rroma.

Gedziorowski (2014) spoke with Joachim Brenner, director of the Förderverein Roma. Brenner criticizes the widespread reservations about the minority and the polemical discourse against immigrants that is not dominated by facts but suspicion and emotions: “The whole terminology of tide, currents and wave – this is scaremongering. We took notice that we have to do more in the social counselling, but we also have to work with more people who live in poor conditions. [ … ] The last demoscopic studies by sociological institutes show that the resentments have not diminished, but still are manifest. When looking for housing Sinti and Roma have major problems.” Brenner further criticizes that it is above all a lack of political will, which leads to the marginalization of poor people and minorities, and not the lack of financial resources, which are certainly present. This may be seen with reference to the housing project Kulturcampus Bockenheim, which encountered great resistance by the welfare department from the very beginning.

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28.02.2014 Die Zeit criticizes the victim discourse about Rroma

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In her article in Die Zeit, Lau (2014) criticizes the victim role to which Rroma activists are said to refer to constantly in Germany. In the debate about poverty migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, one mainly talks about the immigrants, but not with them. This also has to do with the focus of the activism of Romani Roses, who has been working for the rights of the Rroma in Germany for several decades. Rose focuses his policy on the recognition that Rroma were victims of the Nazi genocide, whereby other topics are to receiving less than enough attention: “Ironically, the central council and Romani Rose prevent elsewhere that the understanding between newly arrived Roma and the majority society improves. Since he can remember, Romani Rose fought for the recognition as victims of genocide, a fact repeatedly disputed by historians. […] Since they share neither religion nor written culture, there is actually only one link between the Sinti and Roma: the experience of persecution. And that is the reason why discrimination is the central topic in the political statements of their community, rather than strategies of advancement.” Lau’s article tries to find out why there is a lack of solution strategies in the current debate about immigrants from Southeast Europe. However, she is wrong when she accuses Rroma to stick to a victim status. This criticism was already expressed in the beginning of 2013 by another author: In his book Zigeuner – Begegnungen mit einem ungeliebten Volk, Rolf Bauerdick criticised the lack of self-initiative in improving the social integration of the Rroma. This criticism is one-sided and hides the mechanisms of exclusion. Although it is right that a successful integration involves two sides, promotion and self-initiative, the latter one can only happen if the necessary conditions are given. Otherwise, suppression remains the dominant factor.

Just the opposite is argued by the TAZ in its interview with the historian Patricia Pientka. Pientka researched the story of a Rroma detention camp in Berlin-Marzahn. The historian is shattered about how bad the persecution of the Rroma in Germany was researched so far, also concerning the Berlin-Marzahn detention camp. In 1936, Rroma were selected via by sociographic criteria for the camp: caravans, many children and certain profession groups were decisive for the internment as well as the living on welfare. In 1938, the pseudo-scientific criteria of the racial hygiene research unit under Robert Ritter were implemented. The continuity between the war and the post-war period is particularly shocking. Perpetrators from the Nazi era were appointed as experts in courts, where they could play down or even qualify the war horrors with false statements: “In Berlin and elsewhere, the police departments for “Gypsy questions” established at end of 1938 are of central importance. In Berlin, the head of the department was Leo Karsten. After the war, he was superintendent of the police of Ludwigshafen and throughout Germany was the appointed expert on compensation issues for Sinti and Roma. His testimony led, among other things, to the verdict that the senate didn’t recognize the Marzahn detention camp as a labour camp […]. One can definitely say that the racist persecution of Sinti and Roma in Nazi Germany hasn’t been critically analysed until today. We have a huge deficit. This is also reflected in the case with Roma from South Eastern Europe, for instance Serbia, who are absolutely not perceived as descendants of Holocaust victims – what they definitely are” (Memarnia 2014).

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07.02.2014 Racism accusation to the German police

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma accuses the German police of internal racism, referring to investigation-files on the NSU (National Socialist Underground) murder of a police officer in 2007. In the files, there seem to be racist remarks like “gypsies, who typically lie” and comments about a Rrom, for whom lies are said to be a “substantial part of his socialization”. The investigation into the murder, which was assigned to the National Socialist Underground later, paradoxically was conducted with racist prejudices. The central chairman Romani Rose calls for criminal penalties: “In the memos there were remarks that are highly racist and resemble the jargon of the Nazis”, Rose complained” (Spiegel 2014, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2014, Schultz 2014).

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24.01.2014 The Focus magazine propagates the mass exodus from Romania and Bulgaria

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Dometeit/Lehmkul (2014) report from Romania. Armed with dubious facts they argue that there indeed a mass migration to Western Europe and especially Germany is taking place. They portray poorly trained Rroma in western Romania who hardly earn a living and see their future opportunities in Western Europe. According to the authors, all Rroma that have a reasonably decent life have been abroad for a shorter or longer period of time: “When the labor markets in the EU open at the beginning of the year, everyone will go”, predicts Stefan and grins. “Then we will all meet like on a huge wedding party.” The big goal: North Rhine-Westphalia. Tens of thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians migrate annually. 30’000 people from the two countries came in 2012 (comparing to 18 500 people emigrating). 2013 there will be even more immigrants, the Ministry of Labour, Integration and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia predicts.” Dometeit/Lehmkul totally ignore that the statistics, as has already been discussed several times, count seasonal workers and therefore are massively exaggerated. That all Romanians and Bulgarians living in poverty will migrate to Germany is very unlikely, as the expansion of free migration to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland has already shown. Masses of immigrants didn’t show up. Dometeit/Lehmkuhl provide a highly one-sided picture of Rroma. Those who have become rich are immediately associated with illegal activities: “On the so-called rose park there are palaces Roma clans have built through business in Germany. Most of them are empty, the shutters are lowered. Two or three times a year the families come to celebrate. Then the Porsches and Ferraris show up. Two years ago, the police raided some of the villas at the request of the German prosecutor’s, based on suspicions of tax evasion, money laundering and human traffeking.” Such reporting is simplistic and patronizing. Dometeit/ Lehmkuhl completely ignore that there are well integrated, upright Rroma

This one-sided perspective is shared by the Schweizer Magazin (2014). The online newspaper favors polemical generalizations and simplifications: “Sinti and Roma, as well as other social welfare benefiters from Romania and Bulgaria – the two poorest countries in Europe – are ready to flood Germany and to enrich themselves with the social benefits. Only the economy may approve, since every immigrant from these poor countries depresses the wages and thus complicates the lives of all Europeans and only increases the profits of the companies.” To designate the Rroma people generally as social welfare benefiters is racist and stupid. Much more need not being said about this.

