{"id":1670,"date":"2013-12-20T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/20-12-2013-undifferentiated-coverage-of-the-grandchildren-trick-scam-and-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-24T15:22:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T14:22:34","slug":"20-12-2013-undifferentiated-coverage-of-the-grandchildren-trick-scam-and-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/20-12-2013-undifferentiated-coverage-of-the-grandchildren-trick-scam-and-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"20.12.2013 Undifferentiated Coverage of the Grandchildren Trick Scam and Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruch \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2013) reports about a Polish Rroma clan who is allegedly behind the rising \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcases of so-called Grandchildren scam in Switzerland. The otherwise analytical \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treport misses the critical use of ethnic categories. Instead, the popular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpublic image of a mafia-like, hierarchical Rroma clan is dished, which stand \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbehind the criminal offenses. Due to the indiscriminate attribution ofethnicity, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRuch feeds the idea of a culturally conditioned delinquency among Rroma. He \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstates, \u201cbehind the vast majority of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgrandchildren trick in the German-speaking lands one finds the same group of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toffenders. A widely branched, Polish-German Roma family which earlier sold \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tworthless carpets as expensive Oriental rugs and therefore stood in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcrosshairs of investigators. In 1999, they probably invented the grandson trick \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tscam in Poland, which they perfected successfully until today. The several \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thundred members of the clan are professionally organized according to the police. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThey operate literally call center and earn so well with this trick that they \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcan afford a lavish lifestyle with expensive sports cars and extravagant family \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcelebrations\u201d.<\/em> From Ruch\u2019s article, it is not clear that there is no direct \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelationship between ethnicity and the offenses described. Instead, a cultural \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texplanation is presented, an explanation that needs no further discussion \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbecause it is justified by itself. Such a reasoning is racist. Most Rroma are integrated \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcitizens who are never named in the media. Unfortunately, journalists like \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndr\u00e9 Ruch are still not aware of this.<\/p>\n

Other \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSwiss newspapers such as the NZZ (2013) wrote uncommented that the perpetrators \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare mostly belonging to a Polish Roma clan.<\/p>\n