{"id":1122,"date":"2014-12-05T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/05-12-2014-roma-does-not-equal-poverty-migration\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:47:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:47:18","slug":"05-12-2014-roma-does-not-equal-poverty-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/05-12-2014-roma-does-not-equal-poverty-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"05.12.2014 \u201cRoma does not equal poverty migration\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selke (2014) spoke with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProf. Max Matter, a Swiss folklorist, about his new publication \u201cNowhere \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDesired: Poverty migration from Central and Eastern Europe into the countries \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the EU-15, with particular reference to members of the Roma minority\u201d. In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\this book, Matter addresses the mixing of prejudices with ethnic ascriptions and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolitical viewpoints. Many politicians and journalists used the term \u201cpoverty \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmigration\u201d as a synonym for the migration of poor Rroma to Western Europe. With \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe expansion of the free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria, one increasingly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspoke about well educated Romanians and Bulgarians, who also migrate to Western \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEurope. However, opponents saw this argument as trivialising the real \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsituation. In his publication, Matter tries to deconstruct reductionist \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tascriptions that portray Rroma as poor travelling beggars: Rroma are not a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thomogeneous mass, are mostly sedentary since centuries and have no kings. In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taddition, many other ethnic groups also migrate to Western Europe. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tassertion of a \u201cmass immigration into the German welfare system\u201d is not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupported by the facts: \u201cAccording to the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstitute for Employment Research, there are just over 500,000 people from \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBulgaria and Romania in Germany. As I said, some have very good school and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvocational qualifications. Many of them work. All of them counted together, they \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjust constitute six per mil of the German population.<\/em> Therefore, one can hardly speak of a mass immigration into the welfare \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsystem.\u201d <\/em>Matter also refers to the majority of well-integrated Rroma that have \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbeen living integrated in Western Europe since generation and speak the local \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlanguages. At a meeting of scientists and politicians on December the fist in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBerlin, the majority of those present demanded a de-dramatization and objectification \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe debate on \u201cpoverty migration\u201d: There is no widespread welfare fraud. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texisting social problems are not the result of immigration, but problems \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talready existing before. In addition, one should be cautious with the use of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tethnic attributions (compare Bade 2014 MiGAZIN 2014).<\/p>\n