The Baltische Rundschau (2014) strengthens fears of a mass immigration from Eastern Europe. The article is openly racist and speaks of social parasites and brown rats who are supposedly coming from Serbia to plunder the German welfare state: “After the wave of Roma who migrate as official EU citizens from Romania and Bulgaria to the German welfare state, more and more Gypsies are now coming from Serbia. However, these do not use the “privileged” status as EU citizens to flood the labour market and welfare system, but make use of the German asylum law. In 2013, the asylum applications from Serbia increased by 40 percent, almost all asylum seekers are Roma.” The Rroma Contact Point has stated very often that the prognosis of a mass immigration to Western Europe is wrong. Moreover, not all immigrants automatically become welfare cases. A reduction of the west migration to the case of the Rroma is racist and ethnicizes poverty problems.

The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) is even more racist. It propagates the concept of a culture war and the collapse of the German welfare state. The pretentious statements are one-sided, distorted, highly selective interpretations of the real situation. The platform forecast an additional influx of 200,000 Romanians and Bulgaria to Germany for the current year: “The city of Duisburg is paying dearly for the unrestricted immigration of Roma clans. For the year 2014, the city administration predicts additional costs of at least 12 million Euro for the “integration” of immigrant Gypsies from Romania and Bulgaria. Meanwhile, some 10,000 Roma live in the Ruhr city. Entire neighborhoods such as Duisburg-Rheinhausen are firmly in the hands of the Gypsies. Germans, but also guest workers from Turkey and former Yugoslavia living here for many years, already feel as strangers.” With such polemical statements unzensuriert.at does intellectual arson and endangers social peace. Such xenophobic statements have nothing to do with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

A differentiated and liberal attitude towards the immigration debate is taken by Maike Freund (2013). She argues for complexity and rationalism concerning the predictions of a mass immigration: “Who goes through Neukölln in Berlin or the northern city of Dortmund, knows that such scenes or similar belong to the reality in Germany – but they are only one part of the truth. Because the numbers say: there are many highly educated immigrants, also from Romania and Bulgaria, and Germany relies on these professionals.”

Mappes-Niediek (2014) speaks of the conflicting reactions to the polemical predictions about the mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. Thus, ethnic Romanians and Bulgarians often separate themselves from the Rroma in response to the Western European criticism: “That’s not us, that’s the Roma: This is still the first reflex when some of the German and British debates over poverty migration spill into the Rumanian and Bulgarian public.” Mappes-Niediek criticizes that a poverty problem is turned into an ethnic problem by distinguishing between ethnic Romanians and the Rroma. After the collapse of the socialist system, the ethnic Romanians were given back the possessions of their ancestors, who had been collectivized. Since a large part of the Rroma had possessed nothing before socialism, they emerged as losers from the change of system: “Only the Roma got back nothing because their grandparents hadn’t possessed anything. They moved into the slums, from which the poverty immigrants of today emerge. This allows both the German and the Romanian public to keep the poverty problem a Roma problem – which it is not. If there were no Roma, there would not be any more jobs.” The migration debate is also dominated by a double standard: one hand, one likes to get the well-trained professionals for the German economy – especially doctors – on the other hand one wants to keep out the less well-off.

Antiziganism researcher Markus End criticizes the term “poverty migration” as being negatively charged and equated with Rroma in the public debate. The Rroma are discredited as being lazy and social parasites. End criticizes this depiction and reminds one of the integrated, invisible Rroma: “They were sweepingly referred to as lazy and welfare scroungers. It was said that they are noisy, produce garbage, and are prone to crime. People who follow the media regularly have learned that Roma are poverty immigrants. [ … ]. In the debate, Roma are represented as strangers, even though many have being living in Germany since generations. Also that there are educated and uneducated Rroma, rich and poor, is totally neglected in the debate. The term Roma is used almost synonymous with poverty, crime or waste.” Liberal journalists are also spreading antiziganist stereotypes, even though they welcome the immigration of skilled workers. A liberal journalist from Die Welt compares well-educated, ethnic Romanians and Bulgarians with criminal, antisocial Rroma, producing a value list of welcomed and unwelcomed immigrants. End comes to the conclusion that the coverage of the Rroma is the most biased of all minorities (Grunau 2014).

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29.11.2013 Segregation through an Integration Project?

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Klapheck (2013) reports on the integration project “Maro Temm” [Our country] in Kiel. The program financed 50 settlements for Sinti that were built in the district of Gaarden in the suburbs. The report, filled with a lot of empathy nevertheless gives a fairly questionable image of integration and Rroma: the journalist talks at the beginning of the settling the Sinti. Most Rroma are not travellers. In addition, settling Rroma in ethnically segregated quarters should really be questioned. How can an exchange take place with non-Rroma if they live in segregated settlements? Segregation is already there even without the help of such integration projects. The fact that the interviewed Sinti speak of widespread illiteracy among the Rroma is also one-sided. This is not true of many integrated Rroma living in Germany. They are simply hidden in this report. Klapheck evokes an emphatic but highly one-sided picture of Sinti and Germany. This also criticized by Romani Rose in his interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung (2013).

