{"id":1593,"date":"2014-01-17T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/17-01-2014-poverty-migration-and-the-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:48:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:48:37","slug":"17-01-2014-poverty-migration-and-the-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/17-01-2014-poverty-migration-and-the-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"17.01.2014 Poverty-migration and the Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nuspliger \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2014) gives a cursory overview of the debate on poverty-migration and on the feared \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpredictions of mass migrations to Western Europe. He qualifies the images of right-wing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconservatives who predict a strong west migration from Romania and Bulgaria in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014. Many residents of these countries migrated abroad in 2007 after the EU \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taccession and did not wait for the unrestricted movement of persons. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstatistics about the poverty-migration regularly treat seasonal workers and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstudents as equivalent to real labour migrants and therefore create a distorted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpicture of migration movements. In addition it is observed that many would-be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmigrants go into countries with diaspora groups or related languages: \u201cAgainst the backdrop of the northern \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEuropean fears of a Romanian mass immigration it is remarkable that, according \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto Eurostat figures of 2012, over three quarters of exile Romanians have moved \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto Spain and Italy \u2013 for which there are also linguistic reasons. Half of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelocated European Portuguese are living in France and three-quarters of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\temigrants of Poland live in the UK and Germany, which attracted many immigrants \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom Eastern Europe before the end of the licensing restrictions in 2011.<\/em>\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma are being disadvantaged as before. The funding provided by the EU is only \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinsufficiently used. Additionally, Rroma slums in Western Europe are the evidence \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the lack of integration of this ethnic group. In the debates on immigration, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmeanwhile, images of social abuse dominate the discourse, which is taken up \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treadily by polemicists.<\/p>\n

L\u00fcbberding \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2014) discusses the TV program \u201cMaybrit Illner\u201d on the topic \u201cpoverty on the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmove: how much freedom of movement can we afford?\u201d The participants of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdiscussion were the Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, the Green \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolitician Cem \u00d6zdemir, the Councillor of Berlin-Neuk\u00f6ln Franziska Giffey, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thead of the German police union\u00a0 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRainer Wendt, the Duisburger citizen Sabine Kessler and the Rrom Dzoni Sichelschmidt. They discussed the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpro and cons of unrestricted migration in the European Union. L\u00fcbbering shares \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe opinion that most of the immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria are Rroma, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talthough the ethnicity is not recorded in the statistics. He states that in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcity of Duisburg, with around 500,000 inhabitants, the 10,000 new immigrants \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare of Rroma origin. L\u00fcbberding takes side with the critics of unrestricted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmigration in the European Union when making fun of the integration targets of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe European Union. He claims that the Union lacks sense of practice: \u201cThe error of the Brussels bureaucracy is not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin their ambitious plans, but in the ignorance of their ambitiousness. On \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpower-point slides just everything looks better than in the neighbourhood of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMrs. Kessler<\/em>.\u201d On the other hand it is a positive aspect of European \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnetworking that the problem of Rroma integration has now become a pan-European \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tissue and no longer just concerns the countries with significant Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpopulations. Additionally, L\u00fcbberding qualifies the dimensions of immigration, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich are anything but dramatic. Compared with the 1.2 million refugees who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thave fled from the civil war in Syria to Lebanon, the immigration to Germany is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvery modest. Dzoni Sichelschmidt emphasised the important fact that the Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thave emerged in large part as losers from the events of 1989: the hostility \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttowards them has risen. This circumstance is often neglected in Western Europe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(compare ZDF 2014).<\/p>\n

In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdebate about immigration, Kelec (2014) takes a right-wing conservative position. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdditionally, with respect to Rroma, she present cultural arguments. She sees \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tan unrestricted immigration as a failed policy of ignorance. Kelec accuses the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tleft parties of downplaying the problems of reality and accusing right-wing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpopulism of being responsible for everything. The Christian Democrats are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupposed to insist stubbornly on their values. On Rroma she pretentiously \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclaims: \u201cThe children of Sinti and Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare left alone, in the Clans, medieval conditions often prevail [ … ]. Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchildren are sent by their parents and clan chiefs to beg or work on the street \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2013 they are supposed to be in school. They also have an EU-wide right to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchildhood and education. In Roma families child-marriages and forced marriage \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis common \u2013 the right to independence and integrity must also apply for young \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgirls and women. There can be no tradition of being above the constitution, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teven if some believe that medieval manners as \u201cculture\u201d are worthy of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprotection.\u201d <\/em>With these unwise generalizations Kelec discredits herself. She \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepresents traditions and media cases as if they were deadlocked and universal. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHer remarks are racist and offensive to a majority of the Rroma who do not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfollow these practices. Kelec reproduces uncritically polemical ideas about \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbackwardness and exploitation that have nothing to do with the identity of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma. Accusing Rroma living in poverty of their poverty as a crime is arrogant \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand stupid. Criticism of the traditions, which are no traditions, is no \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tintelligent criticism.<\/p>\n

Teigeler \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2013) points out the important fact that the debate about unrestricted migration \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin the European Union is dominated by fears and irrational predictions. Before \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPoland\u2019s accession to the Schengen area there were similar fears of a mass \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmigration, which turned out to be unfounded. The discussion also often tends to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tforget the fact that with the immigrants also important needed professionals \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare recruited. Labelling immigrants sweepingly as poverty immigrants and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbenefit-freeloaders simplifies the complexity of reality too much: \u201cWith the multiple accusations that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timmigrants and in particular Roma from South Eastern Europe \u201cwill subvert the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial system, old racist stereotypes are stoked\u201d, criticized the speaker of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Green Party parliamentary group, Jutta Velte, on Tuesday (31\/12\/2013). \u201cWe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tneed a more objective debate\u201d, the representative urged.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n