{"id":1471,"date":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/11-04-2014-how-non-objective-assumptions-reinforce-racist-stereotypes\/"},"modified":"2022-08-21T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:33:26","slug":"11-04-2014-how-non-objective-assumptions-reinforce-racist-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/11-04-2014-how-non-objective-assumptions-reinforce-racist-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"11.04.2014 How non-objective assumptions reinforce racist stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Birrer (2014) reports, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton the basis of the TV-report \u201cMore underage criminal tourists\u201d by Georg Humbel \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2014), about the allegedly increasing number of criminal Rroma children. As \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe article by Gut\/Scherrer (2013) in the Weltwoche<\/em> of November 2013, Birrer cites police sources that speak of transnationally \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toperating child-trafficking networks. The basic existence of such criminal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tactors is not to deny here, but their characterisation and especially their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrequency, has to be strongly questioned. Birrer argues as follows, in reference \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto the Bernese immigration-policemen Alexander Ott: \u201cThey come mainly from Eastern Europe \u2013 and don\u2019t pursue their criminal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tactivity voluntarily in Switzerland. In their home countries, they are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trecruited by traffickers, and finally borrowed from well-organized gangs. Many \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof them are Roma from Romania and Bulgaria. […] The children are under constant \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tscrutiny of agile backers. They have to expect sanctions, if they do not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgenerate a certain amount of cash and valuables. Therefore, they are helplessly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\textradited to the traffickers.\u201d <\/em>The evidence for the existence of such \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchild-trafficker gang is very poor, as many articles to show (compare Friedli\/Sch\u00f6pfer 2013, Mappes-Niediek \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2012, Mappes-Niediek 2013, Jirat 2013, Tabin 2012). Rather, they are civil and police \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmorals and assumptions associated with them that make the begging or stealing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchildren automatically victims of brutal traffickers. The fact that behind it, there \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis mostly great poverty which forces to beg is not considered in this reasoning. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThus gaps in knowledge, about the socio-economic situation in the countries of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\torigin of the children are used in order to present them as part of criminal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma gangs. This practice says more about the own prejudices and morals, than \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tit explain something about the Rroma.<\/p>\n

Jirat (2013) discusses \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe project \u201eAgora\u201c, which was founded on the initiative of Alexander Ott in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2009. The aim of this project is to prevent organized child abuse and human trafficking, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof which young Rroma are said to be mainly affected. Jirat questions precisely \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis status of the beggars. The data of the Bernese immigration police \u2013 which states \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta strong presence of beggar gangs in Bern \u2013 are of doubtful origin. Jirat \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstates: \u201cThe immigration police view is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnecessarily limited: the focus is always a possible crime (human trafficking or \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchild abuse), and there are always potential perpetrators, which are repeatedly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnamed: \u201cmost of them are Roma.\u201d This is the crucial point. \u201cThrough this \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepresentation, the social construction of a \u2018Roma-problem\u2019 in connection with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbegging is made\u201d, says the historian Bernhard Sch\u00e4r from the Center for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDemocracy in Aarau. The same is done in connection with break-ins or street prostitution.\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/em>The perspective and analysis of the immigration police, Jirat argues, is a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstrongly biased. It operates with the logic of perpetrators and victims. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsociological perspective is almost totally neglected.<\/p>\n

Tabin (2012) proves that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta causal relationship between begging children and organized gangs cannot be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconfirmed by social science. The modest incomes obtained by begging, don\u2019t coincide \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin any way with the proceeds referred to by the Bernese immigration police, which \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspeaks of up to 600 francs per child. Tabin, who refers to additional, similar \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstudies, comes to an average amount of 15 to 20 francs per day.<\/p>\n

In any case, it is very \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tproblematic to describe the begging of Rroma children as a cultural phenomenon. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJournalists as Mappes-Niediek decidedly write against this notion and see the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupposed beggar gangs in reality as a symptom of poverty, that has nothing to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdo with organized crime: \u201cThere are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprestige hierarchies in the Roma neighbourhoods, customary clientilism, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdependencies, mostly through informal money lending. But structures of command \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand obedience were not noticed by the numerous social workers, anthropologists \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tor humanitarian aid workers, who work in Roma slums and sometimes live there. [ \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t… ] Wrong is also the impression that human trafficking, crime and begging \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twith children is the rule among the poverty migrants from Bulgaria and Romania. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBegging with kids is prohibited all over Europe and basically rarely, because \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tit takes place, by its very nature, in the greatest possible publicness\u201d <\/em>(Mappes-Niediek \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2013).<\/p>\n