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15.11.2013 Cementing of Prejudices with the Case of Maria

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In the case of the blond bulgarian Rroma girl Maria, Scholz (2013) sees a renewed strengthening of racist prejudices against Rroma. Both the researcher on racism Wolfgang Benz, as well as the Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, criticized the reporting of numerous media as well as the actions of the involved police agencies as being based on “racist patterns”. The un-reflected articles promoted the exclusion and general prejudice against Rroma living in Europe. Rose, according to  Scholz, loudly criticised the one-sidedness of the reporting that always relies only on problem cases and completely neglects the “invisible” integrated Rroma: “A few days ago in an interview with the “Südeutsche Zeitung” Rose had already warned  against “always focusing on only one part of the Roma.” One must distinguish between the ones “who live in anonymity and those who lead a perfectly normal life in Germany”.” Rose further calls for the establishment of a committee of experts to examine antiziganism in Germany and who would make public (also compare German Wave 2013).

Peters (2013) precises that according to a recent survey, 64 % of Germans would reject Rroma as neighbours. And this even though many already have Rroma as neighbours, but do not know it because they keep their identity secret. Peters also draws clear parallels to the discrimination against the Jews with reference to Wolfgang Benz. Such journalism would not be allowed in Germany about the Jewish minority due to the historical events. But for Rroma surprisingly, this is acceptable. Rose criticizes: “Worldwide, missing children are now suspected to be among Roma. Hundreds of parents now hope that their missing children are alive and were abducted by Roma. This makes all Sinti and Roma to potential child thieves.”

Gezer (2013) comes to a dismal conclusion about the current acceptance of Rroma in Europe. The public image is dominated by negative stereotypes, Rroma are used as scapegoats and as a projection for a wide range of social fears and debates that are taking place on their back: fears of immigration, of change, economic impoverishment, “Yes, Europe has a new villain, he is called Roma and is everywhere. The new villain has dark skin, sings and steals, gives his children no shoes on because it is their tradition to do so. In Europe it is acceptable again to stigmatize a group because of their ethnicity.” She especially criticizes the silence of many politicians and public figures who hush up the blazing racism against Rroma. It is the same type of behaviour that was observed when the migrants were the Turks.

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18.10.2013 Rroma in Germany

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Radio Dreyeckland (2013) provides information on planned agreement between the state of Baden Württemberg and the National Association of German Sinti and Roma. The draft contract recapitulates the historically documented exclusion of the Rroma, the historical responsibility of Germany in dealing with minorities and the poor introspection about the German Rroma policies. The objective of the treaty is a targeted promotion of Rroma in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Access to education and thus also to the labour market should be strongly supported. The draft of the treaty states: “The exclusion and discrimination of Roma and Sinti dates back to the Middle Ages. The cruel persecution and genocide by the Nazi regime brought immense suffering to Sinti and Roma in our country and effects people to this day. This injustice has only been recognized politically embarrassing late, and has not yet worked out sufficiently. Even the antiziganism is still existent and not overcome. Being aware of this particular historic responsibility towards Sinti and Roma as citizens of our country and guided by the desire and motivation to promote the friendly coexistence.”

Pekdemir Hagen (2013) reports on Hasiba Dzemajlji who is engaged in Bielefeld for a better integration and recognition of the Rroma. Dzemajlji wants more Rroma in Germany, Rroma who have been living in the country for decades to publicly declare their identity. For fear of exclusion and discrimination many people of Rroma origins keep it secret. Together with the organization Migovita, Dzemajlji wants to strengthen the self-confidence, especially of young Rroma, and facilitate their access to education. She also wants to create a counter point to the still heavily rooted stereotypes, a new view that is characterized by heterogeneity and complexity.

Niewendick (2013) discusses the increasing radicalisation of local residents and politicians, who make propaganda against immigrated Rroma: During the last one and a half years, systematically, rumours of “thieving Kids”, littering and other prejudices about immigrants Rroma have been spread. The tensions achieved a peak in the fire of the “Rroma houses” on 9 October, a fire whose cause is still unclear. The heavily politicised situation manifests itself besides open demonstrations for and against Rroma with questionable expressions such as “problem house” and “flood of poverty refugees poverty”.

At the opening of a new interim dormitory for refugees in Duisburg, Kleinwächter (2013) discussed the situation of Rroma in Kosovo. Bernd Mesovic, Vice-President of Pro Asyl Frankfurt is cited with gloomy assessments on the integration of the Rroma in Kosovo: The situation of the Rroma in Kosovo is totally glossed over by the German authorities. In reality among them, very high unemployment prevails, and attacks are not tracked: “Officially, there are no attacks on them. Who issues a complaint, must fear reprisals. They can hardly expect any help from the Albanian police. Under the Constitution, all these rights are guaranteed, as is the internationally agreed reintegration of returnees. But the funds for that are lacking. The Rroma themselves have no confidence in the authorities dominated by Albanians, they are almost hermetically spatially sealed off from the Albanians and a kind of fair game for criminals.” Mesovic’s statements show once again the discrepancies between official country analyses and the real experiences of migrants. Official assessments of stability and legal security stand in contrast with personal experiences that are difficult to objectify. The official view remains the decisive criterion for the assessment of migrants’ fates.

Onay (2013), a green politician from Lower Saxony, reports on a field trip to Serbia. Purpose of the trip was a meeting between German and Serbian Rroma as well as non-Rroma, which was initiated by the organisations novels Aglonipe and the International Youth Meeting of Roma and non-Roma. At the meeting, issues such as the lack of access of Rroma to schools, to health care, and to the labour market were discussed. On the subsequent trip to Stara Karaburma, Onay paints a bleak picture of excluded Rroma living in ghetto-like conditions: Poor hygiene, glaring poverty, few or no prospects for the future. Onya’s portrayal stands in stark contrast to official country assessments that classify the situation of Rroma in Serbia as stable and safe. This contrasts with the fate of individuals surveyed Rroma, which report massive violence against them.

