{"id":1159,"date":"2014-11-12T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/12-11-2014-judgment-of-the-european-court-of-justice-social-abuse-remains-an-exception-nonetheless\/"},"modified":"2022-07-24T15:57:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T14:57:26","slug":"12-11-2014-judgment-of-the-european-court-of-justice-social-abuse-remains-an-exception-nonetheless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/12-11-2014-judgment-of-the-european-court-of-justice-social-abuse-remains-an-exception-nonetheless\/","title":{"rendered":"12.11.2014 Judgment of the European Court of Justice: Social abuse remains an exception nonetheless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Various newspapers report \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice. The object of the lawsuit \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twas the complaint of an unemployed Romanian woman, who sued the German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgovernment, because it didn\u2019t want to allow her to obtain any social funds. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSince the woman was not actively seeking work, the European Court of Justice \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdismissed the complaint. However, the judgment, which is seen by some officials \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas a precedent against social tourism to Germany, should be seen in a critical \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontext: social abuse is the exception, not the norm. The ethnicity of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tapplicant was considered by most of the media as \u201cRomanian\u201d. Nevertheless, in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe context of the debate about the so-called \u201cpoverty immigration\u201d, it was repeatedly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclaimed that primarily poor, uneducated Rroma would migrate to Germany. This \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolemical misrepresentation was far too little critically questioned and criticised. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTherefore, it is important to rectify that most migrants are looking for work \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand are no social tourists: \u201cNot social \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbenefits in the host countries are the reasons that pull Romanians and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBulgarians abroad, but the better job and income opportunities. When in June, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Hamburg, a personnel secondment firm went broke and 230 workers from Romania \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Bulgaria were left penniless, one wondered at the local job centre:<\/em> only four of the persons concerned remained \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin the country, all the others went back home.<\/em> […] Poverty migrants from Bulgaria and Romania constitute, according to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfigures from German or Belgian cities, only for ten percent of the immigrants \u2013 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich is about the proportion of the poor population in both countries\u201d<\/em> (Mappes-Niediek \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014). Already now, 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma are living in Germany, many of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthem for generations. They have a job, speak German and are integrated. These \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinvisible Rroma are constantly hidden in the often one-sided debate about the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timmigration of low skilled \u201cpoverty migrants\u201d. In addition, not only Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmigrate to Western Europe, but also ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians and members of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tother ethnic groups (compare Hacker-Walton \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014, Linke 2014, Preuss 2014).<\/p>\n