{"id":1539,"date":"2014-02-14T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/14-02-2014-the-rroma-policy-of-the-european-union-and-the-free-movement-of-persons\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:57:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:57:44","slug":"14-02-2014-the-rroma-policy-of-the-european-union-and-the-free-movement-of-persons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/14-02-2014-the-rroma-policy-of-the-european-union-and-the-free-movement-of-persons\/","title":{"rendered":"14.02.2014 The Rroma policy of the European Union and the free movement of persons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gutschker (2014) spoke with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjustice commissioner and vice-president of the European Commission, Viviane \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReding, on the Rroma policy of the European Union. In the first part of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinterview, the conversation focused around the question as to whether social \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbenefits for non-working immigrants from EU-member states are legal or not. Right-wing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoliticians regularly accuse immigrant Rroma to unfairly burden the German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial welfare system. Reding takes the position that the social benefits come to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe good of immigrants with very low wages who are dependent on assistance. Nobody \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twill receive social assistance just for the good of it, she states. For the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinterviewer, the debate on social benefits is in truth an argument about \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpan-European solidarity. For Viviane Reding however, the debate circles around \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tquestions of a liberal economic market, which allows the needed workforce to freely \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcirculate. It is astonishing that even Reding holds the idea most of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tso-called poverty immigrants are Rroma, although the ethnicity is not recorded \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin statistics. She sees the need to support these disadvantaged Rroma, so that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe spiral of poverty can be broken. Concerning the social benefits received by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEU-immigrants, Reding sees the numbers as strongly exaggerated. Only a very \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsmall part of the support payments go to immigrants from other EU countries. An \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tamount three times as high is said to go to immigrants from third countries. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReding also wants that the EU countries better use their allocated social funds \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom the European Union and defuse municipal focal points. The restriction of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfree movement of persons \u2013 as the Swiss electorate decided on the 9th of February \u2013 is said to be incompatible with the principle of a shared \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinternal market: \u201cYou can not take \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tadvantage of the internal market with all the advantages for export and at the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsame time restrict the free movement of persons. In December, we had a meeting \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof EU interior ministers, and all agreed to the above \u2013 with the exception of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe British. There was also agreement that the right to move freely does not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\testablish a right to access the social systems. Rights are always associated \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twith duties\u201d <\/em>(compare Epoch Times 2014, Spiegel 2014). \u00a0<\/p>\n

Frigelj (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 visit of EU-commissioner L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Andor in Duisburg. Duisburg was almost \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconstantly in the headlines during 2013. Again and again, newspapers reported \u2013 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin a more or less populist fashion \u2013 on impoverished, criminal Rroma clans from \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRomania and Bulgaria, which are supposedly flooding into the city. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Andor \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttried to get an idea of the situation on the spot. He attended \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\temployment-assistance institutions, talked with immigrants, residents, social \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tworkers, and police officers. Andor acknowledged, the article states, that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcity is dealing with a problem of poverty and Germany and its municipalities were \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentitled to money from the new \u201crelief fund for the poorest\u201d of the European \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnion. The article seems factual and objective, but indirectly spreads the idea \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat Rroma are almost exclusively poorly educated, marginalized people who escape \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoverty and discrimination in their home countries: \u201cThe highly qualified doctors and nurses are attracted mainly to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsouthern Germany. To Duisburg and Dortmund, which have a high proportion of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvacant dwellings and lower end real estate, where up to 90% unqualified immigrants \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twith large families are drawn. From around 600 monthly newcomers, almost half \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare children.\u201d <\/em>That there are also many well-integrated Rroma in Germany is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot mentioned.<\/p>\n