Bachmair (2013) reports on a meeting of the German association “Against Forgetting, for democracy”. At the meeting, eyewitnesses and relatives reported about the suffering experienced by Rroma and criticised the lack of coming to terms about the persecution and exclusion of Rroma in Germany. In his contribution, Romani Rose criticised the continued employment of Nazis by the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany, a fact that prevented the recognition of Rroma as victims for a long time: “In the offices, the survivors met the same officials who had sent them years before to the concentration camps, and who refused them compensation and recognition as victims of Nazi persecution. Even police officers who had perecuted Gypsies, made unhindered careers made in the Federal Republic. Only when Gypsies got organised and a 1980 hunger strike on the grounds of the former concentration camp at Dachau drew attention to their situation, was their suffering recognized.” The researcher Wolfgang Benz on racism expressed concern that the lessons of the world War II have never been applied or only very poorly on Rroma.

In his short, article, Schuhmann (2013) asks for less political correctness in the name of minorities who commit a crime. Naming the origin – in the case of this article “Gypsy” – helps to identify grievances among the stakeholders and to ask critical question: “If the reader completes the sentence “cheating gypsies on the road” with “of course – who else ?”,  a true nightmare for journalists has become a reality. The police does not want that. Neither does the majority of readers who are quite capable of differentiating between minorities and criminals among those. […] To name their origins could pave the way for many other questions. Namely who exploit these women and what a life they are forced to lead.” Through this statement, Schuhmann relativises her own reasoning. If the committed crimes, or respectively the exploitative relationships have nothing to do with cultural background, why then is naming the origin relevant? Schuhmann also assumes from fully mature, critical readers, who can recognise stereotypical reductions as such. This is to be doubted. Many readers will be confirmed in their prejudices by one-sided reporting.

Also, in an article about criminals young Gypsy women, Schuhmann (2013/II) uses the stereotypes of organised Rroma groups: The testimony of a police officer who speaks of burglars networks, is quoted without comment. Also without comment is the fact that one assigns physical characteristics to perpetrators: “The official explained what they should pay attention to. Women, beggars, rather dark in type “Gypsy one cannot say”, Fuchs says with a glance at the present journalist.” that there is no “culture of crime” ought to be clear to every man of common sense. Just as there are delinquent Rroma, there are delinquent ethnic German, Swiss, etc. No one would ever get the idea to talk about organised crime.

Unzensuriert.at (2013), in an absurdity not to be outdone, reports in an article about the Rroma the “problem house” in Duisburg. According to the article, these Rroma have collected the rat traps that were installed by the urban pest control and sold to scrap dealers. The Rroma, called “Gypsies” here, are brought in directly in conjunction with a rat infestation: “Rat plague: Gypsies stealing traps.” The article is a prime example of uncritical, unreflective, populist journalism.

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11.10.2013 Rroma in France

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The anti-racism association Mrap has announced it will file a lawsuit against Manuel Valls for incitation to racial hatred. Valls had stated that, in his opinion, most Rroma do not want to integrate, and should return to Romania and Bulgaria. Particularly problematic about Valls’ utterances is that he enjoys broad support among the French population and thereby racist views about Rroma are being represented as indisputable facts. Valls face a fine of up to € 45,000 (2013 Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, 2013).

Strassenburg (2013) takes a critical look at the trial of 27 Croatian Rroma in France. The defendants are accused of organized theft and trafficking: They are reported to have exploited children to earn money for themselves. They “trained them only to steal from the youngest age.” This contrasts with views of critics who hold that the imputed organised structures are a projection of the prosecution: “Mali, [a journalist] could never observe in three years the organized criminal structures, which are reproached to the 27 defendants in Nancy.” This process it is not just about the crimes of the accused, but also about socio-political conceptions of organised crime among the Rroma. “Gypsy Kings” and organised, structured delinquency is primarily a police view of the Rroma, and has been discussed several times. This does not mean that no crimes were committed by Rroma, but that it is very questionable to ascribe Rroma a culturally determined predisposition to organised crime (see L’Express 2013).

Zarachowicz (2013) speaks to the sociologist Jean-Pierre Liégeois about how are being exploited for French politics. Liégeois sees the knowledge about the Rroma as being dominated by large gaps. This ignorance is instrumentalised by politicians to project their own views on it. He deconstructs the travelling lifestyle, which again and again is attributed to them, as being the result of social exclusion, rather than a self-chosen way of life, and therefore as false: “Les familles sont souvent mobiles par obligation, pour s’adapter à des conditions d’existence changeantes, parfois menaçantes. Au cours de l’histoire, on assiste à des déportations, par exemple du Portugal vers l’Afrique et le Brésil, de l’Angleterre vers les colonies d’Amérique et vers l’Australie. Ou, quand des conflits se produisent, les Roms, souvent pris comme boucs émissaires ou bloqués entre les belligérants, doivent partir. […] Les Roms ont ainsi dû intégrer la mobilité dans leur existence, pour s’adapter à un rejet qui reste dominant.” [Families are often mobile due to the obligation to adapt to sometimes threatening changing conditions of life. In history, one sees deportations, for example from Portugal to Africa and Brazil, from England to the American colonies and to Australia. Or, when conflicts occur, Roma, often used as scapegoats or stuck between belligerents, have to  leave. […] The Roma have had to integrate mobility into their lives, to adapt to a rejection that remains dominant.]  He also identifies a historical, European government policy, that either wants to deport or to forcefully assimilate Rroma. In the case of France, the policy of repatriation is currently the dominant paradigm. From a financial point of view, this policy actually costs more than a successful integration.

In his article, Potet (2013) points to an alternative to Valls repressive policy. In Indre, the socialist mayor has built an accommodation, which aims to help immigrant Rroma to integration. The Rroma children can go to the local school. The immigrants had previously been living in a derelict factory. This support is linked to reciprocity: the children must attend school regularly, adults need to search for work, caravans are regularly maintained. With these Rroma-friendly policies, Jean-Luc Le Drenn puts re-election on the line.

The Huffington Post (2013) takes a look across the border from France: There one has problems other than the Rroma. High unemployment rates are at the centre of public attention. Before the economic crisis, the Spanish state set money aside for the integration of resident and migrant Rroma, money meant to facilitate access to education, the labour market, and to health care. This state integration program is still regarded as a European model of a social Rroma policy. This does not mean that exclusion and racism against the Rroma no longer exist in Spain, but this was an important first step towards a successful integration of Rroma.

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20.09.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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The conservative weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit (2013) reports on “Gypsies […] they want the full right of German social benefits if they declare Germany as their new centre of life.” The paper evaluates the decision of Essen’s Higher Social Court in a precedent that allows now all “Gypsies” from Southeast Europe to also be entitled to all social benefits in addition to the child benefit and emergency medical care. The conservative weekly newspaper takes a clear judgmental  and order oriented perspective on the immigration debate: desirable are, if at all, only professionals and only if they do not compete with German workers. It also makes the economic opportunities of immigrants a question of ethnicity: Rroma, in the paper’s eyes, are all potential welfare cheats. Mockingly they note that it is sufficient, according to the Social Court, to declare Germany as one’s new centre of life and for being awarded benefits.

The town of Nordhausen ordered the prohibition of NPD election posters of the NPD in the vicinity of the former concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora and prescribed the minimum distance. With the slogan “Money for grandma instead of Sinti and Roma” the NPD generated a lot of resentment.  Legal proceedings were initiated by several people against the NPD for anti-Gypsy propaganda (MDR 2013). The anti Rroma propaganda has also triggered legitimate fears among many Rroma in Germany, especially in families with children who have to see posters on their routes to school. Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma criticised that authorities had only acted in some cities, but not pronounced a national regulation to ban the posters (Evangelical Press, 2013). In the city of Giessen, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of the NPD’s posters: they must be hung back after the town had them removed. In a bipartisan action, critics of the NPD have now hung posters with the slogan “My grandma also like Sinti and Roma” (Hit Radio FFH 2013).

The TAZ (2013) reports the successful construction of a dormitory for Rroma in Neukölln that is funded by the Housing and Community Society of Aachen. Previously a house in the Harzerstrasse gained media attention mainly because of the waste and the noise. Through the intervention of Aachen Housing society, the house has been renovated and overcrowding has been reduced. The housing project has even won a social Architecture Prize. At the same time the displeasure of some of the neighbours has been awakened, who complained about the social advantage given to Rroma. However, Benjamin Marx, the project manager, sees the project as an important sign of social acceptance of Rroma.

The SPD excluded Martin Korol from the party because of his anti-Roma statements. Korol had made derogatory comments towards the Rroma immigrants from Southeast Europe Rroma on his website earlier this year, but then removed them due to considerable criticisms. Korol was elected in February 2013 into the Bremen state parliament, and his previously published statements had previously not raised any attention (Mirror 2013).

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30.08.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Romany is seeking a ban on discriminatory political advertising. This is a consequence of election posters of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which states “money for grandma instead for Sinti and Roma”. Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council, specifically requested the creation of a legal basis to prohibit racist political advertising and requires legal action by the federal government. In several states criminal proceedings against the NDP are also pending, but there are still no judgments as of now. The SWR has conclusively stated: “According to them, the Central Council has received hundreds of calls of concerned Sinti and Roma families from all over Germany in the last days. This because of the NPD’s posters which were very present, especially in smaller locations and on way to school or because they were “emotionally angry” and scared. The open NPD incitements gave rise to massive fears amongst the elderly who survived the Holocaust.” (SWR 2013)

Frigelj (2013) spoke to Duisburg’s mayor Reinhold Spaniel about the problem house “in den Peschen” that for months generated media attention and has become an instrument of political campaigns. Spaniel sees Duisburg as particularly affected by the migration from Bulgaria and Romania, because the city has a particularly large supply of cheap real estate and is therefore attractive for poverty immigrants from south eastern Europe. He also shows comprehension for the exasperated neighbours who are overwhelmed by noise, littering and disputes. In cooperation with the owner of the property “in the Peschen”, he said he wants to progressively empty the house and slowly seal the flats. He also differentiates in that there are families that are willing to pay rent and to integrate and must be supported in their efforts. With regards to massive intervention, his hands are tied because the Romanian and Bulgarian migrants are staying legally as EU citizens in Germany. He also advocates the somewhat controversial view that from January 2014 onwards, when the freedom of movement agreement with Romania and Bulgaria enters into force, will see large migration flows to Germany. With this representation, it becomes even more apparent that even liberal representatives distinguish between desirable and undesirable immigrants. A problem Max Frisch already pointed out. Spaniel takes a dichotomous view between skilled professionals and low-skilled poverty migrants, which create problems for the city of Duisburg: “Many well trained Bulgarian nurses and Romanian doctors come to Germany. That is beyond dispute, This is not the clientele that we’re talking about here, I’m talking about very poorly educated people, some illiterates who are in Duisburg and create problems for us.” The desire to want only well-trained professionals immigrants corresponds to the dubious distinction of economically useful and unhelpful people, and the consequent evaluation of the immigrants. The Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman pointed out several time the moral problems of such exclusionary social policies. However, Spaniel speaks not only of the necessary structures but also of the newcomers’ willingness at integration. To just simply distinguish between integration willing and unwilling immigrants when talking about integration, is to great a simplification. Integration is both a matter of personal commitment and also a result of the possibilities and structures of the host country. Depending on political orientation, the initiative of individuals is identified as the key critical or simply as one the factor among others. What is nice in this article is that he does not primarily speaks of a cultural problem, but also discusses possible solutions.

Wyputta also (2013) of the TAZ spoke with spaniel. In this interview, it is clear that newspapers like the TAZ left the city officials blame lack of action. This, however, legitimately defended by pointing out that his hands are tied by the applicable legislation. He could only negotiate with the homeowner and drive new legislations that define issues such as overcrowding, sanitation or electricity supply of housing law. Again, Spaniel emphasized once more that the city was overwhelmed massive.

The Romanian Rromni Flavia Constantin (2013), in the context of the ongoing debate about Rroma asks for a self-determined, more active presence of the Rroma and especially a change in the role of Rroma women. She speaks about the traditional gender roles of many Roma women, who, according to her is too little critical and self-determined is to her liking, “Rroma women have never learned to stand up for themselves. Their world revolves solely around the family, the house, and the community. This has to change. Because we have to start. With the women, not the men. Because women are the ones who plant ideas in the minds of their children. They are the backbone of the community.” Constantin also calls for the creation of a new visual culture, aiming at creating a counterweight to the stereotypical notions about Rroma. For a successful integration, efforts are needed on both sides: on the one hand, bureaucratic hurdles blocking access to the labour and housing market need to be lowered, and on the other hand, immigrant Rroma should strive towards better social integration. At the end of the article she gives a convincing explanation of why the predictions of the mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, in her opinion, are wrong. They would already numerous informal work in Germany: “I do not think that the opening of the German labour market in January 2014 means that masses of Romanians and Bulgarians will flock to Germany. They are here anyway. Why should these people wait for them to be able to work officially, if they already do it unofficially?”

Kemna (2013) focuses on the future closure of an informal Rroma settlement in a Berlin allotment, which will make way for a highway. One of the sitters, a young Romanian Rrom, complains about the difficulties of working as a newspaper vendor. He fled from a failed marriage to Germany. The institution Amaro Foro is contact point for Rroma and European migrant workers in general. Mariela Nikolova of Amaro Foro laments the indifference of the authorities towards the inhabitants of the colony, which will soon produce new homeless people. In addition, nearly all applications for Hartz IV social benefits are being rejected, which makes it difficult to integrate, creating almost a vicious circle.

EurActiv (2013) provides information about a controversy in the context of EU funds, which are paid for the integration of Rroma in Bulgaria and Romania. The EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, is being criticised for her plans to transfer part of the funding to Germany, which, in the context of the forthcoming freedom of movement with Romania and Bulgaria from the beginning of 2014, is faced with potential migration flows. The spokesman for the European Commission Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, denies the allegations as being false. The funding is granted every seven years and cannot easily be used elsewhere.

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19.07.2013 Rroma Debate in France

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Leghtas (2013) reflects on the rising evictions of informal Rroma camps in France that recur every summer. In March 2012, François Holland, then still a presidential candidate, blamed the policies of the Sarkozy administration for the blatant poverty of the Rroma in France. It was a scapegoat policy taking place on the back of Rroma and additionally stigmatizing them. But even under the new Hollande government, Leghtas emphasizes that things have not changed in practice. The much-quoted circular of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of August, 2012, which calls for a better information policy to residents and for the timely organization of alternative accommodation had not been applied very often. A law that was passed under Sarkozy and allows the deportation of Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma for “abuse” of the European freedom of travel is still in force. Some mayors have themselves taken the initiative and organised legal accommodation for he needy and enrolled the children into classes. These individual acts – so Leghtas – do not free the French government of its responsibility for finding a respectable, long-term solution in dealing with Rroma. France must follow a politic in agreement with the UN human rights policies that guarantee a timely relocation and care of those affected by forced evictions. In addition, the French government has to seek better integration policies, such as reducing barriers in accessing the labour market. In August, a new wave of evictions is imminent. It is time for the government Hollande to put their new orientation towards the Sarkozy administration to the test.

Various French newspapers (Bertrand, 2013, Dessus, 2013, Le Point, 2013) also report back on the prosecution of Jean-Marie Le Pen and Christian Estrosi for racist abuse against Rroma. The European Forum of Rroma, SOS Rasismus and the Association of French Rroma organizations are the accusers. The plaintiffs accuse Le Pen and Estrosi among others, to promote a discourse of hatred against the Rroma purely for electoral purposes. Various newspapers equate Rroma with Travellers, even though most Rroma are recognized to be sedentary. The Mayor Sophie Dessus advocates a cooperative deal with the residents of illegal settlements, rather than collection of repressive policies. Le Creurer (2013) summarizes the statements of Estrosi as follows: “Monsieur Estrosi a tenu des propos xénophobes contre les gens du voyage suite à des occupations illégales de terrains communaux par leurs caravanes. Il a dénoncé des comportements de „délinquants“ et a appelé les maires de France à „la révolté“ en proposant de leur fournir son „mode d’emploi“ pour „les mater.““  [Mister Estrosi made xenophobic statements against travellers following illegal occupations of communal land by their caravans. He denounced what he deemed “criminal” behaviours, and appealed to France’s Mayors to “revolt” offering them his “how to” to tame them.] Due to existing regulations, all communities are asked to provide space for at least 50 caravans and transit sites for 50 to 250 caravans (Polloni 2013). In this case Rroma are again confused travellers. Only a small single-digit percentage of Rroma is effectively travelling.

Ziegler (2013) addresses the now frequently encountered confusion between the terms of Rroma, Gypsies and Travellers. Louis de Gouyon Matignon, junior president of the French Association for the gypsy culture suggests the following distinction: “Il est très important de faire la distinction. Le peuple tsigane est formé de trois peuples différents : les Roms lorsqu’ils sont à l’Est de l’Europe, les manouches lorsqu’ils sont à l’Ouest, et enfin les gitans lorsqu’ils sont sur la péninsule ibérique. Les tsiganes de France s’appellent les gens du voyage. Ce sont des citoyens français qui n’ont rien à voir avec les Roms qui sont des citoyens de l’Europe et qui sont pour la majorité, soit Roumains, soit Bulgares.” [It is really important to make a distinction. The Gypsy people comprise three different groups: The Rroma, when they are in Eastern Europe, the Manouches when they are in the West, and the Gitanos, when they are in the Iberic Penninsula. These are French citizen who have nothing to do with the Rroma who are European citizen and who are in majority either Romanian or Bulgarian.] One can only criticise this distinction between Rroma, Manouche, Gipsies and Tsiganes as being simplistic and only partially true. The German Sinti and the closely related French Manouche, as well as the Spanish Kale (Gipsies) are country-specific designations for members of the Rroma who live since the 15th Century in Western Europe. Sinti are part of the Rroma as a whole and not a separate ethnic group. These groups contrasts with Rroma  immigrants from Eastern Europe from the 20th Century who migrated to Western Europe because of civil war or economic hardship.

Polloni (2013) takes a closer look at Christian Estrosi’s Rroma policies. She points out the contradiction that, contrary to the provisions in force, only a fraction of the necessary permanent and transit sites for Travellers  who are incorrectly equated here with the Rroma are available. The article focuses more on the Estrosi’s visit to the Aboras stadion, where Rroma were quartered for several weeks. Estrosi called for the Travellers to immediately leave the stadium. When they refused, Estrosi threatened them with a systematic monitoring of all their activities: “Bon, on va voir, j’en ai maté d’autres et je vous materai. Et la première chose que je fais c’est de mettre des caméras partout, pour surveiller vos faits et gestes dans les quelques heures qui viennent, on va noter ceux qui rentrent, ceux qui sortent, à quelle minute, à quel moment, et ce que vous allez faire partout dans la ville, dans la métropole, etc.“ [So, let’s see, I tamed others and will tame you. And the first thing I will do is put cameras everywhere, to watch everything you do in the few hours from now, we will note who came in, went out, at which minute, at what time, and what you are going to to everywhere in the city, the agglomeration, etc.] With this rigorous monitoring policy Estrosi wants to force these “stateless” people to a state compliant behaviour.

France 3 (2013) discusses the state of Romanian, Bulgarian and Spanish Rroma immigrants in Auvergne. The immigrants are in a state of non-appurtenance: Although they are EU citizens, they are not welcome just about anywhere and it is therefore very difficult to build a livelihood and to integrate.

Sources:

  • Bertrand, Yann (2013) Roms : trois associations portent plainte contre Estrosi et Le Pen. In: France Info online vom 17.7.2013.
  • Dessus, Sophie (2013) Estrosi et les gens du voyage: maire PS, j’ai aussi des soucis mais pas les mêmes méthodes. In: Le Plus online vom 17.7.2013. 
  • France 3 (2013) En Auvergne aussi, les Roms sont confrontés à de graves situations d’exclusion. In: France 3 online vom 11.7.2013.
  • Leghtas, Izza (2013) „L’été 2013 sera-t-il différent pour les Roms en France?” In: L’express France online vom 16.7.2013.  
  • Le Creurer, Olivier (2013) Le Forum européen des Roms et des Gens du voyage porte plainte contre Jean-Marie Le Pen et Christian Estrosi. In: France 3 online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Le Point (2013) Gens du voyage : plainte contre Estrosi et Le Pen. In: Le Point online vom 17.7.2013.
  • Polloni, Camille (2013) Roms et gens du voyage : Christian Estrosi s’emmêle les pinceaux. In: Rue 89 online vom 7.7.2013.
  • Ziegler, Marlène (2013) Gens du voyage : Roms, gitans, tsiganes, qui sont-ils vraiment? In: La Toile de fond (Mlactu) online vom 17.7.2013. 
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14.06.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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Schelp (2013) provides information on the work of so-called Rroma mediators, who in Germany mediate between teachers and newly enrolled Rroma children. One of them is Valentina Asimovic. She helps a teacher in Berlin-Kreuzberg in her work with a class without any knowledge of German. The quoted sociologist Christoph Leucht sees a lack of education amongst many immigrant families. A majority of families rate the importance of education as low, because they themselves only enjoyed minimal training. To counterbalance this view into is important in order to offer the largest possible selection of options for the future of the children. In this perspective, one needs to add, that by no means all immigrants are from educationally disadvantaged social strata. There are also very educated immigrants, but not in the spotlight of media attention. That all parents want to marry off their daughters early and send their sons as early as possible to work also needs to be relativised. The work of the mediators has proved to be very helpful. They are far more than mere translators. They help in conflicts between teachers, students and their families and enable better integration of all involved. In spite of the positive perspective, the article does not succeed to alleviate many stereotypes about the supposed backwardness of Rroma. The impression remains that the great part of them consists of illiterates and women willing to bear child. The article ends with the not really positive statement: “A letter would make no sense: the Roma parents often cannot read it.”

Köhler (2013) covers the same subject with a focus on the “Welcome Class” for Rroma children in Neukölln. Already in the beginning of the article, she falls article in ethnic faux pas. She attests taht the children do not know what social rules are and how to behave in a group. The focus, however, is the visit of the Romanian Rroma responsible Damian Draghici, who was invited by the local education Councillor Franziska Giffey. Around 800 children from Romania currently go to school in Neukölln. The integration of children was very successful in terms of learning the language and structures. However, there were more problems among the children themselves. Many Rroma children were marginalised by children of Turkish and Arab descent. The centre topic of Damian Draghici’s book is, among others, the question of the inefficient integration policy in Romania: Why do so many subsidies are go unused, and how the bilateral policies on the integration of Rroma can be improved.

Kimmel Fichtner (2010) reported in 2010 about the Amaro Kher school in Cologne. There, Rroma children are prepared for the public schools. The goal is “to break vicious circle of misery, exclusion, lack of education and crime.” A media campaign representing Rroma children as thieves is the cause of the school creation. The city of Cologne then decided together with the association Rom e.V. to support the Amaro Kher school. During a year children are prepared for the have public schools and receive intensive preparatory German courses, learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. In addition, they should develop a resilience to difficult situations. According to the insiders, the project has been successful and allows many of the children a better future.

Borchard (2013) covers the situation of Rroma in Romania. He focuses on the fate of Neli Moc, who goes regularly for two months to do harvest work on a farm in Germany. With the money earned there – about 2,000 euro – she can live relatively well for the rest of the year: “Neli Moc is an example that most Romanians, also those from the poorest backgrounds, come to work in Germany quite legally.” As contrast, Borchard tells the story of the Grozav family. According to the mother, they went to France because of paid return assistance of 300 euro per person and stayed there several weeks. The short article concludes with the statement: “One thing is clear among Roma families in Apoldu de Sus [Romania]. As long as the conditions do not improve in Romania, they will keep trying to come to Germany or France either as harvesters, or in the hope of doctors visits or return premiums.”

Bogdal (2013) begins his article on the Rromadebatte with a quote from Thomas Mann. He set firmly in 1945: “A nation, with whom no one can live, how can it live itself” Thomas Mann did not mean anything about Rroma, but was speaking about Germans. After the end of the Nazi regime, many ethnic Germans in in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, had a real image problem for the residents of their host countries. They were marginalized, displaced and forced to do the simplest work: “Exiled, despised because of their ethnicity, having become homeless, without possessions and shelter. millions [German] moved westward from region to region, suspiciously regarded, often exploited, often forced to beg and to do menial work until they could gain a foothold anywhere. The same could be said of Roma today.” Bogdal sees the fate of Rroma after the collapse of the socialist system as very similar. Many Rroma are attracted away to Western Europe where better economic conditions and less discrimination awaits them, a move encouraged by the removal of borders in the wake of the consolidation of the European Union. Bogdal criticizes that the issue is being hyped as security policy issue, rather than to be accepted as a socio-political challenge to master and to solve bilaterally with the countries of origin.

There follows a paragraph about their migration from India and arrival in Europe. After a short period of acquiescence follows a tradition of exclusion, contempt and negative identity attribution, leading, according to Bogdal to criminalization and ethnicisation of poverty. Since the Enlightenment, they are often described as illiterate with no history, science, and without their own state. Thus, the idea that living together with the Rroma is not possible was consolidated in the minds of many. Even their mere presence is a threat. In this context, phenomena such as mountains of waste, child labour, prostitution or bands of tugs can be described as cultural ones, even though they have nothing to do with culture. Bogdal sees it as a pan-European task to further integration and acceptance of Rroma. This has to happen in Germany but especially in countries with a large Rroma population such as in Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Bogdal’s article provides knowledgeable and eloquent to information about the situation of Rroma in Europe. He doesn’t present a simplified picture but attempts to address the complexity of the issue itself. We wish for more such articles.

Schmidt (2013) discusses the processing of the Holocaust by the German Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ). The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma has asked the ministry to investigate the discrimination of Rroma by the German post-war justice. Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council clearly states that “The continuing exclusion and discrimination of our minority at the hand of former perpetrators in their new positions after 1945 continued almost unbroken and shaped the resentment against Sinti and Roma.” He refers to the continuity of the commissions and expert from before and after the war, which were maintained by embedding them within the Justice Department and allowing to continue their anti-minority policies. It was thus possible for the lawyer Franz Maßfeller, despite his support and participation in Nazi racial policies, to continue to work until 1964 after the war in a high position within the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Bauerdick’s (2013) book, “Gypsy: Encounters with unloved people” tries to find a direct path to the world of the Rroma. Bauerdick thinks little of intellectual discourses, deconstructions of external attributions and anti-Gypsy research. He shows to an almost radical pragmatism and, through his many years of research trips, promises to provide a realistic picture of the life of the Roma in Europe. He embarks on this tricky terrain and decidedly does not want to be politically correct. He reproaches the Rroma to lack responsibility. Many have made it so comfortable for themselves to be perceived as victims and have now taken this view as their own. In his very emphatic descriptions of life in the slums, which present Rroma as cheerful as well as apathetic and inactive about their own situation, Bauerdick commits the mistake of excessively culturalising his own experiences and of generalizing. He is generalizing in the preface when he states: “For there is also another truth. After countless meetings in more than twenty years, I remember nary a Rrom who wanted a piece of responsibility for themselves as the root of his misery, never mind who acknowledged it.” Compared to the complexity of the reality of Rroma, he falls short. This reality is not just consisting of Rroma in the slums of Europe, but also includes invisible Rroma in Western European countries, Rroma to which one can not just quickly go with the car and camera due to their integration and blandness. But they form part of the Rroma reality exactly as much as the visible Rroma Rroma, that Bauerdick describes in his book. If you read only Bauerdick’s book and not others such as like Bogdals’s book “Europe invented the Gypsies”, one can believe that all Rroma have many children, live in slums and wait for a better life that never happens.

On the other hand, one must agree with him when he denounces the fact that the reasons for many Rroma’s misery is only being looked at in the structures of society and xenophobia, but not among Rroma themselves. He is certainly right, but he does them wrong when he reduces it only to their own power of action, which is very limited in for many. To say that intellectuals and anti-Gyspsyism researcher do not trust Rroma to do something for themselves, simplifies reality too much. When Günter Grass says that Rroma have no voice, he means their weakness in relation to national policies, but not the ability of individuals to change something about their situation. Also, the statements that intellectuals would only ever see Rroma as victims and deny their own responsibility falls short. These statements do not take into account the evident imbalance of power in society, power consisting of structures, policies and spread of knowledge as well as from individual action. Bauerdick does not do justice to the complexity of these circumstances in his polemical descriptions. When he uncritically cites passages from Karl Gauss’ bok “The dog eaters Svinia”, where Rromakönige, begging gangs and mafia-like structures are described as part of the Rromakultur, he commits the very same mistake against which he actually writes: He ethnicises the poverty phenomena and describes the mutual exploitation of Rroma as a cultural problem.

Sources:

  • Bauerdick, Rolf (2013) Zigeuner: Begegnungen mit einem ungeliebten Volk. München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
  • Bogdal, Klaus-Michael (2013) Leben mit Hass und Verachtung. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 10.6.2013.
  • Borchard, Ralf (2013) Warum Roma nach Deutschland kommen. In: Bayrischer Rundfunk vom 11.6.2013.
  • Kimmel-Fichtner, Tatjana (2010) Eine Schule für Romakinder. In: Zeit online vom 15.11.2010.
  • Köhler, Regina (2013) Neukölln ist in Berlin das Zuhause der Roma-Kinder. In: Berliner Morgenpost vom 14.6.2013.
  • Schelp, David (2013) „Er wird es schon lernen“. In: Die Zeit vom 9.6.2013.
  • Schmidt, Wolf (2013) Roma wollen Geschichte klären. In: Die TAZ vom 10.6.2013. 
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